25 May 2010 11:33pm Beijing, Jade Youth Hostel
Well today was certainly a full day of adventures! We started off with breakfast at the hostel. Good thing it was buffet-style, as we spent the rest of the day walking around the city. And we walked everywhere. First stop was the shopping area so that we could buy a cell phone. They had the awesome paper collapsible cups at the water cooler like they did at the airport. These things are so cool- they're basically envelopes sealed on three sides, and the top side is where the water goes! It's both the weirdest and most amazing thing ever.
After, we wandered around a little more until we found a more non-Western shopping district. This was also where I first experienced being completely creeped out by food (in China, of course- I get freaked out about food in other countries too). In this case, it was scorpion on a stick. Live scorpion. I know I was told to try new things, but I draw the line at something still alive. This is why I don't eat yogurt.
I found the coolest thing in the market and had my first experience bargaining a price. I found some stacking dolls in panda form. For anyone that knows me and my obsession with pandas (although you probably don't know about my equal obsession with stacking dolls), I'm sure you can imagine how excited I was to see these. There was a ton of other cool stuff- apparently I missed the Mao alarm clock whose arm moved up and down when the alarm goes off.
After that exicitng adventure, we set off wandering and ended up following signs to the train station. The plan was to look around the station, but it was ridiculously crowded and we believe that you had to have a ticket to even get in the station. Moving on from that, we decided to take the subway to the Temple of Heaven Park. The subway is ridiculously nice. I really don't know how I'm going to be able to go back to MTA after the Beijing subway. Everything is completely clean, electronic signs actually function, and the cars are all attached- no subway surfing here. Oh, and announcements were in both Mandarin and English. There was also tons of security, and bags had to be scanned before entering the subway system. The system was extremely smooth.
We ended up taking a very long walk from the station to the park. However, we did find some super cool stuff on the way. On one of the side streets we found an exercise park along the road. After walking all day, some of those 'machines' (really, they looked more like playground equipment) felt really nice on the body. We also attempted to go to the Underground City, but we got there a week or so late- from our attempted communications with the workers there, it closed for good on the 15th. Very sad.
After a lot more walking, we finally made it to the park. It was so incredibly peaceful and beautiful at the same time. The temple was equally amazing, although other tourists were extremely pushy to get pictures of the inside of the temple. Apparently it's rude to call people out on their shit here. If only I was in New York...
We ended up taking the subway back to our hostel from the park- it was too long to walk and we were tired. On our way back, we stopped to get dumplings as a snack while we waited for Keesler to arrive. Everyone was shocked that I had never had dumplings before. But after all, why not try them for the first time in China? We ended up resting for a bit while waiting for Keesler to get in. After Keesler's arrival, the fun truly began.
The lovely front desk clerks gave us directions to an excellent restaurant that would fill our desires for Peking duck. Unfortunately for us, that came in overload. First off, none of the waiters spoke English and we of course don't speak Mandarin, so our conversations consisted of haphazard sign language and pointing at pictures. Dee's travel book helped too, seeing as how most of the Chinese words in the book had to do with eating. Thanks, Frommer's.
I don't think I've ever had more fun reading a restaurant menu than I did at this place. This was true Chinglish- one dish translated as 'flatfish with no results'. The rest were equally amusing, especially when the meat took on strong action verbs in the description. If I remember correctly, the bacon was quite forceful.
Anyway, we ended up ordering duck, a vegetable platter, and these chive cakes- all of which were delicious. When we first placed our order, the waiter assured us that one duck would be enough food for 5 people. However, he came back and said that one duck normally serves 3 people. So, we ordered two ducks. Oh, how wrong we all were.
The cakes came first, then the vegetables. They were both really good appetizers and we figured they would be good compliments to the duck that was coming. The duck finally came out and it looked so delicious. We got three trays of duck, a stack of pancakes, cucumbers, and plum sauce. It was a good amount of food and we were satisfied. Then, everything went downhill. The wait staff started bringing out more duck. We were in shock- "No, no! No more duck!" But they didn't listen. The duck kept coming. We seriously had no more room on the table for more food, but they kept bringing it anyway! Remembering my duck-eating contest days from RKB (ok, so it was only once), I assured everyone that we could totally eat two ducks, no problem! Oh, how wrong I was. They then brought out the duck soup and some sort of fried, spicy, seasoned duck chunks. Oh dear lord.
After about my sixth pancake I started to get pretty full. Katie reminded me that it takes 20 minutes for the body to realize it's full, so I better keep eating. We actually ended up eating a good amount of the duck, but we definitely did not finish. We ended up bringing the leftovers back to the hostel and gave them to the front staff, whom I'm pretty sure thought we were crazy for giving them food.
The way back was equally as crazy. We found a church along one touristy street. One of our maps said it was a 'Catholil' church, but Dee and I are pretty sure that it's Orthodox. (Update: Dee just googled it, and it is definitely an Orthodox church. Stupid map.) We also came across a little kid at a smoke shop, which requires a bit of explanation first. Apparently in China, children poop and pee on the streets (I witnessed both today) and as a consequence, their pants do not have genital or butt coverings. So this little kid at the smoke shop was carrying around a sign, and then put it down and started laying on it, exposing himself. Talk about awkward. I definitely don't think I can get used to seeing exposed children like that- it just seems like a pedophile's wet dream.
Another thing I learned over the past day and a half is that China loves KFC. I'm going to start a KFC Count on the blog: so far, the count is 6. We definitely saw more than that, but 6 is our 'official' count. It should be an interesting update.
A final thing is driving. Being a pedestrian in Beijing is pretty terrifying. On many streets there are no real sidewalks. There are bike lanes that people walk in, but these also serve bicycles and motor bikes. And let me tell you, some of those bike drivers can get a little antsy when pedestrians are involved. I've been honked at by bikes too many times to count today. Also, nobody follows traffic laws. Pretty much every red light we saw, at least one person ignored it and went driving on through. It makes it pretty scary to cross streets, because you don't know if people are actually going to stop. Also, there really is no such thing as a one-way street. Even if a street is only wide enough for one car at a time, cars still come from both directions. And in crossing some streets, even though it may be one way for cars, bicycles and motor bikes will still drive the opposite way, mowing people down in the process.
In short, Beijing is pretty awesome. What an excellent way to unwind from the end of the school year and the end of a ridiculously intense semester. Next stop: Forbidden City, Tian'amen Square, and Mao's body. Which some European tourist also staying at our hostel told us was a must-see. Awesome.
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