-It is crowded: I’m trying to imagine the immensely large number of people living in this country, let alone, this city (which is more like a state) and I can’t even try to process it. And the large amount of people, just means there is traffic EVERYWHERE you go. It is like the 405 but on inner streets, so it's absolutely terrifying.
-It is hot: It’s mid-May here and although I thought it would be springtime here, it’s more like summer with the humidity. Parts of Beijing smell like fresh paint, and with the heat it’s sometimes a bit nauseating.
-Honking is actually a good thing: I know when some people think of the crazy Asian driving in China, they think of all the chaos and honking, but I realized there are 2 kinds of honking. Normal honking—honking when someone cuts you off or doesn’t-care-to-see-you-and-merges-into-your-lane (happens… pretty much all the time) and safe honking—honking whenever you’re near a pedestrian crosswalk to let people know a car’s coming so-don’t-run-out-into-the-street-because-I’m-going-to-run-you-over. Pedestrians don’t have any right-of-way here and I doubt it would matter because they seem to just randomly wander out into the street anyways, so for safety purposes, honking is good. Kinda makes me worry about exploring, because walking seems to be dangerous, actually all modes of transportation around cars seem kinda dangerous haha.
-Subway: I actually like the subway in Beijing! The subway stations are about a 30 minute walk apart from each other (or so I'm told) so I find that a bit inconvenient if you really do need to walk or you're stranded, but I suppose it'd be pointless having so many stations and it would just increase travel time. The lines I've been on have been air conditioned so it beats walking! Last Tuesday my ride on Line 10 was pleasant because there were 2 guys singing and playing acoustic guitars in between stops wandering through the subway train.
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