This trip has been fantastic, but I am really looking forward to getting back to work. I'm so lame, I know. The best decision I made on this trip was to have the Juice check my work e-mail (I don't like autoresponders, cause they don't really solve the problem - somebody is emailing me looking for an answer!); since my mail client is POP3 (I'm one of those lame-os that never got sold on IMAP), I can't even check it through the webmail client ;)

Tonight is my last night here in Beijing - tomorrow night, I fly back home. Today was my first full day without Hao - he flew up to Harbin early this morning to meet up with his family. I got to do the normal Beijing tourist-y things. Being rather camera-weary, I left it at home today and just checked out the sights (the weather was overcast, which was horrible anyways).

I did the two things I do whenever I visit any foreign country: ate at a McDonald's and took the subway. I am happy to report that the McDonald's here has a #1 Big Mac meal, which costs $3 USD tastes exactly the same as the American version.

The subway in Beijing is very nice - it's on par with the Seoul subway system. Subways, to me, separate the first-tier cities from the second ones - they are the perfect way to see a city. They are relatively cheap, have great coverage, and are designed to be navigatable with only visual symbols (awesome real-life UI!) ... can you ask for anything more when you're visiting a foreign city and can't speak the language?