The Prodigal Sun? returns to Beijing

Well well well, after almost a year away from the glorious capital city of China, I have once again returned to this thriving metropolis with some surprises and many affirmations of why I'm here. The airport was just how I remembered it, crowded, smelly and filled with chinese women trying to sell my cell phone sim cards. Unfortunately, I did not get to travel through the new and extravagant addition (built almost entirely for attracting future business during and after the hubbub of the olympics). 

Our UCE program met up in the airport waiting room, although punctuality was not a requirement as 13 of us waited for the remaining 4 from the LA-Shanghai connector flight until 12 45 am (that's so so-cal). However, for the first time in Beijing, I missed the horrible traffic that puts any transit from the airport to central Beijing in the two hour range by the simple fact that it was 1 am on a Monday morning, oh joy! I buddied up with some teachers--that is--real teachers back in the states with masters and university and publishing experience. My roomate is a southern scholar with a near encyclopedic knowledge of all things Faulkner. I truly am in good company.

 Yet before our long awaited sleep was to occur, our next door neighbors (guys who I opted to switch out of the room cause they are smokers) forgot the golden rule of travel--voltage is different in every country--and proceeded to plug in an American surge protector, causing an arc of electricity and blowing out the transistors on half of our hall. Darkness ensued...followed by a rather brief conversation with the front desk, then later hall manager as I simply explained it in chinese "mei you dian", or "don't have electric". The problem was fixed and we finally got to sleep

We awoke at 7 am to a typical chinese breakfast and much to my surprise, the glaring Beijing sun. Now I thought the South was hot, but even O'Toole would be sweating in his seersucker in this heat. A good day to stay inside and catch up on sleep? Hell no, we spent all day out in the sun visiting the Forbidden Temple, Tiananmen and every tourist trap you can think of (pictures and video are forthcoming). My documentary on the Shaolin temple and commercial culture seems like a joke compared to the depth and level of consumerism here. Every Tom, Dick and Wang Peng (common chinese name), takes their friends, family and wee ones to these spots, which still makes the foreigner to Chinese person count similar to that of what you find in the city. Nothing holy about these temples, the emperors of all that exists under heaven would be rolling in their graves...if they weren't destroyed and then remade with fake stone. Such is revolution, even if it take an ironic dose of capitalism.