My First Qilin

July 20, 2010 Beijing
    Malva invited us on her weekly walking tour, led by the indomitable Eleanor, a nonagenarian from Kansas who has lived in China for decades.  This week's destination was the 798 Art District, an old factory district that has been converted to hip art galleries.  After a long and circuitous search for red dinosaur landmarks, we found the gallery we wanted and an adorable Aussie gave a tour of the exhibits.

Found 'em!

   The most notable exhibit displayed the remains of a train that crashed during the Sichuan earthquake. 

   Almost forgot the one minute sculptures.  One artist had left instructions for becoming a temporary sculpture.  Brian and I tried it out.

   Brian and I left the sizable group of expat ladies to their after-tour luncheon in favor of a trip to the magnificent Temple of Heaven.  While sitting in traffic on the cab ride, a man approached the car with not the usual real estate pamphlet, but a LIVE TURTLE!  We attempted to ask the driver if it was for eating, even though we probably didn't need him to confirm our suspicions. 
  The Temple of Heaven is a very important temple where Emperors beseeched the deities for a good harvest.  If the gods denied him, the Emperor might lose his power, because the people would take it as a sign that he was out of favor with the gods.  Being in favor with the gods was pretty much his main job and source of legitimacy, so I imagine the ritual was pretty elaborate and earnest.

Entrance to the Temple.

Super pretty dragon tiles.

      They are not kidding when they call China the Land of the Dragon.  There are sculptures and paintings of dragons everywhere.

Auspicious dragon.

It's for burning something.

    Temples and parks in China are generally gigantic.  There was a lovely grove of old cypress trees.  Hard to say exactly how old, because the one below was called a thousand year cypress, but the plaque said it was three hundred years old.  I'm not sure we can trust the plaques.

  They have this way of propping the seemingly perfectly stable trees up with poles.  Don't know why.
   The edges of the roofs all have rows of the same auspicious beasties, for protection or auspiciousness.

Here's a close up of a cypress for those naturalists who may read this blog.

    While we were admiring the scenery, a young boy approached us asking "Hello.  Can I picture with..." and pointed at us.  We said sure and other people, seeing that we were willing to pose, came running up to get in the shot and take their own picture.  When I tried to take one with my camera, someone took it from me, insisting that I remain in the photo.

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   Here is a shot of the gorgeous temple itself.  It was a quite a feat getting to it, given the heat and the crowds.  The highlight of the journey was watching a little boy slide down a stone ramp that had been warn smooth, presumably from hundreds of years of little boys' butts sliding down it.

   We wandered into a beautiful area called the Hall of Abstinence, where the Emperors would prepare for the ceremony. 

This was our favorite part, as it afforded enough privacy to enjoy the peaceful surroundings in peace.  As a nice little bonus, there were lots of paintings of qilins, our favorite Chinese mythical animal.  What's yours?  The qilin has hoofs, breaths fire and appears at the birth of a great sage.  While fearsome looking, the qilin is a gentle, wise creature.

We finally abandoned the Hall of Abstinence to venture forth in search of food.  Having foolishly left our guidebook at home, we didn't know where to go.  I saw a man who looked like a hippie reading an English guidebook about China, so I asked him if it mentioned where to eat near the Temple of Heaven.  He turned out to be a very friendly and obliging Italian tourist who spoke limited Chinese and fluent English.  He tried asking a group of staff members, who spoke amongst themselves for what seemed like quite a long time given the simplicity of the question.  They finally agreed on an answer, conveyed it to the nice Italian who translated it for us: "Left." By the way, they were pointing to the right.  So, we called Malva who gave us directions to a great noodle place.
   Tired, hot and famished, we ventured out in search of noodles.  In our compromised state we gave in to the insistent pleas of the pedicab drivers and got in one.  It was slower than walking and actually more stressful as another one pulled up and our driver told us one person per vehicle.  We assented just to speed things up, but my driver was older and slower, so I was sticking my neck out to keep an eye on Brian, prepared to bail and start screaming his name if I lost sight of him.  We were fairly confident that we were very close to the restaurant.  Thus, it was unsettling, but still somewhat enjoyable when they took us through a hutong (old-style neighborhood).  Eventually, they deposited us in front of a bank, nodding when we asked if this was where the restaurant was.  Then they demanded an absolutely ludicrous amount of money, more than twice what we had on us and about 30 times more than anyone should have to pay for a pedicab ride in China.  We eventually handed them some cash and walked stomped off in frustration.  They followed us for a while demanding more money.  Avoid pedicabs in China.  You may be tired, you may be hot, but at least you're not in a pedicab. 
   The happy result of this misadventure was the discovery of  a really great restaurant at the end of the block.  I'm 98% sure this was just a coincidence, as I don't think they understood what we had said about where we wanted to go in the first place. Anyway, we ended up in a really great local restaurant, where no one spoke any English, but we pointed to a picture of noodles.  Beijing-style noodles come with many little bowls of celery and soy beans and onions etc. and mung bean sauce that the server tosses into your bowl of noodles at the table.

  Long day.  Lots of pictures.  I hope you all have fast internet connections.

My First Chinese Intersection

July 19, 2010 Beijing

I don't want to know what substance they paint on these peaches to get characters on there.

      Started the day off with a breakfast lychee.

Check out the view from the balcony.

    Then we zipped downstairs to the local coffee shop for a "long black" (translation: americano).  By the end of our trip, it became clear that "coffee shops" in China do not actually serve coffee, just espresso.  Mysterious.  
    Brian, Malva and I strolled to nearby Yashow Market.  Brian and I got to try crossing the street in Beijing for the first time.  It was absolutely terrifying.  Cars, pedestrians, variations on the concept of a bicycle, buses and the occasional dog enmeshed in a dense net, stopping or starting unpredictably.  The distinction between sidewalk, street and bike lanes is indistinct.  Cars, people and vendors go where they please. Lots of honing for no discernible reason. We made it across in fits and spurts.
  Yashow is an indoor market that sells knock-off electronics, shoes, purses, clothes and souvenirs.  As soon as you step in you are assaulted by young girls in pink polo shirts shouting "Hello, Lady! You need t-shirt/purse/shoes/iphone!," and thrusting said product in your face.  If you look at the item "I give you good price."  The "good price" is 5 to 10 times higher than what they will take after haggling.  We went upstairs for manicures and pedicures, an essential part of expat life.

We were told that Beijing has more sex shops per capita than any other city.

   This is the alley behind the fancy, Western style shopping mall next to Yashow Market.
   Next stop, the local police department to register as foreign aliens, which you have to do within 24hrs of entering China.  Afterward, we went to what was to become our favorite place in Beijing, Ritan Park.

This is one of the entrances.

Close up.

      Ritan Park is home to the Temple of the Sun, where Emperors used to offer sacrifices to the sun.  There are beautiful trees, jays, magpies, man-made rock formations, pagodas and a great lotus pond.  Young Beijingers were relaxing, chatting, playing flutes.  Women were line dancing and men were squatting around playing board games or cards or just talking on cell phones.  It is all very serene and lovely.

This is a real tree.  Real pretty.

 

   
      Brian and I had a drink at a bar inside the park, called the Stone Boat.  It is actually a boat made of stone.  Then we had dinner with Malva at Xiao Wang's restaurant which is also inside the park. 

Yum.

 

   Our server was very nice about showing us how to eat Peking Duck.  It's served with thin pancakes.  You rub some brown sauce on, add onions and celery and a piece of roasted duck, making sure to get a piece with skin on it.  In the background of the above photo, you can see a tower of fried potatoes.  Very salty, lots of chilies and onions.

Voila!

The first of many plates of dumplings we enjoyed in China.  My favorite food.

    After the delicious dinner, Malva lead us on a quick walk to a shopping center simply called The Place, to see the largest LCD screen in the world.  Which is cooler than it sounds, due to the jubilant atmosphere underneath.  Lots of babies in their splits pants.  Chinese parents don't use diapers, resulting in much peeing directly on the sidewalk through the giant split in their pants, which in my opinion sort of defies the point of wearing pants at all, but whatever.  The overhead screen is so far overhead that kids were flying kites underneath it. 

That's Brian and me in the blue and red respectively.

  It is notoriously difficult to hail a cab in Beijing when it's raining.  Black taxis and pedicabs try to get your business by simply pointing shouting "Hello" and gesturing to their vehicle.  Black taxis are unregistered taxis who often offer rides to people who are attempting to hail cabs.  It's not a good idea to get in one, because with no accountability they may drive you any place and demand an exorbitant amount of money just to let you out of the car.  While we were trying to outdo the natives at catching a cab, we saw a man stop his car to get out and by some fruit from a stall, thus stopping traffic.  The city bus behind him patiently waited to finish his transaction.

My First Chinese Toilet

July 18, 2010 Beijing
   Roughly 24 hours after leaving Austin, we arrived in China.  The highlight of the trip was a long layover in Chicago, because O'Hare is the best airport ever!  Brian didn't believe me that there's a "Laser Tunnel" (actually neon-lights, but laser just sounds cooler) and a dinosaur.

Proof!

    The first thing I did in China after stepping of the plane, admittedly slightly dazed, was go to the ladies room.  The Chinese-American girl in line behind me giggled, because I visibly balked when I pushed open the stall door and saw:

Note proximity of trashcan to space where your butt goes when you squat.  This may be the cleanest toilet I saw in Beijing. 
  Brian's parents, Bob and Malva, greeted us and took us back to their beautiful apartment on the 33rd floor.  Technically, the 30th floor.  4 is considered unlucky in China, because the word for 4 sounds like the word for death.  So, there are commonly no 4th, 14th or 24th floors.
   After, a slice of Malva's homemade apple pie, we pulled the blackout curtains in our room (all of China is on the same timezone--for national unity, probably, right?--so the sun rises shortly after 4 am in Beijing), and went to sleep.

Intro

Howdy,
  I am starting this blog to let my family and friends know what I'm getting up to whilst abroad.  I am back from China, and preparing to leave for New Zealand.  This first business of the blog is to post about my month-long trip to Beijing, which I couldn't do while in China, because the lovely Chinese government does not allow access to blogging sites.  Just so you know, the majority of the pictures from China will be of food, as Travis instructed me to take pictures of everything I ate.  I hope you like the pictures, Bubba.