Conclusion.

I feel obligated to write one last goodbye post to conclude my Beijing adventure.  I believe that travel is not complete without a return. The return itself can be noteworthy because it allows the traveler to see home in a new way -- a way influenced by the adventures had in the foreign land.

Returning from China was certainly an experience for me. First, although I spent less than two weeks in Beijing, I had developed several mindsets that I had to break upon returning to America. And I had to break these very quickly.

The interplay of rules and no rules gave me a taste for bargaining. This is a great skill to have in life, but you should also know when it's appropriate to use. I cannot look at the price tags at American stores anymore without eyeballing the true price (which is usually at most 10% of the tag) and wanting to bargain for it. Furniture shopping was especially difficult and I could not put it off because I really had to get a bed. Clothing is just a whole new level of self control. I can barely accept a $30-tag on a t-shirt when I know I could have payed just a couple dollars for it if I were allowed to bargain Chinese-style. Oh well. I guess more than just the product itself is included in American price tags.

Although shopping has become painful (especially now that I'm living off of a graduate student stipend and pay my own bills), navigating in a city is a piece of cake. Cars stop for pedestrians, most people obey traffic lights, and if you indicate to a car that you want to cross in front of it, the driver will make a horrified face and slam the brakes, instead of smiling and flooring the gas as in Beijing.

I don't get stopped to get photos taken because most people here have seen white people enough to no longer be surprised by them.

There aren't many crowds here, but when I'm in a slightly crowded area, I can expect not to get cut in line, or not to get bumped into without an effusive apology following the encounter.

I'm no longer one of the tallest, so I can wear heels again without feeling like a nail that's sticking out (Chinese saying: "The nail that sticks out gets hammered"). I do get very excited when I hear Chinese or see Chinese people. I want to run over and tell them what an adventure I had and how I appreciate their culture. I also understand where some of the Chinese fashion seen in California is coming now. I've also grown to love harem pants. They are pants but are loose and fashionable -- perfect for hot work days.

I appreciate that I live in a land where I am allowed to write almost whatever I want (such as this blog) and I can take photos of almost anything almost anywhere without people screaming at me and prohibiting photos of even the most mundane objects. Anyone who's seen me probably knows that I point my camera lens anywhere that looks curious or cool. After 10 days in the relatively Western Beijing, I feel free in my country and I appreciate the tenets governing our land even more than I did before.

Food-wise, I do miss good Chinese food. Panda Express just doesn't do it anymore. I've gotten good at chopsticks, so going out to sushi is no longer an intimidating and frightening venture. Sometimes I do miss the eating etiquette of China. It's main principle is "eat your food efficiently" and there are no concerns of who eats first, how to sit, etc. I loved the red bean desserts and the hot water and tea served with meals. I might try asking for hot water instead of iced water next time I go out here. I'd have to make sure it's boiled and not just heated. I'm curious to see the reaction. I also miss the soups that are actually liquid and not creamy.

After coming back, a lot of people would ask me how my trip went. At first I'd be stumped, but quickly I developed a set of answers. First, Beijing came out to be more Western than I had expected. Perhaps this is because it was the first place to be openly exposed to Western culture in the past century. I'm so grateful to Cece for showing me around and being very patient will al of my questions and photos. If I had gone alone, I would have seen the tourist's version and I certainly would not have eaten as well or learned to bargain as well (although if you ask Cece, I suspect she'll secretly tell you that I'm still too naive in bargaining). I'd also bring up the smog with people local to LA. I could look up at the sun without sunglasses and it would look like a lamp. I'd also say what a great time I had with Cece and of course, I'd bring up the Hollister/Abercrombie models.

Thank you for following my blog and thank you for your good wishes and useful advice!

Cheers,
Nina.

Some leftover photos.

Day 8: The Olympic Park!

Saturday was my last day in Beijing and we saved it to see the Olympic Park from the 2008 Summer Olympics. I was waiting for this for a long time and was very excited. I followed those games quite closely and remember all the talk and news about this somewhat controversial construction and the debatable athletic results. 

Before that we had to make a pit stop at Hollister. The store opened at 10am that day. Unfortunately we were too late to see that actual opening at 10. That would have been quite a sight. However, when we got there at 10:30 the line to enter the store was already snaking through the plaza. 

Just as I had to visit a Chinese McDonalds, I also had to visit a Starbucks. The dollar value of the menu was similar to the American one (maybe even a bit more expensive!), which means that in China it is pretty expensive. However, the line was quite long and consisted of Westerners and locals. Like at McDonalds, the menu was considerably smaller but there were some Chinese twists suck as this green tea sesame cookie.

So, now we were ready to see the most modern Beijing.

There were many field trips here.

After posing as cross country skiers I remembered that this was the sight of the Summer games (duh) and so we switched to gymnastics.

It was pretty cool to see this site. I've seen the sites of Calgary, Squaw Valley, Vancouver, Salt Lake City, Munich and Rome but most of these sights left little to feel of the Olympic Spirit. I was in Salt Lake City six months after the Winter games and there was not a trace of the event left in the city. However, Beijing is maintaining the Olympic aura as was evidenced by the intense advertisement and abundance of school trips. 

I was happy to see this site because I've seen it so much on TV that seeing it in person was pretty breathtaking. It was less abstract than the Great Wall of China because the 2008 Games are still fresh in my memory. Anyways, I'm just saying that this was a great sight to see.

Cheers,

Nina.

Day 7: Food, Glorious Food!

Friday was devoted mostly to food. We ate barely anything for breakfast to make room for lunch and that was a very good idea. For lunch Cece's parents took us to a fancy restaurant that specialized in Shanghai food. 

Being a bit Westernized, the place had round tables (instead of traditional rectangular ones) and it served water infuse with floating fruit (at least I think it was fruit). The water tasted like a very mild lemonade:

There were two sets of chopsticks served. I wasn't sure which ones to use for what, but neither did Cece. She said that there is some rule, just like with salad forks, but it is more obscure. 

I've gotten much better at eating with chopsticks. The lima beans were still quite an adventure to eat. Ever since my last trip to REI, I always have this amazing spork hanging off of my backpack on a carabine or tucked away in my main purse: awesome spork. It was a very good backup in China but I am proud to say that I never used it. However with the lima beans, I really wished that I had it with me but this was the one time that did not bring it with me.

The food kept coming. At first, our table was served a tiny bowl of deep-fried fish which looked like orange chicken. After that aperitif, the food just kept coming and coming. I kept taking photos of the tale thinking that all the food had arrived, but just after each photo, another dish wash brought over.

We had delicious prawns. I realized from eating shrimp at home that Cece's parents prepared that I was the only one with shrimp shells left. Everyone else tate the shrimp without cleaning! I decided to try this with the prawns (partially because otherwise I would quickly run out of room on my side plate). Cece explained that all the flavor is in the shell anyways. Well, it was pretty good, but I'm still not quite convinced that this is the most enjoyable way to eat prawns. 

I mentioned earlier that the Chinese do not generally eat from individual plates. Instead everyone eats out of the serving dishes. The only individual pieces are side plates and soup bowls. I noticed that after my first night eating at Cece's house when I was still clumsy with my chopsticks, my place was always set with a full dinner plate and a knife and fork, as well as a pair of chopsticks. Eventually the cutlery disappeared and finally the dinner plate disappeared too. The culmination of my progress happened when Cece's father told me that I got good at chopsticks at the restaurant! 

Bok choy with tofu and fungus (basically a mushroom).

This is Mao Zedong's favorite dish called Hong Shao Rou. Essentially, it is pork belly and is also a specialty of the restaurant.

Underneath the flavorful pork is a layer of tofu. This tofu is very thin like fabric and is tied in big knots as seen below on the left.

My side plate.

We also had chicken. I satisfied my low spice tolerance. However, the red peppers that it was cooked in were way above my level. Cece, nevertheless, munched on the peppers as though nothing was wrong.

At the end of the meal we had watermelon as a palette cleanser.

The restaurant was ont he top floor of a big mall which we went to on the first day (the one with the cool escalators). In the basement of this mall is a food court, much like in American malls. We went grocery shopping there. The shopping carts were very cute:

The shopping carts were a set of two shelves, each of which held a shopping basket.

I nearly got shot for taking this photo of a ton of bao zi. There was screaming in the kitchen, and a spy-looking store manager came out and kept a stern eye on me for quite a while. I pretended as though I didn't notice anything and acting the role of an overexcited tourist, but I did not take any more pictures for fear of losing my Visa or something of the sort.

Later that day, after recovering from a food colma, we went to yet another market called the Qianemen Street market. It is adjacent to Tianamen Square and has existed since the Qing dynasty, Its original name is Da Shi Lan. Unlike the other markets, this one was not internalized into one building and therefore is outdoors and distributed over many buildings. 

One of the biggest silk houses is located here and is called Ruifuxiang. Founded in the 1800's, it sells beautiful Chinese silks and tailors traditional Chinese as well as modern clothing.The prices where can get quite high, even after converting to dollars (the exchange rate at the time was 6 yuan to 1 dollar).

A fusion of Western and Chinese architecture:

This market also had many shops of traditional Chinese medicine. These medications seem to indeed prove effective and are often prescribed by professional Chinese doctors! Here are some photos I snuck. Shhhh.

This is a dried deer penis. Guess what it is prescribed for!

Finally, I insisted on stopping by a pastry shop. Even though I was pretty full, I tried one pastry. It was quite good although I have no idea what was in it. I suspect it was mostly rice. I don't know why I would ever think that.

This was a day full of food and more markets. Real Chinese food turns out to be nothing like Panda Express but is also very delicious. I realize that Cece's parents spared me the spice and I'm afraid that because of me, the family had rather bland food for the entire week. I'm grateful to them because otherwise I'd probably be crying during every meal, seeing how easily Cece ate those peppers and how nonchalantly Cece piles jalapenos on top of her salad at the salad bar in college. 

One day left and then a long flight home to the land where people usually obey traffic lights, photos are barely forbidden, and where orange chicken is taken as Chinese food.

Cheers,

Nina.

Day 6: The Summer Palace

Hello. 

Yesterday we went to the Summer Palace, North of the center of Beijing. Emperor Qian Long built this palace for his mother. She had a very long life which ended 80 years after her birth, and so there are many tributes to longevity found in this palace. She also loved to travel, so the Emperor ordered that this palace be built to imitate different scenic parts of China, similar to Las Vegas, if that analogy can be made.

The first thing one sees upon entering the palace is a canal and a bridge. The canal is lined by buildings with shops. This is a reconstruction of a real street from the city Suzhou of the Jiangsu province. This is often called the Venice of Italy, so I think it is appropriate to name the bridge the Rialto Bridge.

The "sidewalks" are literally sidewalks, only one meter wide (at most) with no railing separating the pedestrians from the water. One our adventurous walk, we came across a snack shop that sold Chinese yogurt.

It was very good. It was liquid enough to drink with a straw and was serves in white ceramic jars. The tops were covered by a piece of paper secured by a rubber band. We pierced the paper with the straw and enjoyed the yogurt. It tasted a lot like sweet buttermilk. After finishing, we returned the ceramic jars to be refilled and covered with new paper tops. Later, I noticed many more food vendors selling this delicious yogurt.

The shop was at most 6 square meters, but the owner nevertheless invited us to sit inside to enjoy the yogurt (and probably also to return the jars to her). Inside was a traditional old-fashioned Chinese restaurant menu:

There seems to be a resemblance.

The idyllic Chinese pastoral scene consists of a body of water and a hill or mountain beside it. Therefore, this canal was created artificially to provide the body of water, and the land removed in its creation was used to provide the mountain beside it.

And it was quite a little mountain. We climbed the other side of this mountain to reach the top of yet another Buddha temple and saw that this little palace was actually its own little world. This side looked out onto a lake which connected to the Venice-like canal. There were many boats one this lake. The view was spectacular. The lake is called Kunming Lake and resembles the lake of Kunming town in another province of China.

The shore of this lake on the side of the mountain is lined by a very long corridor which was burned down during the Opium Wars by the Anglo-French Alliance and rebuilt later in the 1800's. 

The corridor.

Some locals.

The Buddha temple that we climbed to.

During the climb. I no longer look like a newly-minted tourist, right?

The view from the top.

Back by the lake.

In the middle of the lake, Opposite the hill with the temple as a man-made island with a 17-ach bridge connecting a promenade to it. This bridge was featured in the National Geographic recently, I believe.

 The Bridge.

The temple seen from the island.

On the island.

We took a boat back from the island to the hill and exhausted, returned home to a beautiful view from Cece's apartment.

The boat.

The view: sometimes smog can help make very nice sunset photos. 

And dinner that Cece's parents cooked. The potatoes in the back are cooked in vinegar and are a very traditional country dish. They are delicious.

These are my favorite dessert from China so far: red-bean-stuffed pastry. Mmmmm

Cheers,
Nina.