December 19 2013 Beijing

Hi All –

Today, we moved from our little haven in the Goulau Hutong — modest, in a working neighborhood filled with street activity — to the lap of luxury on Beijing’s main drag (about 8 lanes in each direction). It’s the boulevard that terminates in Tiananmen Square — Raffles Hotel. We arrived by taxi at around noon and were greeted by about 8 staff representatives — each ready at our beck and call. Our room was not ready yet (promised for 2 pm, so we had two hours to go). We dropped off our bags and strolled down the “street”… after listening to a pitch for us to join the Raffles Club which would give us free breakfast each morning, high tea, and happy hour in the lounge, upgrade our room, etc. Initially we refused, but once we went outside for a walk, we realized that given the vast distances we probably would need to have breakfast at the hotel anyway, so it actually made sense to do this.. It also enabled us to check in early which Mike wanted since he was headed to Tsinghua University to give a lecture and needed a little time to prepare (by playing Scrabble on his iPhone).

Anyway, Raffles is located just beside the Forbidden City on the ‘Street of Eternal Peace.’ The building is from the early 1900’s, and has an iconic French-Oriental colonnade façade. It’s very close to the Wangfujing metro stop (although I think we are probably the only guests using public transit, based on how many private black cars are lined up in the front waiting for people. It’s about a 15 minute walk (four blocks!.. very long blocks) from Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, and Bei Hai Park.

Mike got himself together and took off (by taxi) to the University (took an hour in traffic) and I strolled through the park and into a neighborhood where working people live literally in the shadow of these giant buildings and luxurious hotels.

I stopped into a pharmacy (although it may have been some kind of herbal pharmacy) because my throat had been bothering me. Again about five people surrounded me to help with my problem. I fake coughed a bit and pointed to my throat, pantomimed drinking and they popped up with what I believe is cough syrup. But to be certain they quickly took out a little iPhone-like device where I typed in my symptoms in English and they translated it to Chinese and confirmed the syrup solution. They also recommended some kind of lozenge but it turned out to be jelly-like and sweet. Everyone in the shop seemed very happy to have helped me and I photographed them all, which they also seemed to enjoy.

I got back to the hotel where we actually have flat screen TV with multiple channels. In the Hutong hotel we had only one channel with very bad reception and it was naturally in Chinese. Mike arrived back at the hotel an hour or so later. Seems like his talk went well, although he got the distinct sense that the Vice Chancellor for International Studies (he’s not sure of her title) was a little disturbed by his criticisms of the US — his data about wealth and poverty and the impact on housing. Apparently students had planned to take him to dinner but he declined.

At 8:30 we took off for the Temple Restaurant Beijing (TRB with a very classy logo). We had read about it in the NY Times and thought this was a fitting match for the hotel and also a change from the little neighborhood jaunts we had been frequenting since we arrived. We thought we could walk, but after Googling the location we realized that it was a pretty complicated walk and much further away than we anticipated, so we took a taxi. Taxis are very cheap.. but many don’t really know their way around town, especially to out of the way places. I think Chinese who use taxis must give directions and most foreigners go to the usual places. The hotel offered to send us to the restaurant in their black car but we opted for a regular taxi.

TRB is located at the end of a very very narrow hutong and is within a 600-year-rold compound that was a Buddhist temple and monastery. During Mao’s period, the complex was turned into a television factory.. Within some areas there are remains of slogans from the Cultural Revolution… amid the ancient halls of worship. In 2008 I believe private money paid for an incredible renovation that attempted to preserve the many layers of history and kept as much as possible of the original structures.

The space is incredible with floor to ceiling glass everywhere in the dining areas and soaring ceilings.. all very dimly lit. I think there are about two servers for every guest. We actually chose the restaurant for its setting and didn’t even realize that it was a European menu and turns out to be owned by Gary Danko (or maybe he’s an investor).. We ordered two appetizers and two main courses.. I had a mushroom risotto and short ribs (actually just one rib) and Mike ordered a beet and gorgonzola appetizer and the lamb for main course. But the dinner was preceded by a host of other little “bites” and throughout the meal little dishes appeared.. like teeny cheese puffs and gravlax canapés (all very tiny).. and later lobster mousse with mint.. etc. At the end, we ordered one perfect tiramisu but alongside they brought a complementary chocolate mousse.. (wouldn’t have ordered the other had we known).. Every dish was exquisite looking and tasting.

The restaurant called a taxi for us, but true to form the driver didn’t know where the hotel was.. but we showed it on our trusty devices and made it back “home.”

Tomorrow we are heading to the Great Wall.. Ever the two people who hate tours and tour groups, we’re going by taxi (I said it was cheap).. It’s a two hour drive (since we are going to one of the viewing areas less frequented by tour groups) each way and the taxi will wait for us.. It will cost the equivalent of $100 for the six hours. And tonight we’ve settled on a family-run Chinese restaurant not too far from the hotel.

Because we decided that TRB’s setting was too good to not see during daylight hours we are going back for brunch on Mike’s birthday! We did take a little self-guided tour of the grounds but it was dark and required peering into windows, so a second visit should be fun. Also on our bucket list is the Forbidden City (on Saturday), some markets, and hopefully the new “art district”… We’ll see if we can really accomplish all of this.

That’s it for me.

Happy December 19th to you and happy December 20th to us.

Fern

P.S. Mike says I let out the fact that the boulevards are lined with very large “look at me” buildings block after block after block.. showing off the corporations they represent. We both said “ugh”…