section two: beijing

Beijing means north capital. While in China, we learned the words for north (bei), south (nan), east (dong), and west (xi). They were prevalent in the names of subway stops.



Though each of our hostels has produced interesting fellow travellers, Beijing's were prehaps some of the best. There were the five espanoles, teacher travelling from Russia and Mongolia who showed us pictures of themselves streaking on the Gobi's dunes.



There were the tipsy Kiwis, who, sitting under the large TV screen, were convinced I was staring at them instead of the pre-olympic volleyball match (though slightly aggressive at first, they clamed down after and explanation). There was the Israeli girl who thought helself good at billiards, yet lost several times to some lucky amateurs from the states.



There was the easy-going Aussie, whom we bombarded with suggestiong and advice for his upcoming trip to Shanghai and Xi'an. There were the hostel helper girls, who found our Scrabble game to be absolutely fascinating.



I enjoyed getting to know some of the people in Sanlitun Youth Hostel.



We miss Phil.