Arrived in Beijing...

My day started off horribly. In broken English: Arrived airport. Go check my bag, told it's overweight as per expectations, but am surprised at the amount, 230元. Cheap home maybe, not cheap at all here. Look for an ATM cuz they want cash. The airport has no CCB. Security guy walks me to CCB at Airport Hotel. No ATMs. Forced to use non-CCB atm, will probably be charged ridiculously for overseas withdrawal. Pay for bag, which is over by 10kg (max is 23kg). Sit waiting for delayed flight feeling ass-raped, don't know where I'm going until I get here. Reading Malcolm X made me feel a little better, but after I landed in Beijing I felt nothing but dread, as it reminds me of DC.
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So, I've been in Beijing for around five hours now, and it's safe to say I've already had some of the most direct, offensive experiences here. Whenever I get off any plane, I make a beeline for the bathroom, as I did today. But in doing so, a group of men started laughing. When I was most of the way down the bathroom corridor, a woman started calling out to me. I knew exactly what was going on right then, but I approached her, somewhat aggressively, ready to throw some vengeful words out. Except, she sincerely believed she was helping me as she told me the difference between the 女人 and 男人 bathrooms. Originally thinking she had been knowingly trying to offend me, I softened and almost squeaked: ”我-我是女人.“ She apologized, but I was still very agitated (and still am now). I'm sure it was possible that she was seeking some mental justification in the longrun ("Well it's not my fault she looks like that"), but it was still a frighteningly rude thing to do. I know people make mistakes sometimes with the bathroom, but why can't we all just trust that we know where we're going...? I'm thinking of the incident in the Baltimore McDonald's that happened a couple weeks ago.

Other than that, Beijing hasn't even offered me the chance to speak Chinese. I should probably just pretend I don't speak English. Today I old some Chinese woman I was from Canada, but tomorrow it will probably be Spain (since it's so fun to say in Chinese).

But as far as language, and being forward - someone, maybe me, maybe the guy's friend, got called a "他妈的白痴," or fucking moron as I was being passed a flier I can't read (insert my look of "GOD, NO"). And on the way back to the hostel around fifteen minutes ago, this old Chinese man was talking about "大，" big noses, as we passed - a derogatory term. And Ken, who's also in Beijing (and recommended this hostel), told me I'm just being paranoid. Surely I'm not; If I know anything about 中文，it's the bad parts. :)

Also, almost as soon as I entered this hostel I knew I didn't like it - I'll be leaving tomorrow for another, cheaper one (35元 as opposed to 60 per night, 8 bed dorm as opposed to 4) that's also subway-accessible. And I'll be buying another bag to weigh down with the heavy things.

Tonight I post my Chongqing pictures.