Cloudy in Beijing Blogging about my time in China

Like summer

I was on a street corner the other day and I wiped my forehead. Sweat was on my hand. Strange, this is my first January where I've actually stood outside and felt hot.

After leaving Beijing, I'm in Taipei now visiting family for the next several days. It feels like I've entered into a whole new season. It's gotten around 70 degrees so far, with skies mostly clear and sunny. I'm not sure if I should be wearing a sweater or if I should just go for shorts and sandals instead. Such huge difference from Xi'an, where I often I find myself going to bed and cocooning my body in a blanket.

I've counted and this is my ninth time in Taiwan. I actually kind of didn't want to come since I've been here so many times and wanted to explore China more. But it's important that I come to see family, and plus my parents are paying for the plane ticket.

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I saw a ColdStone Ice Creamery this afternoon. Later I would buy some Nacho Cheese Doritos, along with a TIME magazine.

I haven’t seen or tasted such things since I left for America. Sure, China has its McDonalds, KFC, and Starbucks, all ironically high-class hang-outs, where the Haagan Dazs have waitresses dressed like retro-airplane stewardess.

But in Taiwan, the globalization is step or two further. At the supermarket they have Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. On TV, I can watch the Discovery Channel and CNN International. My cousins play a Nintendo Wii. There's a 7-11 next door to where I’m staying. I even saw a random plastic sign advertising Bailey's Irish Cream. Little things I could use everyday in America, but which I never see in Xi'an.

There is so much English here, on the shops, in the city subways, on all the signs, in the malls, on the hotel buildings. People here seem to obey the pedestrian traffic signals more, even when there are no oncoming cars. Today I visited Taipei 101, the tallest building on the island. Like a giant glass bamboo stalk, the skyscraper reminded me of how modern things are in Taiwan.

Now I understand why there's this feeling of regret when I saw how modern Beijing had become. It's ironic. People's lives are transforming to a new level of prosperity in China, yet part of me enjoys seeing unkempt streets, ugly concrete buildings, and crowded buses. For some reason I equate dirtiness, inconvenience, cheap and antiquated, all mildly negative things, with what I think the real China is. It has to be different, or it's not special anymore, just boring modernity.