Walking around in Beijing today made me finally realize something I subconsciously noticed the moment I arrived: There has been enormous progress made regarding the English language.
I mean, 5 years ago, there was no way I could order a Latte in a coffee shop in English and the lady behind the counter would tell me the price in English. It was amazing. This used to be a complicated process of bad pronunciation and pointing (on my site). I mean student and business man, that was different, they always spoke some English, but waitresses and coffee shop girls? So much progress in such a short time.
We also met an interesting traveler in the hostel, a Spanish women about my age who’s been traveling for 12 years (with the odd stint in Spain to get money). She had some pretty good stories. Unfortunately she was also upset: She is forced to go back to Spain because she has no money left and her parents put there foot down. I always find the permanent travelers amazing. I guess because I got bored of non-working after two month in India or because I have no idea how that would work out money-wise.
Another interesting thing, I finally attended the Shangri-La of Beijing Duck, the famous Quanjude. Never been before (it’s rather expensive), but it was totally worth it. Not only did they have the duck quite perfectly done, there were also all those side dishes: duck in aspic, multiple variations of duck soup, etc. Need to come back to Beijing just for that.