Part 1: Sights and Sounds: The Summer Palace

Sadly, my friend Jenna recently returned to the US, but before she went we tackled one more sight in Beijing with a few other gals. That being the Summer Palace in the north east part of the the city about 45 minutes from where I live (yes Beijing is HUGE). Before heading there I stopped off in the Wudouko area to meet a new friend of a friend for lunch at a hip little student hang-out called 'Lush.' Lush had 10Y (approx $1.20) Guinness for St. Patrick's Day, I still opted for a jasmine tea.

The Summer Palace is on the outskirts of town and includes one of the few hills around. This made for a great view after a great many stairs. The park is very large and many of the areas are quite tricky to pose for pictures in which allowed us to actually get some shots with only one human being in them! After we climbed up the face of the palace we strolled down the hill on the other side of the park to very long walkway on the water. There were many Chinese tourist groups all wearing hats of the same color, they looked strangely to be the same height as well as a matter of fact.

Later that night, though we were pooped, we pulled ourselves together for an evening on the town. I had my best meal since being in Beijing at a middle-eastern restaurant called 1001 Nights. I had minjedra, lebneh, fattoush, mouaka, baba ganoush, you name it! On top of it all there were belly dancers as well! After I hit the dance floor at Slasa Caribe, I do not claim to know how to salsa but I did my best and we met some LA Dodgers salsa-ing as well who were in town for the first ever national baseball league game in China against the San Diego Padres (they are trying to promote 'America's favorite past-time' (baseball) in China). All in all, a pretty great day.

Part 1: Sights and Sounds: Temple of Heaven and Donghuamen Night Market

Tourist sight numero dos on the list was the Temple of Heaven, a large park with a series of temples, altars and such. I cannot do justice to explaining these places so please feel free to open another window and Google them at anytime because all I will offer are silly details, cheesy jokes and unprofessional images of them and myself in this blog.

The Temple of Heaven is only one temple of many at this wonderful park in the southeast of Beijing, I guess one can say it is the grandest. This is where important people would come and pray for a good harvest when that sort of thing was still very important. It was very nice to see trees and even nicer to witness local Chinese people playing games, singing, doing water calligraphy and best of all dancing on this lovely afternoon. Jenna and I even played a little game of ping-pong without the table.

After walking through the park and some of the temples, which by the way I may add requires a ticket purchase with additional fees per temple, we headed down the hill following the sound of music. Lined up in a covered ancient outdoor hallway were many small groups of older Chinese folks doing artsy fartsy things. My favorite was an old man acting out a play with tons of expression and lip singing why two older women stood on the side and sang. That's also when I first spotted the water calligraphy on the floor (I later found the culprit as well).

On the way home we somehow stumbled across the Donghuamen Night Market, the place one goes to eat fried sea urchin, scorpions, starfish and other yummies on a stick. Though it was not night, the market lived up to its reputation. It was loud and bustling with many tourists and courageous ones at that...I mean I always thought scorpions where poisonous. Needless to say I only went near to snap a photo (sorry to let anyone down). Right outside the market was a more modern mall called Oriental plaza which was swarming in Olympic paraphernalia, please send all orders to my email, I charge a 25% service fee.

Part 1: Sights and Sounds: Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City

In an effort to catch-up on the past few weeks I am taking a two-blog approach. Welcome to Part 1: Sights and Sounds where I will take you on a roller coaster ride of the famous touristic sights of Beijing. You see, while I was not blogging I was busy working, making new friends, learning to tell the taxi driver how to get me home and most importantly for these purposes--seeing more of Beijing.

It was not difficult to decide where to go first, I met my friend in the center of Beijing to see immense Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City....along with thousands of other people who were doing the same. This brings me to a common theme on doing anything in Beijing, despite how creative I think I am or how many restaurants this city boasts there are bound to be tons of other people around going through the same motions in a different language.

Beijing is as flat as a pancake, with maybe a couple little blueberries or chocolate chips depending on your preference. Tiananment Square is a massive area with some impressive monuments with great meaning that I cannot do justice to. I made a mental note to arrive at all other tourist destinations much earlier in the morning to perhaps see them with less obstacles. There was a huge line twisting and turning through the square to see Mao embalmed, we passed and took pictures under his huge face instead.

After soaking in the square we made our way over to the Forbidden City which is right beside the square (hence doing them at one time). This was my first time at a tourist destination and my first time being a major target for people wanting to sell things, I don't think it helped that I was with a very tall blond gal either (sorry J :)). The Forbidden City is an ancient city within a city. There are numerous palaces, courtyards, bridges and on and on. In preparation for the Olympics, alot of the city was covered for one reason or another, but of the parts that I could see I'm sure it would have made a great home.

One of the highlights of the day (do not judge me) was a hamburger with 'American characteristics' (yes I am quoting from the menu) found at 'Grandma's Kitchen'. We found this hidden gem while looking for another restaurant. Since then I've visited one more 'Grandma's Kitchen' sight across the street from my hotel for more 'American characteristics' and a can of Canada Dry ginger ale.

Russian Park and Friends of Friends

On Sunday morning with my 'Beginners Chinese' book in tow I head off to Ritan Park for some coffee, exploring and as I was to soon find out...Russian. Ritan park, according to my 'Frommer's guide to Beijing' is a small park which is home to Stone Boat Bar, the writer's favorite place for a Sunday afternoon coffee and a game of Scrabble. I had the resources for Solitaire but not Scrabble so a coffee it would be.

Ritan park is quite small, easily walked around in less than an hour. Though it was cold outside my Patagonia puffy parka didn't let it get to me and I strolled around to take some pics of the place...I even stood on my first emperor's altar.

The Stone Boat Bar was much quieter than I expected with only a European family to boot (not sure 'to boot' is appropriate here but I have always wanted to use the term.) Anyways, they were speaking Russian and English and Chinese. The little boy had a crush on me as most do and so I gave him a few 'Ni Haos.' After coffee I headed out to find the 'Ritan Office Building.' Do not be deceived, this is not place for excel and PowerPoint but 70 humble shops where my best friends Diane Von Fustenberg and Marc Jacobs are supposed to cram the racks (cut tags = good, in-tact tag = shady.) Though I had not intention of shopping just yet (seriously) I was eager to see what all the hype was about.

I had seen a large building (actually not an uncommon site in this City...but anyways) with weird fashion adds including lots of fur and gold details. As I entered the building it became clear that I was getting as close to the Kremlin as I have ever been. I had just entered a Russian shopping experience that I wish on no one. Fur, heavily decorated denim, heavy cologne, more fur and lingerie---I mean who could ask for more!? If that wasn't enough the horror film-esque layout consisted of 7 floors of narrow hallways with little Versace wannabe stores, a million Russian mannequins and curtains hiding the 'treasures' behind. To be quite honest I didn't enter any of the curtains because I don't believe in going into fitting rooms without anything to try on.

Ok so that was not the Ritan Office Building, a quick escape and brisk walk later I saw a much more modest three story building tucked beside 'Schindler's something or other' German restaurant (mental note to go there when I need a beer badly). It may have just been an off day but it was more of a Karen Kane scene so somewhat relieved (that I didn't have to have my first bargaining session) and somewhat disappointed (that Diane and Marc did not come to the party) I took my leave.

Later that night I met a friend of a friend...there is nothing better than 'friends of friends' in new places. Particularly if they have good taste and very nice friends (or friends of friends of friends). I joined a lovely group of people at by far the most chic place I have been to yet in Beijing. On the 7the floor (I'm not sure why everything has 7 floors, I thought 8 was the lucky number) of 'Shin Kong Place', a fantastic very upscale mall close by to my digs, we had Taiwanese dumplings. Taiwanese dumplings are similar to dim sum but eaten in large quantities at dinner time. On a good note they were delicious and on another note that I am coming to terms with, it will be very difficult for me to avoid pork (China's favorite meat) in the next six months. I'm definitely going to have to have a pep-talk with my vegetarian brother before his visit. Dumplings were followed by fresh orange juice and red bean dumplings for dessert. Cheers to my friend of a friend.

Ummmmm..Forbidden City or Walmart Superstore?

Wal-Mart Superstore it is! Ok I know what you're thinking but I gotta take it slow and my friend at the front desk said it's a 10 minute walk, precisely two lefts and a right before super human bridge over freeway-like 'city street' to my destination. So off I went, money belt and all.

Call me ignorant but I never thought that tall buildings that in my part of the world are either apartments or offices could house stores. But that's the way it is here. After a Pizza Hut and KFC I found my Wal-Mart Superstore--Beijing style. Oh but wait...I manage to get lost anyways. I walked into the store under the Wal-Mart sign and after going up 7 sets of escalators I thought to myself that there is NO way Wal-Mart could be so different here. As I took the elevator down to save time the purple hat-ed yellow jacket-ed (I mean is that really necessary? It's humiliating) woman could not tell me were I could find Wal-Mart. She did keep on repeating something in Chinese though and on a side-note I have decided to carry a notepad around with me to write down these common phrases that the nice people use to try and communicate with me so I can look them up later. But I digress, the front door guy signaled that Wal-Mart was around back with his white Mickey Mouse gloves.

Around the corner I attempted for the second time to find Wal-Mart...I saw a doorway covered with a blanket one uses to wrap up household goods before moving them below a Wal-Mart sign with people coming in and out but was not convinced that could actually be the customer entrance...I mean do I really have to have that brush my arms, coat, hair!? So around one more corner I went until I realized that yes, it was blanket time. After dealing with the blanket I entered a little platform with lockers and people selling Wal-Mart credit cards---what I had come for was down an escalator and in he largest basement I have ever seen.

Now as a student of Industrial and Labor Relations I was somewhat eager to 'study' the labor practices in a China Wal-Mart of all places...need I say more?

Anyways, I puttered around a little with my grocery list. As expected, everything was in Chinese and I basically choose products that resembled those I am familiar with assuming consumer goods coloring is a universal language??? Little did I know that I was purchasing green tea toothpaste--argh. Overall the trip was successful, I was able to cook in my little kitchen tonight and now I feel better that I'm not going to starve but still have a good chance of becoming a skinny b#%(&.

Beida and Beijing

Today marked my first full day in Beijing and I had arranged an appointment with what I was soon to find out is the sweetest professor ever that my advisor (the coolest professor ever) at Cornell put me in contact with. It turns out she was his Masters student as well and now taught at the business school at the 'Peking University' known here as 'Beida' (for the Arabic speaker I know it sounds like 'white' which I guess I am and it is very apparent especially here!).

I took a cab to Beida strategically at 10:30 (to avoid the unavoidable traffic) and the first song I hear in Beijing is "I'm gonna write you a loff song!!!!" can you believe it! (sorry inside joke). In true me style I arrived extremely early but better safe than sorry. I mean I was meeting a total stranger in a totally strange place. It was pretty confusing to find where I was supposed to meet Jian, the professor, she said the second eastern gate of Beida and let me tell you that these are not your 'traditional' gates but more little streets of a huge street. So after a couple false attempts at withdrawing money at "China Construction Bank" (the bank that has a relationship with Bank of America and therefore no fee), I waited around what I thought was the '2nd eastern gate'. Noon, our meeting time, finally rolls around and I am beginning to doubt my '2nd gate'. So I head further south and low and behold another 'gate' that looked more convincing. Jian, the cutest and sweetest professor ever, was there waiting for me. Phew. Oh yes, I did not mention that the grande latte (which UNFORTUNATELY is NOT 'cheap' in China) made me long for a ladies room, of which there weren't any around! I guess my China awful bathroom encounter will have to wait.

Jian took me to a well-known restaurant called 'South Beauty' very close to campus. She is in her early to mid thirties, has a three year old who is probably cute as a button just like her and a husband that works at Microsoft research! He got his PhD as well at Cornell as well in CS. Anyways, I was about to have my first Chinese meal...which of course could not be complete without a fish head. Stop laughing.

Jian ordered, I used the line I had practiced " I am happy to TRY anything" and then food began come. After an do-able spicy chicken bowl and a mayonnaise salad (burp) came the live fish in a plastic bag for our 'approval'. No joke, talk about 'fresh.' It is a fish which is known for 'good fortune' because it is shaped as the old currency used to be shaped (heart like). The fish was then prepared in two ways. It's severed head (the 'good' part) was deep fried and then the rest of the body chopped up and put in a soupy concoction, skin and all (blah). Mind you I was eating all of this! Ok so nibbling. After this came a green bean tofu...it is cooked with some special stone from southern china and then left to cool to become jelly like. Then you flavor it sweet or savory, Jian suggested i try both, lucky me. Ok so more nibbling and lunch was over. I was super thankful to her but felt awful because my bowls and plates and more bowls were by no means empty. Oh well, 'A' for effort.

After this Jian walked me around the University which is the 'Harvard' of China, across the street was Tichuan U which is the MIT of China. The old buildings and ponds etc were very pretty (pics below) and I am told that in no time they will be blooming everywhere which must be nice. Many other attractions are on that side of town called the 'Haidan District' like the summer palace but I thought I should beat the AWFUL traffic (Hotlanta has NOTHING on this place) and got a cab home. Oh, one more thing, Jian was sooo nice she brought me a gift that is given around Chinese new years of a necklace that is a red carved wood thing with some prosperity saying on it. I put it on right away :) I love bling.

When I got back to the hotel I had plans to attend some little event in the lobby at 5 hoping to hear some English. I didn't mention this but in Haidan and everywhere not ONE western face or any English! But my new bosses admin, and I were emailing me and she invited me to the office for a tour. So I walked the 30 seconds it takes to get to work (30 seconds!) and up the elevator I went. The floor is crammed,warm and clammy like my palms sometimes. The cubes are more like desks with partitions that go up to one's neck at most reminding me of my intern days on the executive floor. My bosses admin in a mini-skirt and loose curls, was excited to see me, I swear the first thing she said is "shall I tell you where to go shopping? " so funny I mean is it that obvious? She's prob a year or two older than me and has pens with stars and feather on the end of them. Alot of the women have little fish bowls on their desk with fishes in them and there's lots of little toy type trinkets. She introduced me to a couple women in HR, all around early to mid thirties. The office is pretty quite for having a billion people. Oh, good news, my desk is quite large on the other side of the floor in a different department (only thirty steps away though past the telemarketers...yes there are telemarketers on the floor who are really crammed). And there's a nice guy that sits in front of me, about 90 inches from my face is his. I said something like "well nice to meet you, I guess we'll be looking at each other for the next 6 months." Haha, I'm funny. So after that, I came back to my hotel, that event was pretty silly, just more weird food (sweets) and a few young families but not many people at all... Not so bad for day one and even a 'Happy Friday' if I may say.