Day two of the trip was I would say more successful than day one, but still had some problems.
The day started out swell. We woke up late morning (10/11am - I can't remember for sure) and proceeded to go out. Remember we had put off seeing the Forbidden City and Tian'amen Square till the next day due to various interruptions during day one. After getting outside, we noticed that the sky was darker than normal, and the weather very cool with a strong wind. We decided we'd go get some food since we were both hungry and then proceed to our sight seeing destinations which I mentioned above.
Stoerm wanted to eat some Beijing Duck at this place that was listed in a book that was supposed to cook it in a healthier way. We got in a taxi and took off somewhere. When we got out we were unable to find it. We were in another one of these touristy streets and was again approached by people pretending to be very friendly only to want to sell us this time DVDs. After telling them what we wanted they offered to show us where it was, so we followed them. After a short walk, we were shown to the place that wasn't where we wanted to go. Out of frustration we started asking people on the side of the street and after a few tries was still out of luck. We decided we'd walk back down the street since the Taxi driver said it was down here, and I trust the taxi driver more than these people. We had to cross the road again and we saw a "Ma moo" (spelling?) which is basically a bike that has a small cabin built on the back to seat one or two people. They spoke to each other and finally decided they knew where it was.
The driver wanted 20 kuai to take us to this place, which is kind of a lot. We tried to talk him down, but he knew that we wouldn't be able to get there, and we knew he knew that, so it was either pay up or move on. We decided to go ahead and go - so we climbed in, I pulled out my camera and shot a video of the ride (haven't watched it yet) and we finally arrived. It was in an area of Beijing that is like the old town. They are rapidly tearing these old places down and building more modern areas. They're called hutongs if I spelled that right. Turns out it wasn't the place that we wanted to eat, but Stoerm had heard about this place before and had always wanted to try it, so we did.
Beijing duck if you don't know, is a whole duck that is cooked in a way that the fat drips down and binds with the meat. They carve it in front of you after it's cooked on to a plate. It's not a lot of meat. They give you these very thin tortilla type of things, some plum sauce and some green scallions. You basically make a little taco with it... I don't really like duck, but this is pretty good. The fat is cooked in a way where it basically melts in your mouth, literally. All in all, I enjoyed it.
After eating, we went outside and it was beginning to rain. A beggar or homeless type of person came up to us on her bike and sold us some umbrellas. They were probably used or something, and we talked her down on the price, but they were very helpful although not that great of an umbrella. By this time it was really raining hard, and even with the umbrella we were still getting soaked. We decided we'd hang out in the mall since we didn't really get to explore it due to that scam we went through the day before. Oddly enough, as we were walking in, we saw those same two girls with other foreigners doing the same thing. We proceeded past them and began to explore... What we were really looking for was the Starbucks. We looked at the map and found it and proceeded to what I'll call the 'Food Court' - which was kind of designed like a street, almost something like you'd see in Vegas.
After waiting for awhile, I discovered a Scandinavian coffee bar called 'Ciao' so we got some coffee's there and proceeded to the Orange Julius which was actually a DQ. After finishing the coffees I had to have an Orange Julius so I ordered two of the plane 'ol original ones and we sat, drank them, and played cards while talking about different cultural things and my thoughts on globalization and how China seems to be loosing it's unique culture whilst becoming more westernized. It was a grand time, and something that I will remember for years to come. Even though it was so subtle and insignificant in the grand scheme of the trip, it's one of the finer moments.
Time had crept up us, because we wanted to go to this tea house that has a variety show every night. Time was running short - we hustled out of there and came home (the hotel) to fix up, relax a little bit, and then we headed off in a taxi.
The tea house was great looking - very beautiful. According to the information inside, Tea houses used to be illegal. The Mao'ist government felt they were counter revolutionary cultural influence. This particular tea house was apparently the first one to reopen back in 1988 after China opened itself to the rest of the world. You really have to watch yourself because as soon as they saw that we were foreigners she tried to sit us in the expensive front row seats, and we told her we wanted somewhere in the back where it was cheaper. I don't think these kind of activities are exclusive to China though... Again, Patrick has probably experienced similar things in other countries.
The show was interesting - started off with some Folk music played by a band, then some gongfu/Beijing opera acting, then these chicks who sang while holding candle holders with lit candles in their mouth and balancing plates on their hands. Next up was something they called "Clever Talk", which were basically a poetry comedy routine. They were really good... Next was "Beautiful Girls" who sang a song. They really were beautiful. Then a hand shadow performance that was really cool. They did amazing things. Then a magician, who wasn't very good. Then a Kung Fu show who were really cool. Then an Acrobatics show where girls spun plates on sticks (3 in each hand) while doing various acrobatic things. Finally there was a Shaolin (spelling?) Opera show which was interesting. These are the guys that act different characters by changing masks. The tea was good, the food they gave us was not good.
What was more interesting was that a group of Americans sat at our table, and it turns out their on a cultural exchange to go to Mongolia for 3 months. They're attending the University of Pittsburgh (I think), so this was rather intriguing to the both of us.
After the show we came home, relaxed at home, and felt hungry again so we ate at this restaurant across the street from our Hotel. The people were really nice, the food was great, and the atmosphere was good also. One thing of interest though was that the Chinese menu and the English language menu had different prices on it. The English menu having more expensive prices... Another thing to watch out for I guess - they were cool with us and gave us the lower prices though. Probably because we were friendly with them, and attempting to speak to them in Chinese. After our meal we sat at the table next to us and played some more cards. After that we came home and went to sleep.
Thus that concludes Day 2... I'm at the end of Day 3 already, but I'm too tired to type that up, so you'll have to wait! :)
Take care!
