May 26, Beijing: And Now for Something Completely Different

Good news so far: I'm able to access to blog site (knock on wood). So hopefully, I'll be able to continue posting.

I'm not even sure how to start this post. Beijing is at the same time a booming metropolis and the closest thing to an African village I've yet seen in my life. We landed at the airport around 1:30 - I might add that the ENTIRE airport is being torn down and rebuilt from scratch before the Olympics - the scaffolding can be seen as you land for the new airport a few hundred yards away.

We took a taxi to our hostel - which according to Chris was in a typical Chinese neighborhood. After checking in at one building, our luggage was carried in a cart by a local man - see below:


The neighborhood in which we're staying, like many in china, is filled with similar shops; in this case, every other store on the main drag seems to be a music store filled with guitars, trumpets, etc. Murph has alreade been down to one or two of the stores looking at trumpets, and the salesmen, especially once they become aware of his ability to speak the language, become quite insistent.

One of the more interesting things I'm seeing here is that the city really is very much about appearances; the main drags are newly tree-lined, with new busses and clean streets. But the actual neighborhood roads are a little more, ahem, third-world:

In any case, our hostel is very, very, very Chinese; here's a photo of the lobby area:

We hung out in the lobby for a bit, and then headed out around 5:30 PM to meet up with Jenny, a friend of Chris' from two summers previous. We went to a restaurant known for its Peking duck, a Chinese delicacy. Basically, a chef shows you a duck and then cuts it in a special manner; first you are given the skin, which is dipped in sugar and eaten. Next the duck meat is placed into tortilla-like wraps, and is eaten with duck sauce, cucumber, garlic, and other unidentifiable food. Finally, the innards are presented and eaten in the same way. The cleaned duck bone is placed in a broth to simmer, and at the end of the meal, each person is given a bowl of the broth, along with fruit and other deserts. It is quite a culinary experience, and ranks as one of my favorite dishes of all time. Here's the chef in action:


After dinner, we headed to a bar district, where each place on the main drag featured a person or two outside accosting passerby with the hope of getting them to enter. It reminded me of the restaurant district in Brussels in some respects, with a cluster of places and all of the sales pitches going on at the same time.

We headed to a bar that Jenny and Chris knew - a little off the beaten path - and settled in for a couple drinks. Here's a photo from the bar:

For the record, drinks here are about 20 yuan for a beer - about 2 bucks - at the bar. At grocery stores, etc., its about 3 yuan for 2 beers, or 25 cents a piece.

We paid our tab at the bar and headed to the club district for some dancing. Here's a few photos from the club:



We got back fairly late, so I'm writing this post here in the hostel the following morning. We're scheduled to head out to some of the shopping districts, perhaps peruse the forbidden city, and then head to Tianemen for the sunset military exercises. More later!

Thanks to all for reading - seeing nearly 200 visits to the site has kept me interested in posting our experiences. Best wishes from China!

Hi to all,
Mike