I just finished my first day in Beijing. Still sleepy, we decided to take it easy. After waking up to Chinese luncht that Cece's mother made, we headed out to see the neighborhood.
Cece's apartment is very well-located on the border of the downtown/inner city, the business district, embassy district and the bar district. Just up the block from her building is a huge shopping mall called Raffles city. It's pretty American style and has many American stores as well as H&M. One thing I haven't seen much at American malls is wigs:
The escalators here are worth noting. To save power, while no one is using them, they go very slow. Once one person steps on them, they start going faster. Pretty cool!
Next we went to the Street of Ghosts, North of the Inner City. Back when Beijing was restricted to just the walls of the Inner City, this was the street through which all the city's dead people were taken out to the cemetery. Now it has a bunch of restaurants. There is also an enormous amount of crayfish.
There are mini alleys coming off of this street, between the various restaurants. These alleys lead to older-style homes in which people live.
We got our nails done on this street and ended up recreating Christmas:
(Of course, I'm the green nails and the one hand because the other one was holding the camera.)
While getting our nails done, I started falling asleep, so we walked back and I took a nap, or rather collapsed like a brick, before dinner.
For dinner, Cece and I went back to the Street of Ghosts to a place called Dong Xing. It was founded in 1902 and is one of the major eight restaurants in Beijing specializing in food from the Shan D
ong region of China.
We ordered Peking Duck, vegetables, lotus roots, and chicken with walnuts. It took me a while before I realized that some of the super crispy chicken that I was eating was actually walnuts.
Lotus roots: try separating these with chop sticks! I made a mess.
Duck. I've never seen such thick and greasy duck skin before!
Instead of serving water at restaurants, they serve boiling water. I think this is pretty cool, because sometimes ice cold water just doesn't feel good in your stomach. Also, I suspect that this is a way of guaranteeing that the water is clean.
Several people have advised me to never drink tap water here and to always check the seals on bottles. Thank you! I also stocked up on Imodium tablets just in case and am taking probiotics daily the whole time that I'm here. So far, no problems (knock on wood!).
Food is served super family-style. Lots of different dishes are placed in the center of the table. The diners get small individual plates, but everyone mostly eats straight out of the big platters. Talk about double dipping!
The shores are lined with tourist-trappy shops and entertainment, although many locals come here too. Everything is lit up with colorful electric lights. finally I saw more than one other white person here.
Until now, I saw only one or two Westerners besides myself and a huge Russian family at the restaurant. That region is near the embassies, and even though I was a complete minority, everyone spoke Chinese to me as though I should know it. Cece explained that this is because the people think that I am probably from one of the embassies.
I thought I smelled something ... This is an interior decoration at a pretty nice restaurant.
Thought this was funny. The place also had Italian pizza. I guess if I'm hungry fro Western food, I'll survive.
Before going back, I got myself a Chinese dress: a Qi Pao. Now I can mingle with the locals and not look like a tourist, right?
Today we will see the Forbidden City and hopefully a few more areas. If we don't fall asleep while walking again, I really hope to also see some of the urban Beijing nightlife!
Cheers,
Nina.
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