Right now China is celebrating National Week, the National Holiday, National Day, ya ya ya. This means a lovely week break for everyone from life. Way neato. Especially since it happens in October, so almost immediately after school starts. Its nice.
On Friday morning myself and three of the G kids left for Beijing. We took a train. It was really quite a pleasant journey, for being ten hours sitting in the same seat. We had two rows of seats and could spin the front row around so both were facing each other (like Southwest exit rows) and played a lot of cards. And during the last two hours a nearby Chinese student struck up a conversation which was neat because he got to practice his English and us our Chinese. During the conversation he took a moment to text his friends and say something along the lines of, "I just made four foreign friends, envy me." Making Foreign Friend is a big accomplishment in China, especially anywhere outside of Shanghai, being a much more cosmopolitan city and we are more common. But since this was National Week, Beijing was full of people from more rural and less Western accustomed people. Making Foreign Friend was huge. And I was even more popular, being tall, blonde, blue eyed, so foreign, but knowing some Chinese. At popular tourist destinations, I am a celebrity, definately the most photographed one, say, Britney Spears? During my stay in Beijing I got really good at the conversation,
Chinese: Excuse me, where are you from?
Me: Wo shi mei guo ren.
Chinese: (oh my mao the girl speaks chinese!!! says something really fast then asks for me picture)
or they would just make a camera gesture, I would oblige and then they would say xie xie, to which I would respond bu ke qi, and they would then do the really fast something in Chinese.
Unlike many other places, where natives assume that a foreigner who knows a few words really only knows a few words, the Chinese assume that any foreigner who knows any Chinese KNOWS CHINESE. I think it has to do with the fact that for so long the Chinese language was kept under strict wraps. It was illegal for a foreigner to learn the language until the late nineteenth century, and I think that China still sees there language as a complete item, not something that can be separated, simple words cannot be set free about the world, one either knows the language or not.
So we arrived in Beijing, and I had another one of those tricky mind trick experiences done by the government. The idea is to make China as beautiful and appealing as possible from the get go. Upon exiting the train, a passenger is escorted into massive and beautiful marble hallways, vacant, whispers echoing of the walls, my oh my is it poetic. There is no evidence of this rumored over populated China, throngs of people nonsense. Its lovely. I had the same experience getting of the plane in Shanghai. I was really shocked. Its not under things need to happen that China reveals itself. We needed a taxi to get to our hotel. Okay. The signs of the station serenade us to the taxi stand, where we are met by no fewer than ten hundred thousand screaming, pushing, suitcase bearing megaChinese all fighting for the same three cabs. It was messy. Survivable, but messy. Especially noteworthy not because of the unwanted heads in my armpits, but because of the beautiful juxtaposition. Yeah.
Anyway, we get to the hotel safely, check in sans passports. (Which opened up a bureaucratic nightmare, to be detailed at a later date.) Then we ate McDonalds. It was late, we were hungry, it was close, and I had Chicken McNuggets. (I have eaten a better bird to be honest)
Lets talk Cuisine.
We started off (after the arches) going the traditional Chinese food route. Then we all got sick. My theory is that the food we eat is cleaner, less oily, Shanghaiese, subtler, and for me meat free. I decided to complete ditch being a vegetarian while in Beijing. Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea. The four of us were a real life Pepto Bismal commercial. Which is cool, in a not so cool not even a little bit kind of way. We perservered however, and ate at more touristy spots the rest of the trip. (Trying bai guo the second night didn't help either, but when in rome) Fortunately, touristy spots included the amazing delicious eat the flesh off your fingers in case there is some remaining flavor good Quanjude Peking duck restaurant. The famous one. Georgie ate there. We ate duck No. 115,708,630. We went back for a second meal there on National Day Eve, expecting a small crowd and were turned away at 7:30 because there were about 200 people camped out waiting.
Also on National Day, the Bird's Nest opened to the public. It was our last day in Beijing, and we really wanted to see the stadium, so we decided to brave the crowds and give it a shot. One expensive cab ride later, (actually only 15 US, but still) and we were thrown into the crowd. So unfortunately we didn't get closer that a hundred meters, but I can say that it is breaktaking, though looks more real on TV. In real life it looks like something from a cartoon or lightyears away in space. Just sayin'.
Beijing also brought us Tianamen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, The Great Wall, Ming Tombs. We saw how jade and ancient Qing dynasty pottery was made. I bought a beautiful jade bracelet. It rocks and is very Chinese and will give me super powers.
To be continued. I am sick.
