MY BIRTHDAY, FINDING GENERAL GAO, AND TIENNEMAN

I’m 24 (I know I look 12) - I think that’s a pretty damn good age to be, except for the fact that I like odd numbers better. 23 was such a good year. Perhaps I am feeling a little bit old, but maybe that is because I have been traveling mainly with 19 year olds, who, to be fair, are actually very mature. Kate and James met up with us for lunch. They had been in Beijing all this time, staying with James’ uncle, whom apparently lives in a very wealthy neighborhood and has a driver. Kate, James, Annie, Sam, Jackie and I went to this quarter of the city known for the artwork there. It was nice to be with most of the group again. The area reminded me a bit of Xiantao, more like old China and less like new, modern Beijing. There were little alleyways with laundry hanging out to dry, and the buildings were low to the ground. I think they call these areas, where the common people live, Hutongs. I like this quarter of town a lot, but I was a bit disappointed with the artwork, which was actually all heavily reproduced stuff (like you find in Time’s Square). I still bought a couple cool prints. We had duck for lunch, which was alright, but not the traditional way it is usually made. It did, however, come to the table in full form, head and all. After this Jackie, Sam, and I got massages. This was yet another bad massage in China for me. It was the same style as the beating I got a couple of weeks ago, but this time I requested they go a little bit easy on me…and it was so soft I didn’t feel anything.

SWEET SURPRISE

We got back and got ready to go out to the bars for my birthday. After I got ready (I was the last to be ready) I ran around the hotel looking for Annie, Sam, and Jackie, getting kind of annoyed because I couldn’t find them. When I did finally find them they were sitting at a table in the backpacker’s lounge with a cake, wine and freshly cut mangos for my bday. It was really sweet and an awesome surprise (and I totally felt bad for being annoyed). They got cheese cake (Chinese style) which was extra cute, especially because we ate it with chopsticks. A coupe of days ago we were discussing foods we would want when we got home and I said cheesecake…so it was totally very thoughtful of them. They also got “The Great Wall of China” wine and because they couldn’t find cups we drank it out of little bowls. And they got leechee beer which is so yummy!

WE FOUND GENERAL GAO!

We went to the bars with these two English guys and one Irish guy we had met in the hostel. The Irish guy actually was Asian, and so it was surprising when all of the sudden (I didn’t know he was Irish) he started talking with a thick Irish accent. These guys were very funny, especially once drunk. The bars were fun but the drinks were totally overpriced. The first bar was a karaoke bar and the second was a shisha bar. At 3am we were all pretty tired but we vowed to stay up all night and go to Tienneman Square at sunrise to catch the marching of the guards and raising of the flag ceremony they have there (we also didn’t have a hotel room to go to).We went to this dirty (I saw more than one roach running around) little restaurant for dinner/breakfast and more drinks. We told stories, played hilarious games and at one point sang a few national anthems. During all this Sam was pretty much passed out…even when the General Gao’s chicken arrived. For weeks he had been looking for General Gao’s chicken (along with fortune cookies we mysteriously couldn’t find it). Sam actually was hoping to meet the General himself so that he may be able to thank him for his savory recipe (if he only knew his status in the states was like that of Col. Sander’s in China). So…when we ordered sweet and sour chicken we were overly excited when General Gao’s showed up. After Sam did not respond we began to worry about him, and then we started taking funny pictures of ourselves holding up the chicken in front of him (proof).

TIENNEMAN…and once again, cops

At 5am we left the restaurant and cabbed it to Tienneman, where they were just ending the ceremony and all the hundreds (thousands?) or Chinese tourists there were making a mass exit. We hung around here a while, taking pictures with Mao, flying a kite that one of the English blokes had bought, and taking pictures with Chinese tourists (as requested by them). Some of them had probably seen no or few Westerners prior to coming to Beijing, and I bet seeing them at Tiananmen Square had a special meaning for them (us representing democracy or something like that). A lot of people were flying kites until the police came and told us all to stop. I doubt they heard me yell (softly), several times, “democracy,” as I attempted to fly one of the kites. I really don’t think it had anything to do with that, but that was fun anyway. I got a photo with Annie and a cop car…because Annie has some strange connections with China and the police in general. She apparently lived in the same apartment (she lived there after him) at Harvard as the guy who led the Tiananmen protests (very strange).

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