Beijing!

Hey, I'm in Beijing!

First impressions: I rode my bike down to the Forbidden city the first day that I was here. The smog is pretty gross, though it does lend the whole city sort of a romantic haze, especially with all the willow trees and fantastic ancient architecture. When the Bell Tower looms out at you from the haze/mist, wow, geez. So, Beijing is dirty, but beautiful and charming, I think.

I'm staying in a friend's apartment. This is the view of the fourth ring road from my windows. The Olympic Stadium is just a discus' throw away.

Incidentally, ridiculous and random CENSORSHIP! Websites I can not access:
Huffpost
ThePirateBay
Typepad (and anything therein contained)
Gutenberg archive of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

The Google cache of any webpage
My favorite utility for converting kanji to hiragana
Lolcats .. for God's sake, Lolcats!!