Beijing

It feels so good to be back in China. English got me around fine in South East Asia, but i hated to miss out on all the little details you only pick up on, and all the shortcuts you only get to take, when you know some of the local language.

I went back to Beijing to meet up with two high school friends, Tracey and Lauren, who were finishing up a 10 day China tour, and to meet my cousin Mark to embark on our Silk Road trip. In the meantime, I also managed to squeeze in what i see as a major historic event: China's biggest rock concert ever.

The concert knocked me on my ass, literally. The mosh pits were outrageous. I even crowd surfed. People watching was as it best. Loads of kids were walking around with huge mohawks and all sorts of other outrageous costumes.

The concert occurred during a week long holiday and it was super cheap, so loads of young Chinese students were able to attend. It went on four days in a row and it was outside, both major firsts for China. This was the concert's 8th year, and every year attendance grows exponentially.

What's interesting is that there are a lot of things you can only get away with at a long rock concert, especially if your a Chinese student, used to living in 8 person same sex dorm rooms: you can get really drunk over and over, you can have sex in a tent, you can smash into people in a mosh pit, you can meet a bunch of a people that are just like you, and you can discover a lot of inspiring music. All that is a recipe for newfound personal confidence and exploration, as well as a great way to blow of steam.

I was also interested to see the number of foreign kids walking around chattin' it up with their Chinese friends having regular conversations in Chinese. I hardly ever saw that 3 years ago. I even had a normal conversation of my own when catching a mini-van with some other Chinese teenagers back to the subway. We chatted about the bands we liked and not one of them asked the typical, slightly awkward, "How long have you learned Chinese," "Where are you from," type questions. I felt like i was talking with Europeans.

Things are changing fast here, and it is just so interesting to wach.