Elephant In Exile

And a Starbucks on Every Corner

Here's an example of the 'scale' issue I mentioned below. Beijing's closest equivalent city in America would have to be Las Vegas. It's not the Beijing is full of gaudy, neon-clad buildings, it's just that the scale of the buildings (not super tall, but very large) was more in line with walking the Vegas Strip that it was with strolling in DC or New York. Here's a shot of Fuxing Lu, a grand boulevard that runs through the city and between Tianamen Sq. and the Forbidden City (about two blocks behind me in this photo.) The stairway in front in the subway, and in the building on the left is a huge mall, with all sorts of exotic shops like Starbucks, Outback Steak House, KFC, and McDonalds.

An interesting note, the large complex on the left is offices and hotels. It was also the site of the first McDonald's in China. The McDonald's only occupied this spot for four years of so before it was torn down and replaced with a huge office development.