The Grand Finale

If this morning’s trip from Changping into Beijing could be summed up by the plots of no more than three movies, those movies would be:

Death race 2000
Home Alone
and
Rambo IV

Actually, not really that last one. But the other two fit quite appropriately.

The drive itself was typical Chinese driving. The Chinese are to driving laws what names are to My Little Ponies, pretty much anything goes (example: Musical wish rainbow celebration tink-a-tink-a-too pony*). The most audacious moment might have been that time we barreled down the wrong direction of a divided road swerving maniacally around the oncoming traffic.

When we (miraculously) arrived in Beijing we zipped by the airport to drop off a few colleagues. Our drivers got confused and at one point forgot which car I was in. Having no idea what was going on at the time, I remained patiently quiet. So it’s no doubt I was surprised when our driver looked over at me with sudden shock and horror and declared “I forgot you were in this car!”

After navigating the labyrinth that is on and off ramps in Beijing, we finally got things settled and I arrived at my new hotel in downtown Beijing. At this point I gave Josh a call. Josh lives with Charlotte in Beijing and they are both totally awesome. Josh and I found each other in the busy city and Josh gave me a bit of a walking tour of some of the lesser Beijing spotlights. Including, but not limited to, our visit of the world’s largest screen which hovers above a walking street in Beijing shedding a powerful glow from its 6000 square meters of screen space. Josh took a picture, I’ll see if I can snag it to post.

After 4-5 hours of strolling we’d had enough and we stopped by one of Charlotte’s and Josh’s favorite Chinese food restaurants where we met up with Charlotte. It was great sharing a meal with these two and the food was much more tame and much much more delicious than some of the banquet food that I mention in previous posts.

Charlotte’s a TV personality here in Beijing who just scored a gig on an international education show and Josh just finished his role in a movie being put out in Taiwan. When both of these become available to the public, you can be certain that we’ll have links to it here.

Special thanks to Charlotte and Josh for the great day.

*I wasn’t kidding about Tink-a-tink-a-too.

4 thoughts on “The Grand Finale

  • 1/27/2010 at 11:46 am
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    I’m confused, where is the hot iron on the face on Marv’s face from Home Alone?

    Reply
  • 1/27/2010 at 1:45 pm
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    Oh wow, there was like three separate reissues of Tink-a-tink-a-too.

    Reply
  • 1/27/2010 at 1:57 pm
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    I think the tour guide I had when in China summed up their driving quite well, he said “in China we do not have freedom of government, but we have freedom on the roads!”

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  • 1/29/2010 at 10:01 am
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    My car rides in India were surprisingly similar, and I’ve heard numerous accounts from friends visiting Africa and South/Central America of death defying automotive exploits. I’m thinking it’s just a “not 1st world” thing.

    Reply

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