Sunday, July 3, 2011
Hui Jiaaaaaa (returning home)!!!!
Sorry for lack of posts! It's been a crazy last 2 days with Rita back and trying to finish everything I wanted to do before leaving. Anyway I have a 6:30 flight and get in sunday night around 8pm. See you soon!
Last Day!
No posts yesterday because I didn't do anything! Having actually completed my to do/see list, I spent the day organizing my stuff and cleaning the apt before Rita came back! Yaaaay! Then we went for a late dinner and took a rickshaw home, which is where this photo is from :)
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Last Day!
No posts yesterday because I didn't do anything! Having actually completed my to do/see list, I spent the day organizing my stuff and cleaning the apt before Rita came back! Yaaaay! Then we went for a late dinner and took a rickshaw home, which is where this photo is from :)
Last Day!
No posts yesterday because I didn't do anything! Having actually completed my to do/see list, I spent the day organizing my stuff and cleaning the apt before Rita came back! Yaaaay! Then we went for a late dinner and took a rickshaw home, which is where this photo is from :)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
One last bit of shopping
GeoTagged, [N39.89432, W116.37363]
Went back to this amazing little paper cutting shop to give the last bit of my savings to this nice man who makes them all himself. (kidding, Dad, kidding! Just most of my savings ;) )
Anyway, pretty much everybody's gifts are coming from here, just FYI!
Source of Law Temple
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This temple is also a school for monks-- the "Chinese Buddhist Theoretical Institute". This temple was originally dates back to the 7th century but was apparently rebuilt as recently as 1442.
Niujie Mosque
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I finally made it to the Ox Street Mosque. It's in what's left of the Muslim quarter, which is basically a block of street. It's a cool little place that built back in the 10th century. Back then everything had to be built in the classical Chinese style so it's full of pagodas and arched roofs like any other temple, but with Arabic calligraphy and archways and other touches inside that make it unique. It still functions as a Muslim place of worship so there are Muslim Chinese people here as well, which is something you don't see as often this far east in China. Cool stuff!
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Made it! ...3 years later.
GeoTagged, [N39.98829, W116.41148]
I decided to stop at the Olympic park on my way home. Oh my god it is SO smoggy you can barely see the top of the tower that I think held the Olympic flame. It couldn't have been this bad for the games (I hope) so you can tell they've kind of re-prioritized air quality a bit lower on the government to-do list now that they're not being judged/broadcast daily on an international level.
Let's see if I can get closer!
Qinghua
GeoTagged, [N39.99704, W116.32657]
I'm liking Qinghua's campus more than Beida. Qinghua is celebrating their centennial this year. 100 years ago the US secretary of state commented that China's reparations to the US for the Boxer Rebellion were way too much so President Wilson reduced them from $30M to like $11M (or reduced them by $11M? not sure) on the condition that the extra money be used to establish a university for foreign study. Thus Qingua University was born! It was built on a Qing Dynasty prince's gardens or something so the campus is really nice. The picture above is taken from the steps of the law school building. Not too shabby!
The history of universities here in Beijing is kind of interesting so hopefully I'll have time to write something more substantial on the subject later.
Bingo!
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Well that didn't take long. I think this is it... The congratulatory graduation banner out front says "law study" I'm pretty sure, haha.
BeiDa
GeoTagged, [N39.98896, W116.30551]
Made it to my first destination... sort of. Now I just need to find the law school
building somewhere on this huge campus...
Subway
GeoTagged, [N39.93324, W116.45478]
Today I'm going to check out the law schools at 2 of china's top universities-- Beijing university ("BeiDa") and Tsinghua University (Qinghua) and I'm taking the subway! So far I'm impressed. First of all, everybody puts their bags through security screening before entering. Also, it's air conditioned down here and it feels more like an airport transit system than a city subway. Let's hope I make it!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Best meal ever
Yummm!!! My stand by meal back when I was a student. Too much food for just me, but the meal will only cost, oh, $5 even with so much extra so I think it's worth it!
Yuxiang qiezi!
I've been nervous to go into little Chinese restaurants full of just locals to eat by myself, but I've been craving yummy local food so I sucked it up and ordered my old standby-- yuxiang qiezi or fish-fragrant eggplant. It's one of my favorite dishes ever. It actually tastes nothing like fish but instead is cooked the same way you would prepare fish, hence the name. I threw in some sweet and sour pork for good measure and some rice to finish it off. There's no way I'll eat all of this but I thought just one dish would be boring! Anyway, I'm super pumped.
Where am I?
GeoTagged, [N39.89435, W116.38170]
I was wandering around some cute hutongs when I stumbled across this pedestrian street and I have no idea what it is! It's called Dazhalan street, but it's not ringing any bells.
Liulichang
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Oh wow I might not have given myself enough time for this. I'm on the Liulichang cultural street which is a restored ancient artisan street. Only arts, crafts and cultural items are allowed to be sold here. Here's hoping I come off this street with enough money left for cab fare home!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
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Scorpions! And grasshoppers and some silkworm cocoons. Mmmmmmm....
Not for the faint of heart
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Let's see... In this photo we have starfish, sea urchin, baby sharks, squid and some other equally appetizing things. I'll see what else I can find and document.
Wangfujing Night Market
GeoTagged, [N39.90809, W116.43189]
Just a quick 6 mile bike ride from Rita's house is this amazing night market where all the food is served on sticks. I think tonight I'll stay away from scorpions and starfish and just stick to the normal stuff for my dinner :)
Friday, June 24, 2011
It's Over, Bank of America. OVER.
I hate you I hate you I HATE YOU. You are DEAD to me.
I have never been shy about my hatred for Bank of America after past wrongs they have committed against me and I already closed both credit cards (a big no no for your credit score) and vowed to close the checking account once I quit my job and wouldn't have to change my paycheck direct deposit SO maybe it's about time I had that last straw.
Anyway, I just had my bank card eaten by an ATM here. I've used this card to withdraw money several times, even from this ATM already. ARG. BoA cannot handle themselves. Whenever I call ahead and TELL them I will be in X country, they inevitably always flag my account as fraudulent. Usually, though, they call and leave messages asking me to call them and verify transactions. UGH. Luckily I also have my HSBC card. Lovely, wonderful, love of my life HSBC that refunds me atm fees when I go to other banks and is amazing in every way as far as I can tell. So I will now proceed to transfer whatever funds were left at BoA back to HSBC and wash my hands of them once and for all when I get back to the states! UGH!!
To be honest, this is probably the worst thing that has happened to me while travelling, and it's not that bad (only because I have a back up bank and bank card though). I've never lost a wallet or passport or had anything stolen (I've had a few transportation issues, but that's a different story haha), so I suppose I will consider this an instance of the universe evening out all my good travel karma with one little blip. Ah well, C'est la Vie!
I have never been shy about my hatred for Bank of America after past wrongs they have committed against me and I already closed both credit cards (a big no no for your credit score) and vowed to close the checking account once I quit my job and wouldn't have to change my paycheck direct deposit SO maybe it's about time I had that last straw.
Anyway, I just had my bank card eaten by an ATM here. I've used this card to withdraw money several times, even from this ATM already. ARG. BoA cannot handle themselves. Whenever I call ahead and TELL them I will be in X country, they inevitably always flag my account as fraudulent. Usually, though, they call and leave messages asking me to call them and verify transactions. UGH. Luckily I also have my HSBC card. Lovely, wonderful, love of my life HSBC that refunds me atm fees when I go to other banks and is amazing in every way as far as I can tell. So I will now proceed to transfer whatever funds were left at BoA back to HSBC and wash my hands of them once and for all when I get back to the states! UGH!!
To be honest, this is probably the worst thing that has happened to me while travelling, and it's not that bad (only because I have a back up bank and bank card though). I've never lost a wallet or passport or had anything stolen (I've had a few transportation issues, but that's a different story haha), so I suppose I will consider this an instance of the universe evening out all my good travel karma with one little blip. Ah well, C'est la Vie!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
雨
I really like the character for rain. It almost looks like rain falling on your window... anyway, it's raining. It started to pour around 4:30 or 5 and it's still going! I had just immerged from the hutongs, had NO idea where I was and just barely got in a taxi when the sky ripped open. I mean serious rain... like, couldn't see 5 feet in front of the taxi, are we in a car wash? kind of rain.
Now, I recently saw the new Woody Allen movie "Midnight in Paris" (which is GREAT by the way and you should go see it) and the main character talks about how much he loves Paris in the rain, and later on goes on to say any city in the rain. Not so with Beijing. I can appreciate why it might be nice to stroll in the rain in a romantic European city but here it's just gross. Don't get me wrong, I <3 Beijing. a lot. But it's pretty gross. Probably mostly because of the pollution but also because there are just so many cars, bicycles, scooters, people spitting, etc so it's just kind of grimey here. Not just normal, college bar street on a sunday morning kind of grime but just dark, grittiness that you don't want to touch. While in some cities the rain kind of refreshes things and gives them a new shine, here it just presents you with huge puddles and mid-street rivers of pure disgusting and since you were probably wearing fairly open shoes to combat the very hot weather before the storm, congratulations! you now have a foot disease. I'm being a bit dramatic here, but I want to be clear: rain makes things worse here. The only up side is the potential that so much storming will clear up the smog and tomorrow we could have blue skies! so yay for that. Despite my tangential rain tirade, today was a great day! As mentioned in the previous post, I went and got lost in the hutongs near the Drum and Bell Towers in the Dongcheng district of town. I think up until now I've been generally a bit disheartened by the amount of change and "progress" that has happened since I was last here. Since the Olympics, Beijing has kind of been thrown open as a playground for foreign architects to build their crazy, gravity-defying kinds of buildings that sure, are pretty cool, but add nothing to (if anything detract from) the character of the city. A long time ago, nothing was allowed to be taller than the Forbidden City. That meant that very rarely was anything more than 2 or 3 stories high and I loved it. While a very widespread city, it helped it feel more homey and manageable to me, if that makes sense. It's for similar reasons that I dislike Shanghai. The dizzying skyscrapers and huge flashing lights and screens everywhere make me feel like I'm on ecstacy in Las Vegas and I never quite knew where I was because you couldn't see anything past the block you were on (plus I guess because I'm on ecstacy). It's kind of like the difference between Washinton D.C. and New York City in my mind... but imagine NYC on steroids. Anyway, gone are the days of short, homey Beijing and now there are huge skyscrapers and flashing lights and screens everywhere and it makes me sad! Everything old and nice here is being torn down for new and shiny and plastic and I don't know what the Chinese government is thinking! Even my favorite section of the Great Wall--SiMaTai is getting renovated. This place was like the most authentic part of the wall! It was crumbling and you had to really hike and scramble to get to each guard tower and there were some you couldn't get to because of the natural disrepair of the wall. Anyway, apparently now it's closed while they fix it up. Rita tells me they've also torn down old city walls and replaced them with new, plastic replicas. I mean, what the hell? Was this whole place secretly bought out by Disney?
Anyway, back to why today was awesome. Getting lost in the hutongs felt a lot more like the Beijing I knew way back when. Short little walls and houses in the shadows of temples and towers is exactly the mix of old and new that made me fall in love with this place. Anyway, it was nice to see. Potentially if I spent more time away from the ex-pat part of the city where Rita lives I'd see this side of it more often :)
Now, I recently saw the new Woody Allen movie "Midnight in Paris" (which is GREAT by the way and you should go see it) and the main character talks about how much he loves Paris in the rain, and later on goes on to say any city in the rain. Not so with Beijing. I can appreciate why it might be nice to stroll in the rain in a romantic European city but here it's just gross. Don't get me wrong, I <3 Beijing. a lot. But it's pretty gross. Probably mostly because of the pollution but also because there are just so many cars, bicycles, scooters, people spitting, etc so it's just kind of grimey here. Not just normal, college bar street on a sunday morning kind of grime but just dark, grittiness that you don't want to touch. While in some cities the rain kind of refreshes things and gives them a new shine, here it just presents you with huge puddles and mid-street rivers of pure disgusting and since you were probably wearing fairly open shoes to combat the very hot weather before the storm, congratulations! you now have a foot disease. I'm being a bit dramatic here, but I want to be clear: rain makes things worse here. The only up side is the potential that so much storming will clear up the smog and tomorrow we could have blue skies! so yay for that. Despite my tangential rain tirade, today was a great day! As mentioned in the previous post, I went and got lost in the hutongs near the Drum and Bell Towers in the Dongcheng district of town. I think up until now I've been generally a bit disheartened by the amount of change and "progress" that has happened since I was last here. Since the Olympics, Beijing has kind of been thrown open as a playground for foreign architects to build their crazy, gravity-defying kinds of buildings that sure, are pretty cool, but add nothing to (if anything detract from) the character of the city. A long time ago, nothing was allowed to be taller than the Forbidden City. That meant that very rarely was anything more than 2 or 3 stories high and I loved it. While a very widespread city, it helped it feel more homey and manageable to me, if that makes sense. It's for similar reasons that I dislike Shanghai. The dizzying skyscrapers and huge flashing lights and screens everywhere make me feel like I'm on ecstacy in Las Vegas and I never quite knew where I was because you couldn't see anything past the block you were on (plus I guess because I'm on ecstacy). It's kind of like the difference between Washinton D.C. and New York City in my mind... but imagine NYC on steroids. Anyway, gone are the days of short, homey Beijing and now there are huge skyscrapers and flashing lights and screens everywhere and it makes me sad! Everything old and nice here is being torn down for new and shiny and plastic and I don't know what the Chinese government is thinking! Even my favorite section of the Great Wall--SiMaTai is getting renovated. This place was like the most authentic part of the wall! It was crumbling and you had to really hike and scramble to get to each guard tower and there were some you couldn't get to because of the natural disrepair of the wall. Anyway, apparently now it's closed while they fix it up. Rita tells me they've also torn down old city walls and replaced them with new, plastic replicas. I mean, what the hell? Was this whole place secretly bought out by Disney?
Anyway, back to why today was awesome. Getting lost in the hutongs felt a lot more like the Beijing I knew way back when. Short little walls and houses in the shadows of temples and towers is exactly the mix of old and new that made me fall in love with this place. Anyway, it was nice to see. Potentially if I spent more time away from the ex-pat part of the city where Rita lives I'd see this side of it more often :)
Exploring hutongs
GeoTagged, [N39.92734, W116.42571]
I'm totally lost in a maze of hutongs near the drum and bell towers and it's great. These are the old original little streets and alleyways of Beijing. They're slowly being torn down to be replaced with annoyingly snazzy buildings and highrises but there are still a lot to explore over here in the dongcheng area.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
7 hours later...
There are people mopping the street outside. Oh, China.
So yesterday I managed to spend 7 hours wandering around the Summer Palace. That place is huge!! By the end of it I'd wandered so far from the entrance I came in that I left out of a different one (the north gate) and found myself in the middle of nowhere. I walked for like 10 minutes before finding a road big enough to have taxis and went straight home. I get stared at a lot here, but not so much as for those 10 minutes... I guess they don't get a lot of foreigners walking around their back streets so far outside the 5th ring road.
Anyway, walking around by myself in the midst of so many Chinese people at the Summer Palace reminded me of some peculiarities in the behavior of people here that I'd forgotten. First, which I noticed when trying to buy my admission ticket, is their inability to (or inability to see any reason to) wait in line. I remember learning how to say "wait in line" (pai dui) in Chinese class. We actually only used it to say phrases like "Chinese people don't wait in line" or "Chinese people need to learn to wait in line". Riveting stuff. Anyway, they just kind of swarm, or if there is a line new people will just walk up and get right in front of you without so much as a word. Even if you say something it's doubtful they'll move, so you just kind of have to inch forward and actively kind of put your back to them when you see them coming. It can be exhausting, especially if you're new here and too timid to say anything. I've long gotten over that.
Another thing I don't think I noticed before is that people don't stop when someone is trying to take a picture. What's more, they'll get in your picture and start posing for their own. This isn't just me being annoyed that my personless, scenery photos were difficult to obtain because once I noticed it I watched and saw it happening everywhere. There's none of that common courtesy there is back home to pause and wait for someone to finish taking their photo before walking through, or to wait for the photographer to see you and let you pass. Nope, here they just walk right through eyeing the camera the whole time. About 2 hours in I decided to start a 1 person movement to correct this. I made sure to stop every time and try to stop other people or atleast give them looks if they didn't. It didn't take, but I have another week and a half to get this going, haha. In hindsight, maybe that's why it took me 7 hours to get through the Palace grounds. There are just so many people taking pictures all the time maybe it isn't practical to stop for each one. Still, though, I'd at least appreciate an apologetic look or gesture when you're so obviously messing up someone's picture.
ok now on to more positive things. In general, unless they work as waiters in the ex-pat area of the city, Chinese people (mostly older people) are SO excited to see foreigners and even more so if you can speak even a little Chinese. When I first entered the park I was drawn away from the main path to the lake (Kunming Lake it's called) by singing and other instruments playing off to the side. I climbed up a tucked away hill to find a gazebo at the top filled with Chinese men and women all over 50 singing! They had a woman conducting and they were holding sheet music and had separate parts for men and women and everything. I meant to hold back and listen/take pictures when a very old man saw me and smiled and gestured me over and had me sit down with them while he explained to me what they were singing about ("forever love"). Once they were done, he insisted I stay and speak with him and two women about myself, my impressions of China, etc. They kept asking me things like 'what do you think of Chinese old people?' and then 'what do you think of Chinese young people?' I mean... how do you answer that? Anyway, I stayed with them for maybe an hour... yet another reason how I managed to spend 7 hours there yesterday!
Ok it's getting late I need to start thinking about heading out. More to come later!
So yesterday I managed to spend 7 hours wandering around the Summer Palace. That place is huge!! By the end of it I'd wandered so far from the entrance I came in that I left out of a different one (the north gate) and found myself in the middle of nowhere. I walked for like 10 minutes before finding a road big enough to have taxis and went straight home. I get stared at a lot here, but not so much as for those 10 minutes... I guess they don't get a lot of foreigners walking around their back streets so far outside the 5th ring road.
Anyway, walking around by myself in the midst of so many Chinese people at the Summer Palace reminded me of some peculiarities in the behavior of people here that I'd forgotten. First, which I noticed when trying to buy my admission ticket, is their inability to (or inability to see any reason to) wait in line. I remember learning how to say "wait in line" (pai dui) in Chinese class. We actually only used it to say phrases like "Chinese people don't wait in line" or "Chinese people need to learn to wait in line". Riveting stuff. Anyway, they just kind of swarm, or if there is a line new people will just walk up and get right in front of you without so much as a word. Even if you say something it's doubtful they'll move, so you just kind of have to inch forward and actively kind of put your back to them when you see them coming. It can be exhausting, especially if you're new here and too timid to say anything. I've long gotten over that.
Another thing I don't think I noticed before is that people don't stop when someone is trying to take a picture. What's more, they'll get in your picture and start posing for their own. This isn't just me being annoyed that my personless, scenery photos were difficult to obtain because once I noticed it I watched and saw it happening everywhere. There's none of that common courtesy there is back home to pause and wait for someone to finish taking their photo before walking through, or to wait for the photographer to see you and let you pass. Nope, here they just walk right through eyeing the camera the whole time. About 2 hours in I decided to start a 1 person movement to correct this. I made sure to stop every time and try to stop other people or atleast give them looks if they didn't. It didn't take, but I have another week and a half to get this going, haha. In hindsight, maybe that's why it took me 7 hours to get through the Palace grounds. There are just so many people taking pictures all the time maybe it isn't practical to stop for each one. Still, though, I'd at least appreciate an apologetic look or gesture when you're so obviously messing up someone's picture.
ok now on to more positive things. In general, unless they work as waiters in the ex-pat area of the city, Chinese people (mostly older people) are SO excited to see foreigners and even more so if you can speak even a little Chinese. When I first entered the park I was drawn away from the main path to the lake (Kunming Lake it's called) by singing and other instruments playing off to the side. I climbed up a tucked away hill to find a gazebo at the top filled with Chinese men and women all over 50 singing! They had a woman conducting and they were holding sheet music and had separate parts for men and women and everything. I meant to hold back and listen/take pictures when a very old man saw me and smiled and gestured me over and had me sit down with them while he explained to me what they were singing about ("forever love"). Once they were done, he insisted I stay and speak with him and two women about myself, my impressions of China, etc. They kept asking me things like 'what do you think of Chinese old people?' and then 'what do you think of Chinese young people?' I mean... how do you answer that? Anyway, I stayed with them for maybe an hour... yet another reason how I managed to spend 7 hours there yesterday!
Ok it's getting late I need to start thinking about heading out. More to come later!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Baozi lunch
GeoTagged, [N39.99448, W116.27034]
Yum! Got a bag of baozi (little buns filled with meat) for 10 yuan (about $1.40?). I've been at the summer palace almost 5 hours now and I'm not done exploring so I bought this snack to keep me going :)
Yiheyuan
Off to the summer palace (yiheyuan) and the old summer palace (yuanmingyuan)! The old one was looted and blown up in 1860 by dumb British and French soldiers who were mad at the Chinese for not allowing themselves to be horribly exploited by foreigners with bigger guns. Sigh. I've never spent much time at the summer palace (about 30 minutes once during a rushed tour) and I've never seen the ruins of the old one. From there the weather will dictate what happens next. It's pretty hot--it will be about 95 today plus the usually humidity and mugginess so I might retreat indoors somewhere for awhile.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Flying solo
So today I'm on my own and it's been pretty uninspiring! In a sudden twist of fate, Rita has been whisked away by a great opportunity leaving me to fend for myself during the day this week. A news team from her hometown in Asturias, Spain was scheduled to arrive in china today and interview people from there that live in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Hangzhou. Over the weekend we found out the host/anchorwoman who was supposed to come had become seriously ill! Without enough time to secure a journalist visa for someone else, Rita was tapped to take over! So all this week she will be with the camera man interviewing and taping all over the city and then this weekend she hours to Tianjin and then flies to Shanghai and Hangzhou until next Friday! Crazy! Anyway, so that's why I'm on my own now :)
This morning I woke up early feeling not too hot. I think I jumped into the Chinese food and chuanr a bit overzealously and premature yesterday, but I couldn't help it! With the oiliness and spiciness of the foods here it can take a few days to get adjusted and you really shouldn't gave chuanr until then, but I couldn't wait! Anyway, I biked over to SanLiTun to have a nice, normal, boring sandwich and read a bit and maybe I'll hear from Rita soon :)
With today's down time methinks tomorrow I will be up for a full itinerary!
This morning I woke up early feeling not too hot. I think I jumped into the Chinese food and chuanr a bit overzealously and premature yesterday, but I couldn't help it! With the oiliness and spiciness of the foods here it can take a few days to get adjusted and you really shouldn't gave chuanr until then, but I couldn't wait! Anyway, I biked over to SanLiTun to have a nice, normal, boring sandwich and read a bit and maybe I'll hear from Rita soon :)
With today's down time methinks tomorrow I will be up for a full itinerary!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
CHUANR!!!!!
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Om nom nom!!! Hands down the #1 food I miss that I can't replicate at home. It's quite simply meat on a stick but it's AMAZING. Ok gotta eat.
Panjiayuan
This picture doesn't do the place justice, but I took most of my pictures with my Nikon. Anyway, successful morning! Rita and I were ruthless bargainers (her mire than me) but we still left everybody all smiles when we left them. I think bargaining without offending or annoying is an important skill to have. Both sides know it's a bit of a dance, especially since we're laowai (foreigners) so if you take some of they're lingo (we're friends! Can't you bring the price down? We're friends!) and in general show some Chinese language prowess it becomes a sort of show for the shop owner and his or her friends. It's like hey look! This foreigner is really going at it! And when a price is finally reached everybody laughs and shakes hands. Hao wanr! (fun!)
Anyway, I might have to come back. I got a good gift for a certain roommate but I'll have to think over gifts for other people and come back!
Dirt
We're heading to the Panjiayuan Antique Market today! It's this huuuuge market full of cool stuff (new and old). When I went there before we called it the Ghost Market, but apparently the proper translation is Dirt Market. I like mine better.
After that we'll head to the 798 District which is basically the art district here full of all sorts of crazy Chinese modern art. I may also be able to convince Rita to go to the HouHai area to eat dinner. Yay, good day ahead!
After that we'll head to the 798 District which is basically the art district here full of all sorts of crazy Chinese modern art. I may also be able to convince Rita to go to the HouHai area to eat dinner. Yay, good day ahead!
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Instituto Cervantes
GeoTagged, [N39.92735, W116.42572]
It's international Spanish day! So we're at the local Spanish institute celebrating! I think I've actually heard more Spanish than Chinese on this trip so far (and had more Spanish food than Chinese). Methinks tomorrow will start my pursuit of dumplings and other such Chinese cultural staples.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Temple of the Sun God
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This was actually a really good idea! Rita suggested I come here. It's just nice gardens full of elderly people and little kids with their nannies. There are people playing cards and playing instruments and sleeping. Very nice. I'm still too shy to take pictures of people though. I'll have to ask Rita how she does it! I left my super zoom lens at home which was a mistake because then at least I could have taken pictures covertly from afar. Lesson learned!
Scratch that
Ended up meeting Rita for lunch and now I'm heading for Ritan Park (ritan gongyuan) which translates to Temple of the Sun park to walk around and take some pictures. I'll probably want to nap before going out for Rita's late birthday dinner (spaniards eat so late!) so a low key day is probably a good idea.
blue-ish
sort of blue sky! must make the most of it. woke up unfortunately early today at 7:30 after hoping to sleep in and cure my jetlag. Then spend the next 3 hours or so trying to go back to sleep to forceable cure my jetlag. Failures on both counts. Rita is out doing her reporter thing and then has Chinese class so I´m on my own for the day until we go out for her birthday around 9. I think today the LiuLiChang area peaks my interest with some time to go check out the Niujie Mosque, the White Clouds Taoist Temple and the Source of Law Temple. Sounds like a cool day, not sure if I´ll have enough time for it all! First things first... food! I want to seek out some awesome street food like chuanr or some jiangbing, but being in the middle of the more business/international area of Beijing, I'm not really sure where to go. Perhaps a snack from the grocery store and then I can grab some eats by the temples. Hmmm...
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Liang ge... Diet coke.
GeoTagged, [N39.93507, W116.43918]
I finally learned how to say diet coke! Coke is easy enough-- KeKoKeLe, or KeLe for short. Pretty clever. Anyway diet coke is jianyikele. No idea why. What's important is that it's delicious here! Maybe it's secretly real coke or packed full of MSG, but it tastes remarkably similar to the Mexican coke that's made with real sugar. Yum!
Duibuqi... ting bu dong...
So I've begun to flex my Chinese muscles and are finding them sadly weak. Luckily, the above phrase is like a foreigner's best friend: "I'm sorry... I don't understand." It comes in handy because once you show someone a deeper understanding of the language than hello and thank you, there is a huge chance they will then assume too much and launch into what they must think are very easy questions (based on the expectant look and the way they just repeat it over and over thinking you'll get it the 2nd or 3rd time they say it) but are actually way above my level. The moment you have to break out the "ting bu dong" there's an immediate mutual feeling of disappointment that the conversation has gone as deep as it can and we won't be able to volunteer any more information to each other. Every now and then, though, the conversation goes just the right way and the Beijing accent isn't quite so thick and there's no ting bu dong-ing and both sides leave the conversation feeling accomplished. Well, I do anyway.
This happens for me most often with taxi drivers. I've retained enough vocabulary that I can get in and explain where I want to go, what it's near, which direction it's in, etc. Just now I got in the cab, gave the destination and the driver was like, that's over this way, right? And I incorrectly said it was the other way. After like a minute I realized it, apologized and explained it's only my 2nd day here. This got me a very kind compliment on my Chinese speaking skills and then led to the typical but brief discussion about where I'm from, where/when I studied and some more compliments. Luckily, the driver got a phone call right then that ended the conversation because I'm fairly sure I couldn't have talked about anything of interest after that and would have shattered the illusion of this savvy foreigner with an excellent grasp of the language. Ok, they probably didn't think that of me anyway but it's certainly how I felt getting out of that cab.
第一印象 (or "First Impressions")
**FYI: Blogger seems to be blocked in China. Rita has a sweet proxy set up on her computer that lets her access facebook, twitter, blogger, etc so I can post from here and maybe from my phone, but my access might be limited. I'll update when I can!**
So I think I'll mostly be okay jetlag-wise. I woke up at like 5:30am today and couldn't get back to sleep. Any chance I had was cruelly taken away when the preschool next door started blasting Chinese children's music at approximately 7am so I gave up and finished up my birthday present for Rita (she turns 25 tomorrow!). I have this problem where I make things for other people and then desperately want to keep them when they're done! I also only make things for the purpose of gifting, so the problems kind of feed each other. I preempted it this time by making myself the same thing in another color first so I wouldn't be jealous, yet some how I am! I suppose it's a testament to the quality of the gifts, so that's ultimately a good thing.
Anyway, back to the trip. First of all, I've already completed one of the main tasks I had set for myself during this trip, so really I could just pack it up and go home now: I got my Beijing Starbucks City Mug! (photo to follow-- can't get it to upload here)
While I was waiting for Rita I went into the Starbucks to see if I could add to my collection. It took a fair amount of will power not to buy the China and Tianjin mugs too, but I figured a) I had plenty of time to get a China mug later and not look like a freak/have to carry even more stuff out of the airport with me and b) I haven't actually been to Tianjin and really wouldn't like having to admit that to someone if asked about it and then throw the legitimacy of my entire mug collection under question! That would be terrible. If you can't trust a mug collection, what else do you have?
So the amount of thought I put into buying mugs might reflect the fact that I didn't sleep at all on the flight. A few hours in I decided to take some Advil PM to see if I could conk out for a few hours and help ease the jet lag issues. I timed it very carefully, concerned with the warnings on the back of the bottle making it clear that you should only take them when you have time for a full 8 hours of sleep or else risk killing yourself on heavy machinery later. Once I felt I had taken care of everything I wanted to on the flight (progressed on Rita's gift, eaten my noodle dinner, watched The Adjustment Bureau), I popped 1 pill. (I was too nervous to take the suggested 2 pills since that's the max dosage you can have in 24 hours and Jimi Hendrix was killed by sleeping pills and I didn't trust the smelly man next to me to notice if I stopped breathing). About 40 minutes later nothing had happened and I took the other. I felt a bit drowsier so I curled up with my pillow and blanket and went to sleep, hoping to be woken by wheels hitting pavement. I awoke feeling a bit refreshed and excitedly turned on the flight tracker on the seat in front of me to see how much time had passed. We still had about 7 hours to go. Not even an hour had passed. Ugh. And that was the end of sleeping on the plane.
Anyway, when I was finally reunited with Rita we hopped in a cab back to her place in the Chaoyang district of Beijing. As soon as I left the airport I was hit with the smell. I'd forgotten, but China has a very distinct smell (not in a gross way). It's probably partially pollution and partially all the delicious dumpling and chuanr aromas drifting from everywhere. Actually, now that I've mentioned it, I was completely blown away by the smog. It wasn't great when I left in 2007 but now it's actually kind of gross. It feels like 7pm all day because it's so overcast and grey and hazy. It's also really muggy, which I'm not sure I can totally blame on smog and pollution but I'm going to do it anyway. Stupid smog.
Not much else to report. Rita's apartment is awesome-- she has a 1 bedroom place with all western bathroom and everything (VERY nice to have when staying in this country) and the quintessential white marble floor which is fairly ubiquitous here. I napped for like 2 hours while Rita wrote an article about all of the civil unrest that's been happening around the country (Guangzhou, Inner Mongolia, Xinnian province) and then we got some chicken and OM NOM NOM delicious eggplant dishes with her Italian friend Luciana in the SanLiTun area and then walked home.
Not sure what's in store for today! Rita and I have to go to the police station to register me (has to be done for any foreigners here not staying in a hotel) and then she has to go report on some Spanish cooking stuff so I might wander around this area for awhile. Look for some mobile posts later :)
So I think I'll mostly be okay jetlag-wise. I woke up at like 5:30am today and couldn't get back to sleep. Any chance I had was cruelly taken away when the preschool next door started blasting Chinese children's music at approximately 7am so I gave up and finished up my birthday present for Rita (she turns 25 tomorrow!). I have this problem where I make things for other people and then desperately want to keep them when they're done! I also only make things for the purpose of gifting, so the problems kind of feed each other. I preempted it this time by making myself the same thing in another color first so I wouldn't be jealous, yet some how I am! I suppose it's a testament to the quality of the gifts, so that's ultimately a good thing.
Anyway, back to the trip. First of all, I've already completed one of the main tasks I had set for myself during this trip, so really I could just pack it up and go home now: I got my Beijing Starbucks City Mug! (photo to follow-- can't get it to upload here)
While I was waiting for Rita I went into the Starbucks to see if I could add to my collection. It took a fair amount of will power not to buy the China and Tianjin mugs too, but I figured a) I had plenty of time to get a China mug later and not look like a freak/have to carry even more stuff out of the airport with me and b) I haven't actually been to Tianjin and really wouldn't like having to admit that to someone if asked about it and then throw the legitimacy of my entire mug collection under question! That would be terrible. If you can't trust a mug collection, what else do you have?
So the amount of thought I put into buying mugs might reflect the fact that I didn't sleep at all on the flight. A few hours in I decided to take some Advil PM to see if I could conk out for a few hours and help ease the jet lag issues. I timed it very carefully, concerned with the warnings on the back of the bottle making it clear that you should only take them when you have time for a full 8 hours of sleep or else risk killing yourself on heavy machinery later. Once I felt I had taken care of everything I wanted to on the flight (progressed on Rita's gift, eaten my noodle dinner, watched The Adjustment Bureau), I popped 1 pill. (I was too nervous to take the suggested 2 pills since that's the max dosage you can have in 24 hours and Jimi Hendrix was killed by sleeping pills and I didn't trust the smelly man next to me to notice if I stopped breathing). About 40 minutes later nothing had happened and I took the other. I felt a bit drowsier so I curled up with my pillow and blanket and went to sleep, hoping to be woken by wheels hitting pavement. I awoke feeling a bit refreshed and excitedly turned on the flight tracker on the seat in front of me to see how much time had passed. We still had about 7 hours to go. Not even an hour had passed. Ugh. And that was the end of sleeping on the plane.
Anyway, when I was finally reunited with Rita we hopped in a cab back to her place in the Chaoyang district of Beijing. As soon as I left the airport I was hit with the smell. I'd forgotten, but China has a very distinct smell (not in a gross way). It's probably partially pollution and partially all the delicious dumpling and chuanr aromas drifting from everywhere. Actually, now that I've mentioned it, I was completely blown away by the smog. It wasn't great when I left in 2007 but now it's actually kind of gross. It feels like 7pm all day because it's so overcast and grey and hazy. It's also really muggy, which I'm not sure I can totally blame on smog and pollution but I'm going to do it anyway. Stupid smog.
Not much else to report. Rita's apartment is awesome-- she has a 1 bedroom place with all western bathroom and everything (VERY nice to have when staying in this country) and the quintessential white marble floor which is fairly ubiquitous here. I napped for like 2 hours while Rita wrote an article about all of the civil unrest that's been happening around the country (Guangzhou, Inner Mongolia, Xinnian province) and then we got some chicken and OM NOM NOM delicious eggplant dishes with her Italian friend Luciana in the SanLiTun area and then walked home.
Not sure what's in store for today! Rita and I have to go to the police station to register me (has to be done for any foreigners here not staying in a hotel) and then she has to go report on some Spanish cooking stuff so I might wander around this area for awhile. Look for some mobile posts later :)
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Hui Zhongguo!
I made it! After a small amount of confusion I have located the Starbucks in the airport where I'm meeting Rita. Woohoo!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Here we go again!
I thought I would revive this old blog to record this next adventure in China! I arrive 3pm (China time) on June 15th. Get excited!
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