Journalists!

I spent most of today in an air-conditioned box glued to my computer on the roof of a Beijing media building. 20 feet away, The BBC did round-the-clock broadcasts, with the Bird's Nest Olympic stadium looming in the near distance. PRETTY SWEET, MY FRIENDS. PRETTY SWEET INDEED.

I was in there all day, so I don't have many photos for you. When I left it was dark, and the Dreaded Smog had lifted a little, and this was the view we were left with:


Pretty spectacular, no? I felt in pretty high spirits when I got into a taxi to head back to the hostel, and these high spirits continued when I found myself able to carry out a brief conversation with the driver (who actually knew exactly where he was going)! It would seem that my Chinese was improving! So then I got out near my hostel and passed a crowd of people taking photos of a beautiful building I'd seen from afar but never checked out. I decided to make enquiries.

"Qingwen," I asked someone. "Zhege difang jiao shenme mingzi?" What is this place called?

He just stared at me blankly for a minute before nodding and smiling and turning away.

...maybe my Chinese needs a liiiittle more work.

PS: I'm told that I need to give credit where credit is due, so mad props to the pimpin' Jess Pfeffer for helping me come up with the name of this Diary!