From what I've seen so far, Beijing is pretty amazing.......

I had a meeting with my contact--and translator--this morning and she speaks excellent English. The Chevron training facility here is state of the art--better than a lot of places where I've trained in the States. I mentioned that in a lot of ways it reminded me of the Texaco Heritage Tower in Houston--that really tall skyscraper--and she commented "You know I had the same impression." Turns out she was training there last summer and only got out three days before Hurricane Rita blew in. The world really is getting smaller fast.

Beijing is undergoing massive construction everywhere and the pollution is really bad. The picture above is the entrance to the Forbidden City and you can hardly see the giant picture of Chairman Mao in the center front.

This afternoon I found out the city center is further away that the map indicated so I simply found the nearest subway entrance, went down and paid my equivalnet of 30 cents and got on the train with the masses. Made it to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City about thirty mintues before the Forbidden City closed so I walked around looking at the parks and spent some time in the square itself.

One side note regarding this blog.....evidently the Chinese government is monitoring the Internet and censoring it so most blog sites are blocked. Ironically I can still post but I can't view it, or anybody else's, so if there are misspelled words or bad punctuation from here on out it's because I can't prufreed.

The Square itself is, as you'd imagine, massive. It's flanked on the four sides by the Forbidden City, the National Museum, the Great Hall of the People (government building) and Chairman Mao's mausoleum which I didn't get to view on Sunday but would kind of like to check out next weekend. It was hot here today and very humid--pretty much like Texas.

Well, it's been a long day and I'm tired. Gonna shower, go downstairs and eat--probably Chinese--and post again later. China looks very promising.....