可爱的加拿大姑娘超激动中国游：第一天：北京的夜晚！

After what felt like the slowest movie marathon in history, I finally touched down in Beijing, China.
在飞机上经历了漫长的电影马拉松后，我终于一脚踏上了中国首都北京的土地。

Home of the 2008 Olympic Games, at least a couple of pandas, and 20 million people. That’s almost the entire population of Canada squeezed into a space the size of greater Vancouver. I was, as I’m sure the 9 other people travelling with me were as well, braced for a culture shock.
北京，2008年奥运会的举办城市，拥有至少一对大熊猫，以及2000万人口。这几乎就像是将整个加拿大的人口全部塞进同温哥华一般大小的空间里。我，我很肯定与我同行的其他9人也跟我一样，已经准备好迎接即将到来的巨大文化冲击。

Admittedly my first impression was at night, so I couldn’t really make out the details, but on the drive from the airport to the hotel, it just looked like a medium sized city. Pretty and pedestrian, with wide tree-lined boulevards. All the buildings were no more than 20 storys and not all squished together like they are in Hong Kong. Huh? Beijing is supposed to be super crowded, but yet it looks like Vancouver, just outside the downtown core? Where am I? And more importantly, where are all the people?
无可否认，我的第一印象是在夜里，所以我实在无法描述出具体细节，但从机场开往酒店的大巴上向外望去，它看起来只像一个中等规模的城市。沿着宽敞的林荫大道向前行驶，两旁的景色漂亮却乏味。值得奇怪的是几乎所有建筑都没有超过20层，不像香港那样全部挤压在一起。嗯哼，莫非我打开的方式不对？北京不应该是超级拥挤的吗？但它现在看起来就像温哥华，就像在市中心外面？我到底在哪儿？更重要的是，传说中的人山人海在哪儿？

Still puzzling over this, we were delivered to the Crown Plaza Beijing Wangfujing, a really nice, modern hotel.
当我还在纠结这个的时候，我们已经被送到北京王府井的皇冠假日酒店，一个非常漂亮、现代化的酒店。

After a few minutes to freshen up, we met up and hit the streets. Wangfujing, the street our hotel fronted onto, is one of the main shopping streets in the city, and was lit up with giant jumbotron billboards, giving the whole area a welcoming, festive vibe. And judging by the giant 8 level mega malls there, they do pretty well.
几分钟的梳洗之后，我们又碰面了，雄赳赳气昂昂，一起去逛街。我们酒店所在的王府井大街，是北京的主要商业街之一，放眼望去，许多大型广告牌霓虹闪烁，使整个地区呈现欢迎、喜庆的气氛。根据耸立在这里的那座8层大商场判断，他们干得相当不赖！