A DAY OF ART AND INTERESTING FOODS

Sam, Annie and I had fabulous dumplings for breakfast (16 cents for a whole plate). The group was doing Great Wall today (at Badeling) so we ditched them to check out some modern art, which I had wanted to do for a while. We found this neighborhood, called 768 (kind of soho-ish), that seemed to have a lot of little galleries and studios among a sea of factories. Usually old factory towns become run down and then artists find them, yuppify and gentrify etc. These factories were still very much operating and the pollution in the area was terrible (our eyes were burning). China is developing so fast that it seems they sometimes just skip stages of “normal” development, or they just flat out do it their own way. For example, a lot of places went from not having land phones to everyone having cell phones, which makes sense because putting up the phone wires is a long and expensive process, while putting up cell towers isn’t. Anyhow, as for the art, I really didn’t see anything that caught my eye or that seemed avant garde at all. Maybe because self-expression and creativity here aren’t highly stressed?

After this we got duck, authentic style, with the little pancakes and the duck bone soup and everything. It was really really yummy! Maybe the best thing I have ever eaten? The place was super classy also. Poor Jackie (vegetarian) had to buy an expensive (for China) plate or rice and broccoli. I also checked out this “snack” street with all sorts of interesting goodies. They had some delicacies too, like scorpions on a stick and dried seahorse, which I decided not to try. We went shopping at this huge bookstore and some fancy malls, in a sort of Times Squareish area.

At night we hung out at Annie’s hostel. Sunny came by for a little bit and drank almost a whole beer (a lot for her) and then her whole body turned pink, legs and all. Chinese woman can not handle their liquor. On the way home Sunny had her head out the window, marveling at the city she was finally able to visit.

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