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Chukotka, Russia
View of Russia at the Bering Sea after crossing over from Alaska.Wow, today has been quite the adventure. Woke up at the crack of dawn (2:26am to be exact) because I fell asleep as soon as I got to the hotel. Let’s go back to the awesome trek of yesterday to the hotel. After arriving at Beijing Capital International Airport, I had to stand in the awesomely long customs line ever so eloquently marked “FOREIGNERS”—one of the things I love China for: its complete lack of a need to be PC. America should go back to that. I would have actually been fine with “Laowai” which for future reference is a cute name for foreigner. Anyway, next I had to find my way to the Express Subway that takes people into the city, but of course they didn’t accept credit cards, so I had to walk all the way back into the airport terminal to pull money out from the ATM. After completely missing the first train because Chinese people don’t know how to wait their turn in line, I finally caught the next train and enjoyed the sweet air conditioning which would soon become a thing of the past.
I rode the express train all the way to the last
stop at Dongzhimen where I transferred to the no. 13 line and then to the no. 5 line at Dongdan heading north to Dongsi. Pretty good might I add for the first time on the Beijing subway and for the shear fact that I had absolutely NO idea what road my hotel was on. After leaving the subway station, and being stared at the entire time because of my awesome LAOWAINESS 😊, I came out onto a road which was not very well labeled. I proceeded to follow my innate sense of direction for where I thought north might be….that turned out to be east. I continued to walk until I found a hutong (alley) that looked familiar because I have stayed at this hotel before…only I didn’t want to pay for the cab this time. I began walking the ungodly length of this hutong with my huge roller suitcase, duffel, and backpack and got some hilarious looks from onlookers. Did I mention, this is all in 95 degree heat with humidity?
Having realized this was not the correct route, I attempted to find my way back to the subway station without backtracking so I appeared to know what
I was doing….I know, right? Eventually I found the intersection I originally came out at and analyzed my surroundings. China does this weird thing where instead of putting signs parallel to the streets they name; they actually put the signs of the road in the direction you are headed, rather than that which you are crossing. This lead me to north (2 hours later might I add) and I continued walking, completely soaked form head to toe in my own sweat and almost tears of frustration. Soon, things began looking familiar. The sidewalk was made of blocks that were as uneven as Owen Wilson’s nose and there was a camel leather shop every two blocks like a Starbucks in the US. I eventually found Dongsi Wutiao which means Dongsi district 5th alley, but the street name in the e-mail said Dongsi 45th street which messed me up bad. I eventually turned down the alley and saw the Pekinese I had seen two years ago and was soooo relieved!
I checked into my room and was ready to crash HARD! Top (4th) floor, last room on the right but who cares when you’re finally in a room that has AC!
I turned the temp down to 20 degrees Centigrade and jumped in the shower almost with my clothes on. Now you know how you usually have to wait for the water to get hot in the US when bathing, well it was already warm and got hot pretty quick but I couldn’t get it cold which was what I wanted. Cold water, which is definitely absent everywhere in the city but at McDonald’s and KFC, is apparently hard to come by even in plumbing. Either way, the shower felt great and so did the warm water for brushing my teeth. I hopped on Skype at 5:30pm which was 5:30 am back home and found my roommate and my Aunt to be the only one’s online. I chatted for a few minutes and then hit the sack. I woke up at 2:26 am just in time for Spain v. Germany and talked to my sisters on Skype for a while, which was great by the way. Though I have no Youtube or Facebook, I still have my g-mail and was able to find amazing youtube vids like “llamas with hats” on other non-blocked sites. I looked around for a place to
トトロ 龙猫 TOTORO
I got really excited when I saw this giant Totoro in the middle of ZGC!!! find some good eats for the next two days as well as somewhere to fix my e-dictionary. I slept again and woke up at 8am for a good long day of wandering.
Instead of walking 5 blocks to the subway station I originally departed from, I decided to walk north toward the Lama Temple to find some breakfast and get a little exercise. Little did I know, this day would be full of miles and miles of directionless walking—not that I couldn’t read signs, but literally that I didn’t know what I was looking for. I eventually got onto the No. 5 just before the Llama temple after 3 pork dumplings (zhuroubao) and a fried pepper cake (jianbing). I took that to the No. 10 and then took it West to Zhichunluzhan. The fortunate thing was that this is right next to a large train station and a Wal-Mart so I was able to buy a power adapter and razor, which apparently I shouldn’t use since the concierge girl thought I looked “so little” even with my stubble when I told her I was on business.
The unfortunate thing was that all I had to do was ride
Susie
HAHAHA, I saw this Mom, and thought of you of course! Best part was right when I went to take a picture, this random girl ran up and was like SUSIE?! WHAT'S THIS? (and it was pronounced comically of course) two more stops, switch to the No. 4 and go three stops north to Zongguancunzhan. But no, I decided I would walk to where that stinking lying Google map took me: apparently Zhongguancun Mall is actually the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Google maps. I walked all the way down Zaojunmiaolu (which I thought was ZGC St. the entire time) and turned right where it told me the Mall should be. It was the Farmer University so I kept walking and found the real ZGC St. At this point I was so tired, hot, and burnt that I needed to sit down. Highlight of this scenic route: I saw a middle-aged Chinese man with the best jerry-curl I have EVER seen (like he looked like MJ from the back). I ended up being about a mile south of the 3rd Ring Road and the mall was apparently north of its by almost 3 or 4 miles. I soon hopped on the No. 4 when I realized it when to ZGC Mall and finally got there around noon.
Now, the thing you must know about ZGC, is that it is OUT OF CONTROL!!! There are good number of high
Mr. G
Not to be confused with the Mr. G that's the Director of Arts and theatre at Summer Heights High. (I knew you'd like this Sam and Lil) rises each with the bottom 4 or 5 floors dedicated to electronics as well as 2 basement levels. There were about 50 each of Apple, Lenovo, Nokia, ChinaMobile, Dell, and HP etc. stores in all along with a Starbucks, McDonald’s, and KFC all hidden deep within. I never did find the Starbucks. After wandering for a bit and asking a random salesperson to assist me. He was the 918243th person to accost me and about the 918240th person to say HEY SUH, CAN I HELP YOU? He was quite kind and told me to go to the basement where another man found me with THE MOST LEGIT CHINESE MUSTACHE EVER! (Literally looked like Paul McCartney). Of course, no one speaks more English than “hey suh” so I had to explain that the touch screen was broken in Chinese. The guy was super nice and told me he could fix it in two hours for 180 kuai. I SAID HECK YES and I told him I would be back after I ate. I told him I didn’t want the Mickey D’s I found and that the KFC was not where the sign said it was. He said they like to trick people and that I had to stay on B2, then to the next building and then back up to B1 to find it. Long story short, I found it and ate an awesome BBQ chicken sandwich with mashed potatoes—Super Chinese, I know. I proceeded to buy 2 more drinks since it was so hot but fortunately each was about 60 cents US, and then went to find a new power cord for my dictionary.
The info kiosk lady told me to go to FL2 and I found it right off the escalator. I told the girl the model, she pulled out a similar one, and asked if the connection it had was the same as mine and I was like duh. She then pulled out a brand new e-dictionary in its box (about $250 US even in China) and took the cord out and asked the guy next to her how much? He said 20 kuai and I was like Yes, PLEASE! Yeah, opened a new one and sold me the cord. So today, I have gotten my dictionary touch screen fixed and a new power cord for under $30 US. That’s what’s up.
Finally found Carrefour after an incredible journey through ZGC. After surveying the land a bit, I decided to head home. Tonight I’m probably gonna eat Indian, Hungarian, or Xinjiang and then head out to Sanlitun. Haven’t quite figured it out but I’ll let you tomorrow in the next installment.
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Dad
non-member comment
Map?
Maybe actually getting a real map of the city would help Ben!! Even the simple kind the hotel usually gives out. Unless of course 4 circuitous miles between destinations is your goal!! Look's like you doing fine though and learning alot about the city in the process!