BJ

I’m not sure I feel the same way about the rest of China but I absolutely love Beijing. There are countless Asian cities in which you just be, as there is little in the way of tourist attractions to see. Beijing, on the contrary, is a city in which you do. A trip to Beijing delivers the Oriental goods. First, there are the sites:

• There’s that little old infrastructure project that can’t be seen from space: The Great Wall
• There’s that small urban gathering space (OK, it’s the largest on the planet), where no less than 50 surveillance cameras monitor your every step. Tanks are allowed but bikes are off limits: Tiananmen Square
• There’s that modest piece of central real estate that happens to have been off limits to the world since before Columbus landed on San Salvador: The Forbidden City

There are the ever present reminders of China’s discipline and muscle: the legions of baby-faced young military men standing stone still at attention outside most every municipal building. There’s the technology. I can only recall three moments in which a visual stopped me dead in my tracks. Call them Wow Moments. First, watching an elephant split rush hour traffic in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Second, stumbling across the outdoor pool ‘hall’ in Olgii, Mongolia. Third, observing a digital ad projected from our moving subway train onto the concrete Beijing subway wall. Didn’t see that one coming. There is the food. Over the last three days I’ve downed steaming noodles, street dumplings, the most incredible duck on the planet, and loads of other delectable morsels. And that’s not getting into the various street snacks I could have enjoyed: scorpions, beetles, worms, and snake. Snake? Snake. A choice exchange from the Dong Hua Men night market last evening:

Me: What’s that on the stick?

Him: Lamb testicle.

Me: You got to be kidding me.

Him: How many would you like?

Me: None.

Him: OK, just one [as he reaches to grab a skewer].

Me: Stop!

Unlike the high-rise cityscape and commerce-centric feel of neighboring Shanghai, Beijing truly looks and feels like the historic and political beating heart of the country. It looks and feels like China at its finest, at its most mesmerizing, most ordered, most charming, most friendly, and most captivating. I’ve had more than a few moments standing still surrounded by hordes of tourists from the globe over, where I’ve truly felt at the center of the Asian universe. I feel like I’ve just tattooed North America for the first time and I’m ending in Washington, D.C. on the 4^th of July.

Early June in Beijing: simply fantastic.

———

It’s 10:32pm on Monday night on my 270^th day in Asia. I’m inside 48 hours and counting so here’s a question: How the hell am I and where the hell is my head at? To start I’ve had more than my share of Steve-O moments while wandering Beijing where everything kind of slows down, I slip into a momentary trance, and the gravity of what’s about to happen hits me…hard. At those moments I get that heavy sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, the kind you get while watching your last sunset of the summer. It’s the feeling of ending.

I first experienced this sensation about a week ago in Ulaanbaatar while wandering among the thousands at the city’s largest market. Without warning I was overcome by a flood of emotions triggered by the realization that my world of Asian chaos was rapidly slipping away. I got choked up and hid a few tears behind my sunglasses as the river of human traffic swept me through my final market. That feeling of ending has reared its head numerous times here in Beijing over the last four days, but I don’t fight it because I’m ready and its time. For eight months, three weeks, and five days my world has been as different from yours as black from white, so there is no way I can prepare myself to leave Asia and simply slide back into America overnight. It’s just not going to happen. So I’ll savor what’s left over here, and play it by ear over there. I’ll savor the final dumpling, the final sunset, the final hostel bathroom, and most certainly the final tears. I’ll savor and smile, but the reality is I’ve been savoring for a long time now…eight months, three weeks, and five days to be exact.