I read that the elusive northern passage was first navigated last summer due to global warming. Seems the ice in the Arctic melted enough that a ship could make it through without incident. The European explorers tried 600 years too early.

When we moved to Lido, I looked on google earth to see how far away my office was and what the best path to it. The map revealed something interesting. We live just outside of the 4th ring road on the northeast corner of town and my office is on what is essentially 3.5 ring road in the northwest section. In my mind's eye, I would bike directly west and then drop down south to reach my office. Instead, Google Maps revealed that my office is directly west of our home. This would be great if I was a bird. And since I am not a bird and even if I was, likely I would not be of the flying variety.  Given these facts, I needed to find a roads. The problem is google earth did not show the perfect path and all the maps here are in chinese. Here's the map.

So, on Thursday I just up and decided to walk home. Head straight east on Zhichun Lu and find my own personal "northern passage". I walked and walked only stopping twice. Once to look in a bike store (hint, hint) and once to get some water and M&Ms.  At the 60 minute mark, I was crossing the southern section of the Olympic park. At the 90 minute mark the four lane Zhichun Lu essentially came to an end and I followed a small back street for another 20 minutes.  Past the old, poorer Beijing where everything one needs is on a single block. Food stuffs, restaurants, clothing, repair shops. All poor, all close together. I saw two inebriated men trying to hold back a man with one arm. The little street, like all little streets here, ended at a main street and signaled the end to my eastern path and my hopes for finding a northern passage. I had run into a park, which didn't have a road through it's center leading me home. So I headed north, into Wanjing, past the families lingering in the early evening warmth, escaping the heat of their homes. Past the 2nd largest IKEA in the world. And into Lido and then home. Upon arrival, Aidan asking me to play WII.