At 1030 (EST) I boarded my plane in Pittsburgh to Chicago and literally did not stop moving until I flopped on my Beijing hotel bed at 2000 the next day. In retrospect it was the peak of travel efficiency. There was no down time, no delays, and no waiting. After my connecting flight landed, I sprinted from my gate in Chicago to the international terminal, which was a train ride and three security check points away, and boarded the plane to Beijing as the door closed behind me. Parched from the mile long “ruck run” with my back pack I sat down looking for something to drink. I was greeted with a small glass filled with sparkling gold liquid. Not thinking, I grabbed and chugged it…it was champagne, which would have been a great treat in any other circumstance. After we took off I finally relaxed and reclined my seat and three movies, two meals, and one book later I landed in Beijing.
I must admit flying over Siberia was quite a sight. I never knew a vast emptiness could be so beautiful. For a while I actually thought the white undulations of the Siberian landscape were cloud tops. This sight, however, hailed in comparison to flying over China for the first time. I had vague expectations from the books I had read, but nothing could substitute seeing the land for myself. As impressive as Siberia was a natural display, Beijing was equally remarkable as a man made spectacle. Vast amounts of infrastructure and housing plans turned the land into a grid as far as the eye could see. The city’s urban layouts were perfectly symmetrical in their design. It seemed like each area had a cluster of the same building in even rows. It was truly extraordinary to see what was happening to Beijing. Giant construction cranes towered over blocks of buildings, it seemed like they would never stop building. Building by Building, row by row, Beijing is bigger than I thought.
I did not truly appreciate Beijing’s size until I took a taxi ride from the airport to my hotel. It was forty five minutes of city driving. Not because of traffic, but because the city is so vast. We drove for almost an hour at a reasonable speed through city blocks and giant buildings. I think I truly landed on a different planet. The entire time I kept thinking about the planet Coruscant in Star Wars which is an entire world of city, I believe Beijing would be the closest thing earth has to it.
