When in Beijing in 2004, my wife and I stayed in an hotel near the same railway station, and on our first day walked right around the block, so that we walked past the few remaining sections of the city walls. Most fascinating was the "Red Tower" gallery, where an Australian who had been in Beijing since the early 90's ran an art gallery. Coming back towards the station around 4.00 pm, there were literally thousands of people and hundreds of cars waiting to either pick up or drop people off for the trains. That's when we first realised how many people there are in China!
I have to say though, I avoid Macdonald's everywhere - the worst one was that in Paris on the Champs Elysees, dreadful food and worse coffee and service. You only had to walk 20 metres to a restaurant in a side street to get genuinely good French food and coffee! John in Brisbane -----Original Message----- From: PDML [mailto:pdml-boun...@pdml.net] On Behalf Of Daniel J. Matyola Sent: Monday, 6 July 2015 11:18 PM To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List Subject: Re: PESO: Rapid Transit Thanks, Rick and Alan. What interested me was the McDonald's logo. Wherever I travel, I am unable to escape their evil influence. OTOH, I always advise travelers to look for the McDonald's when they first arrive in a strange city. Without fail, it is located in the middle of the major attractions, and it is a reliable source for clean, warm and free toilet facilities, as well as large doses of decent, if not excellent, coffee. In Paris, my wife and I had lunch at a famous left bank cafe. They featured 20 varieties of ham and cheese sandwiches and 2 ounce servings of coffee. When we asked about the rest rooms, we discovered there was only one, in the basement, with only a porcelain ring on the floor. We quickly fled to McDonald's, with its very comfortable bathrooms and 20 ounce cups of hot black coffee. Shortly after arriving in Beijing, we took a stroll around the neighborhood while waiting for our room to be ready. We walked to the main Beijing train station, which was an overwhelming experience. O, the humanity! <G> We were the only westerners in sight. We then crossed the main road to a large shopping center. In contrast to Tokyo (or even Kyoto) there was no written or spoken English anywhere. The only Latin letters in sight were on one sign outside a restaurant: KFC." Nothing else in English, just the three letters. Nearby was another restaurant bearing the "roof" log of Pizza Hut, but not even the name of the franchise was in English. It was a most informative and educational 90 minutes indeed. In any event, that is why the golden arches caught my eye on this vehicle. Dan Matyola http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/danieljmatyola On Mon, Jul 6, 2015 at 12:26 AM, Alan C <c...@lantic.net> wrote: > Imagine trying to pedal that thing uphill with 4 large passengers! > > Alan C > > -----Original Message----- From: Daniel J. Matyola > Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2015 10:42 PM > To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List > Subject: PESO: Rapid Transit > > > http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=18048442&size=lg > Pedicabs outside the Summer Palace in Beijing Comments are invited. > > Dan Matyola > http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/danieljmatyola > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
