The architecture is gorgeous and evokes both the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean esthetics. I was impressed at how clean the city's streets were, and how quickly modern technology has been adopted. Internet cafes were thick near the universities. Everyone carries a cell phone. The signs of Lebanon's civil war are still there.
Families continue to live in shelled-out buildings.
Businesses have moved into the ground floors of buildings where the upper floors have been blown up and burned. The national museum exhibits are largely on loan from private collections because much of what it once held was destroyed or stolen. Israel still occupies southern Lebanon and Syria has 30,000 troops in the country.