Navigating Hutongs

While it isn't a typical tourist spot Mom and I (after careful research by Fi) decided to take a cooking class in the middle of a hutong in Beijing. The first challenge was finding the kitchen. After what seemed like a 7 hour long cab ride we arrived at the edge of the hutongs (taxis are too large to fit down the narrow streets). From there we were on our own. Somehow I managed to get us to the kitchen safely and early!

In our class at the Black Sesame Kitchen we learned how to cook homestyle dumplings. Not only did we learn how to prepare a vegetarian dumpling we also learned how to make a pork and pumpkin one. The recipes were delicious and we had a blast meeting new people and learning traditional Northern Chinese cooking techniques.

Not only did I learn how to cut with a cleaver, I also learned what "raw" tofu looks like, how to correctly fold a dumpling, and the difference between light and dark soy sauce. Fi and I both faced different challenges  throughout the class. I was horrible at making the dumpling dough while Fi excelled, and I mastered the dumpling fold while most of Fis looked like curly-Qs.

Bad dough

Good dough

Filling process

What one is mine, what one is Fi's? 

 

After a lot of dumpling eating we tackled the crowds of the very narrow hutongs. Not only did we have to battle the crowds, but we also had to avoid getting stuck with skewers that locals ate street food off of. We did a little shopping and then caught a cab back to the hotel.

The finished product!

They were all wearing horns...

Flower tea 

   

Apparently they sell SWAT outfits

Even the cab rides are entertaining in Beijing. Once you get the driver to understand where you need to be driven you then get to enjoy all the crazy sites of the city. Today that included seeing a child poop in the street. I kid you not. The pollution at this point had also gotten the better of both of us. My throat and nose were both extremely sore and itchy!

Back at the hotel for the night it was more western food for us (this time Pizza Hut) and some relaxation time which involved a nice shower and the same English speaking HBO movies I had seen in Thailand.

The experience so far has been fantastic. It is a little overwhelming being in a city where you are the minority by a long shot (even more so than what i've experienced in HK), but most people are willing to help. Our concierge, Stanley, tonight was fantastic!

Best part of my day!

 

How do you say "help" in Mandarin?

Today was nothing less than eventful. Beijing is definitely the tourism capital of China from what I can gather and lucky for us we chose to travel during a public holiday. Yipee! That meant larger crowds and more people to stare at the out of place Westerners.

After a series of early morning the opportunity to sleep-in until 7:00am was a treat! We met our tour-bus driver and headed out to pick up all the other people who would be apart of our "team" for the day. Leo our tour-guide was great and the day was full of excitement.

Our schedule for the day:

1. Tiananmen Square/ Forbidden City
2. Silk Factory
3. Temple of Heaven
4. Lunch
5. Pearl Factory
6. Summer Palace

Our group for the day was an interesting mix. 8/11 spoke Spanish and ignored the 3 of us who were English speakers. The most entertaining group member by far however was the lady I call Bimbo. The first question out of her mouth before we started our two hour walk through the Forbidden City was how do you say help in Mandarin? She clearly knew something we didn't and halfway through the tour we found out that she is prone to getting lost. She got lost within the first hour. Losing a member of our "team" didn't stop our tour however. Leo had warned everyone that if they got lost he'd see us tomorrow because there was no chance of finding one lost Westerner in a crowd of thousands.

Matchy Matchy tour groups

Leo was not kidding! The city was jam packed with people (mostly Domestic Chinese tourists). We became an attraction ourselves as people approached us and asked to have our picture taken with them. The forbidden city was huge and I learned a lot!

Leo- Our tour guide

For starters I learned about the Chinese architecture and the reason the majority of ancient Chinese buildings were made from wood. Because China is in an area prone to earthquakes buildings were constructed from wood to increase the likelihood they would withstand an earthquake. I also learned about how the emperors used to heat/cool these gigantic buildings. In the winter time, giant blocks of ice were taken from the rivers and stored deep below the ground. Once summer hit, the giant ice blocks would be brought up from the cellar and placed in the Emperors room and slaves would then fan the ice to project cool air towards the Emperor. Very early methods of A/C. Heating was a little bit of a simpler process and giant tunnels beneath the buildings were heated by fire and the heat then projected up through the floors of buildings.

11 Roof Guardians

Not only did I learn a lot about ancient culture, but it was also interesting to observe locals of today. They were as fascinating to us as we were to them.

funny hats that everyone was wearing

Observations:

1. I saw a family snacking on full sized cucumbers- definitely different to the bag of potato chips or candy bar a Westerner would munch on.

2. Babies often do not wear diapers but instead have slits in their pants (for obvious reasons). This supposedly decreases the potty training time.

We were also lucky enough to come to the city on the same day a diplomat was there. This made for some great pictures as guards roped off whole areas in order to make a clear path for this VIP.

Reaching the end of the city we finally found my favorite Bimbo who had somehow figured out how to get help from Chinese police officers. She was completely ridiculous about the whole situation, and had no problem posing with the officers that "rescued" her. 

Next stop on our tour was to a silk factory which as expected was a huge tourist trap. Some people shopped for what seemed like hours but Mom and I put our feet up and got a cold coke instead. After the factory we headed to the Temple of Heaven which is located in one of the most popular parks in the city for locals. The Temple of Heaven is also the building that Disney mocked in EPCOT! 

Locals enjoying an ice cream in the park

After a disgusting lunch. I ate rice and sipped some coke (Fi couldn't even really handle that much) we were driven to a pearl factory. This again was another tourist trap but one much more appealing to Mom and I. We got to watch an oyster get opened and each received a souvenir pearl and then we went upstairs and made a few other purchases too!

The summer palace was the last stop on our tour. The day had been long but the last stop was definitely worth the wait. The summer palace which is not actually a palace at all and in Mandarin the original name is actually Garden of Harmony was gorgeous. There was a giant lake in the center of the gardens which we rode across on a dragon boat.

Longest undercover walkway with gorgeous paintings, constructed for the Empress

After a long day we arrived back at the hotel and gave into western food-McDonalds. I'm pretty sure I will not touch another McDonalds for years after my stint in Asia.

Troubles of a Tired Traveler

It happened. I made a mistake while we were traveling. Granted I've been in Hong Kong for five months and traveled to four other countries before I made my first big mistake, but it wasn't too fun especially while playing tour guide for Mom.

We had an early flight out to Beijing from Shanghai so that meant waking up at 5am again and getting an hour long taxi ride to Pudong airport. After paying our cab driver and going inside to check in I looked at the departure board for our flight. Nothing. Couldn't see it. Maybe our flight number changed? Doubt it.

A lady at an information counter helped us and informed me politely than I'm a moron. I had gotten us successfully to the WRONG airport. With a little less than an hour and a half before our flight we rushed out of the airport and headed 45 minutes across town to the other airport in Shanghai.

Luckily we made the flight and arrived safely in Beijing 3 hours later. After sitting in traffic for over an hour we made it to the Beijing Doubletree Hotel (thanks for the Hilton points Dad!) and took a breather after a very stressful morning.

Highlights of the hotel included:

1. A warm American chocolate chip cookie upon check in
2. A big squishy King bed
3. A very clean bathroom with a rain-head shower

After settling in we decided to venture out into the city.

Initial impressions of Beijing:

1. There is a lot of traffic
2. The news has not exaggerated the amount of pollution
3. English speaking locals are a rarity- you have to be prepared with Mandarin written out for all cabs.
4. Its unusual to see other Westerners here (I thought HK was bad)
5. The number of people here is insane.

We arrived at Wangfujing Shopping Street which turned out to be a very large mall and a long street of very Western stores. Not exactly what we had in mind but it was still fun to take it all in.

We stumbled across a market that sold some interesting street food and had a lot of different nik-naks for sale. 

The most overwhelming part of our trip out was definitely the number of people in the streets and also the fact that taxis did not want to pick up people. We later found out that this is because there are designated pick-up taxi spots, but the fact that taxis were not picking us up scared Fi a lot and soured our attitudes for the rest of the day. It got to the point where Mom tried to push me into a taxi- not a good idea.

We finally made it back to the hotel and had a very unsatisfactory meal at the restaurant. The apple juices we ordered also cost us an outrageous amount of $7 dollars each! The rest of our night was spent relaxing, watching more censored news, and me working on a homework assignment. Tomorrow we would venture out on a guided tour of the city (we feared going at it alone after all the taxi debacles)!

The dreaded taxi...