Advertisement
Published: September 4th 2009
China Cable TV building
really awesome architectureI haven't made any entries the past 2 days because the events in Beijing have been somewhat uneventful. We are staying in a hotel near the Beijing airport and it has been raining hard since we arrived. Lisa wanted to take me to the Great Wall but the drive is long and she wanted to leave very early in the morning and we got to sleep very late so we decided to go to Tienanment Square and the Forbidden City instead.
After waking up very late and eating a Chinese breakfast, we got into the car and started driving towards the center of Beijing and it was incredibly dark for 10:00 in the morning. Visibility was perhaps ¼ mile and it was cold and raining hard which took all of our enthusiasm away from tourism. We decided to go shopping instead.
We ended up at some 'Outlet Stores' but these were obviously first class and clearly not inexpensive and they did not have what I was looking for. So we went into a store So we got back into the car and went to a store I believe was called Parkstons. This was essentially a Sachs Fifth Avenue and
another view
China Cable TV, much closer it was obvious when we entered, this was a very high end department store. We first passed many women's cosmetics counters much like you would see in any Sachs or Dillards stores, up 4 levels of escalators to the childrens department as I was looking for something for my grandkids. Apparently they had already put away their summer clothing and were selling fall/winter clothes, much like American department stores in America, I am quite sure. I was afraid of the sizing of jackets and clearly not wanting to add much bulk to what will be a very overloaded suitcase for my return and the clerks were quite helpful in finding what I was looking for which were already packed away. I ended up getting some summer pajamas for them and even got a 20% discount because they were out of season which Lisa thought was a big deal but clearly these were no bargain prices at this store. We had obviously been in many markets in Qinhuangdao where clothing was really cheap but we never really looked at the clothing stores there because they were obviously cheap and not of very good quality. This department store however was a place
Beijing traffic
moving perhaps 35 mp/h for high quality.
Afterward, we ended up driving to a bakery near where she lives and this was a very high density shopping area where we parked in a lot and walked to the bakery. I was hoping to find a tea place to sit and drink tea and talk but we ended up getting some bread items and since the tables were all occupied, we sat on the steps and I was able to do some people watching. This was obviously adjacent to a major drop point for what she calls the 'underground' which is the local commuter train which is often above ground and not always underground. I am somewhat struck by how modern all of the buses and trains seem to be. The manner of dress is extremely diverse and I see a large amount of people in blue jeans. Women can be found wearing medium heels or athletic shoes. This could have been any city in America except that all of the people had Asian faces and talked Chinese. The downpour began again and sent us scurrying back to the car before too long.
It is evident that driving around Beijing is pretty much
sign
it was really cool but I think I failed to capture it. Probably as clear as the skies have been since getting to Beijing.,.it didn't last long like Los Angeles. Freeways stop for no apparently reasons. There is a vast highway system in and around Beijing and interchanges are major choke points. The streets can be narrow and slow. Beijing is 'ringed' by 6 freeways and I am told that inside the 3rd ring, there are very special rules. Only cars on the streets inside the 3rd ring, no bicycles, motorbikes, etc. Also, she cannot drive her car inside the 3rd ring on Tuesdays because her license plate ends with a 5 (the days switch every 3 months). It also appears that the rules of the road are not quite the same free-for-all as you see in other cities. Many of the highways are toll roads which doesn't strike me as a vary communist way of doing things but since the alternative is the very slow streets, the highway is the way to go.
We arrived in Beijing somewhat late on Thursday and picked up Wang Jian near the American Embassy because she needed to get some paperwork done as she has an interview for her American visa application next week. I took the opportunity to go the American Embassy to ask some questions and Lisa and Wang Jian could not go into the embassy because only American citizens or people with appointments may enter. I gather I am just seconds before closing because I am asked to hurry. There are 2 people ahead of me and I am given the number 10 when I enter. I can hear the discussion of the guy in front of me and I gather he is an American citizen living in Beijing and working as a dance instructor and his Chinese wife has been denied an American tourist visa 2 times now and I find the reality of this quite depressing. I finally get to the window and there is a rather attractive and obviously very American woman there who tells me that she can't help me much because she is not really an employee and doesn't know much but everyone else is busy. Apparently she is the wife of one of the ranking employees in the embassy and is trying to help them out, perhaps to fill her days. She is very nice and we talked for a few minutes and when I turn around, I see that everyone else is gone and I am the last one.
We then went to a Hunan restaurant which was absolutely fabulous. I don't know if restaurants like this can be found in America but it was incredibly spicy like Sichuan. Perhaps it was just this restaurant and Hunan food isn't all that good but if this restaurant is any indicator, I have found a new love.
The second night in Beijing, the restaurant was just strange to me. Clearly from the décor this was a high class restaurant. The women employees were all wearing silk Chinese dresses and considering that this was a restaurant, that is not an inexpensive uniform choice. This restaurant, everyone gets their own hot pot and you can choose whether you want spicy or plain hot pot. Surprisingly, I am the only one whose internal constitution will allow spicy hot pot oil and even my constitution is suspect. They bring out the hot pot for each person, put it onto the heating area on the table for each person and turn it on so it begins boiling in about 5 minutes. I was a bit disconcerted at the large size of our table but once the food started arriving, I understood why the table was so large. There were platters of thinly beef and lamb and spiced meatballsm, all raw, covering the table. The meat slices were extremely thin and rolled into simple loops and packed onto the platter in a single layer and adorned by a lotus flower. You just grab a few pieces and drop them into your hotpot and in about 60 seconds, they are cooked. You have a dipping sauce with some flower infused oil and garlic. There were also finely chopped green onions and cilantro to mix in and we got some vinegar and some sea salt to create your own dip. The meat is removed from the broth in the hotpot, a quick stop on your plate to give it a chance to cool a bit and then dipped before eating. After you have cooked a number of meat pieces, the vegetables start arriving and they are also hotpot candidates. We got cabbage, potatoes, some green leafy thing that I couldn't identify and some dry rice noodles. This is clearly not delicate eating and when I was done, my shirt was marked with many drips, despite all of my efforts to not drip. I gather that this place takes a lot of pride in their aged beef and it was quite good but I found the meatballs to be the most interesting because even though I had the very spicy hotpot broth, the dip loaded with garlic, cilantro and onions, the seasoning in the meatballs still was evident and quite tasty. But it was the rice noodles in the end that dripped onto my shirt.
I am leaving in less than 24 hours and am very sad at this prospect. I have solved my sleeping problems and even the bed at this hotel is sleepable with 2 Aleve. I can sort of feel the wires inside the mattress but they don't seem to be bothering me. I have never eaten so well and I have a tummy to prove it because with all of the walking I have been doing, I am quite sure that I have gained weight. Apparently I will do very little sightseeing in Beijing because once again, the forecast is for heavy rain. It's hard to believe that someone who lives in Phoenix would be tired of the rain but it is definitely having an impact on my trip and making sightseeing impossible.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.096s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0405s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Nikki
non-member comment
Sad : (
Oh dad, I am sad that you are sad to come home...I guess that means that you have had a great time!! It makes me sad that I won't have any travel blogs to read anymore either. I guess it's my turn to go somewhere awesome and blog about it. Please call when you get in so I know that you are home safe and sound!! I can't wait to hear all of the things that you didn't blog about. Love you!