The Journey(s) of Ian

What can one say about Beijing? A city shrouded in history, pop-culture, and importance. All my life I have read about Beijing, and wanted to visit, now in July 2017 have finally achieved this! Overall, I feel truely pleased and happy to be here. Both for the city and my ESL students who I have met, in particular Jeff, Kevin (and his parents), Lydia, Tom and Holly, and Silence (cool name). Beijing, it is big, more than big, it seems huge and uniform over a large area. By this I mean travel a dozen stops on the subway, exit, and things look the same, tall buildings, shops and so forth. Big. It is also a little bland in design. The same style of buildings, condos, and the like all over the city. Not exciting architecture. The key reason I travelled to Beijing was to experience the historical sights of the city. It was a wonderful feeling to see these sights, the forbidden city, the museums, the ancient artefacts. After seeing them on tv! Also appreciating their longevity. I did feel grea...