Here I sit looking out the window of the 22th flood of a massive upscale apartment complex in the Chaoyang district of Beijing contemplating things in the way you do when looking out a window. This view differs from the same view I saw early this month—when Yuhang’s gracious friend put us upon our arrival in China—in that the apartment building constructed to the left is at least five stories taller than it was three weeks ago. All last night I heard the music of construction, a distant concrete mixer working its wide and pleasantly grinding roar through the night and, earlier, looking out the window again, flashes of welding at different levels into the wee hours, leading me to think they really do build around the clock here. Observing this gargantuan city right now, I’m not sure that it’s heard about the financial crisis yet. The air is definitely better than it was two years ago. I’m not sure what kind of black magic the government used, but it worked. Olympic Fever is still going strong, one year later. The local brew and Olympic sponsor, Yanjing Beer, is still proudly putting out cans stamped with “Beijing 2008.” The subway TV stations broadcast NBA games. Speaking of subways and just another amazing statistic about the construction mania in Beijing, there are now, count ‘em, 12 sleek subway lines compared to just two when I was here in late 2006. Now that’s what I call development.

Dairy Queen, along with myriad other American fast food chains, has entered China bigtime. Can’t really blame them for completely skipping the German market, though it would be nice to have access to an Oreo Blizzard from time to time in Berlin. The Green Tea Blizzard is selling well here.

I haven’t had a lot of internet time unterwegs in China and when I did have it, it was used for more pressing matters, like making travel connections and getting information—you know, the original purpose of the internet. Though, we fly back to Berlin tomorrow and I’ll hopefully be able to sit down and put some thoughts and photos together. I’ve got over a thousand of each. It’s been an incredible time. I’ll have to tell you about it sometime.

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