December 20, 2013 in Beijing, China

Nǐ hǎo. December 20, 2013

Woke up this morning to a sunny day here in Beijing: cold, but clear and sunny. Actually we’ve had fairly good weather and less pollution than everyone described. But it’s been cold. High 20s to low 40s.. and the days are short.

We tried the breakfast in the hotel (the one that would have cost $50 each if we didn’t join the “club”).. a huge buffet with a wide range of choices, including Chinese breakfast items and Western ones. We ate well and even took two muffins with us for the 90-minute ride to the Great Wall. Packed up our camera gear and met the taxi driver downstairs. We had told the concierge we didn’t want the “fancy black car.” And off we went.

The first part of the drive is through the city and then you emerge to some really interesting tree-lined roads. Drivers weave in and out seamlessly on city streets and in the rural areas. Kind of like Italy, but slower and no autostrada, but the roads are remarkably good; puts US to shame. Drivers do barrel down on the car in front of them.. making the drive a little scary, but he was a really good driver. Oh, while the cars all have seat belts, we never saw anyone using them.

We arrived at the Mutianyu section of the wall where the taxi driver left us off to climb a set of fairly steep stairs and walkways with very uneven risers and then we boarded the cable car. We sat in the car and I noticed that it had the following inscribed “President William J Clinton rode this cable car in 2008.” I figured that they all said that.. but when we returned on the cable car after our walk on the wall… the cable car we took that time didn’t have anything inscribed. So how about that!

The cable car ride is as expected, although there were a few funny signs before boarding.. like one that tells you what qualifies for a refund for your ticket price — things like an earthquake that makes the cable car inoperable! Anyway, after you ascend and leave the cable car.. you’re on your own to walk as you please along the wall. It is truly amazing.. 2,000 years to complete; more than a million people involved in building it; 3,750 miles long; and to see it serpent along the hills and valleys is quite a sight. It’s ironic that it was built to keep foreigners out of China.. and now it’s a major draw to get them in — Embarrassingly, maybe our equivalent is the tacky and offensive fence along the Mexican border.

Taxied back to Raffles.

Dropped off some stuff at the room and headed out a few minutes later.. walked to Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The Square is very closely guarded; only way to it and from it is through an underground walkway.. you can mill about but you cannot get in or out of the square unless you take the subway. It’s huge, built for the masses to celebrate the Communist Party. It’s the center of Beijing and perhaps the center of China and the world. Mao’s mausoleum is across the street- huge building with Mao’s picture about 10x bigger than life.

Strolled back to the hotel and then set out again — this time to the walking street (no cars!) that begins about a block from the hotel and goes on for about 10 blocks.. lined cheek to jowl… with stores and blinking lights.. all Western. Name a shop and they have it — from Sephora to Zara to the Gap to the Apple Store… and it just keeps on going. Filled with people. Off to a side was a much smaller walking area with very narrow passages.. a night market selling every conceivable kind of Chinese food at stalls… and people just get stuff and walk and eat. Lots of young people. And lots of edible insects including fried tarantulas, centipedes, beetles, etc. And lots of sweets. We were very tempted to just eat at the market, but it was cold and there was no place to sit. (In Marrakesh there was a night market with food but there were picnic tables everywhere.)

So, we headed back to the hotel… took advantage of our “club” membership by going to the VIP lounge for cocktails… then heading to dinner at a place we had read about online (OK, I read about it) called Family Li Imperial Cuisine. We had asked the hotel to book the reservations yesterday and they told us that the family had two restaurants; one was pretty far from the hotel and the other was close and they recommended the close one. I was a little skeptical since when I went online I couldn’t find two restaurants and nowhere did it ever mention a second restaurant. But we figured the hotel knew, so we went along.

At about 8 pm we got into a taxi for a very short ride to the restaurant. The driver seemed very unsure and stopped a few times. Language was a problem and he was sort of yelling about something the whole time. Anyway, he made several U-turns across about 6 lanes of traffic and deposited us at a low building very close to fancy hotels. It said Li Family Imperial Restaurant. We got in and we were the only ones there (which seemed very odd). It was a fixed price menu which is what the book said.. but it was very expensive and we were now both very unsure about where we were… and decided to leave. The waiter was very nice. We showed him the information about the restaurant we were looking for on the iPhone.. and he didn’t’ appear to know it.. and never tried to say that the two were connected.

But he walked outside with us and got us a taxi — no easy task. He told the driver where we were going.. And then we got transported to another world.. back to hutongs, but this time in a very dark and clearly non-gentrified zone. We both looked at each thinking “where could there possibly be a good restaurant here?” But we were determined — and also hungry and tired. The driver dropped us at a corner and motioned that we should walk down this narrow alley. .. which we did, but didn’t see anything. I took out the trusty iPhone and read that there would be no sign for the restaurant, that the owner was a math professor and his great great grandfather had been a chef at the Imperial Palace. The great-great grandfather had preserved the recipes and passed them down for generations, and now were in the hands of the great great grandson (the math professor). The Internet said that there were two white lights outside and the number “11.” We walked down the alley and the numbers on the buildings made no sense. They went up; they went down in what appeared to be a random order… Mike was ready to bale, but I wanted to persevere. At one point we both got excited as we saw two white lights outside a building, but that turned out to be a public toilet! We asked a few people along the way in the dark alley–with no language to share with us. But eventually, we found #11.. a little house with a first floor restaurant; cooking seems to happen upstairs as the wait staff is constantly going in and out of the eating room.

It’s a fixed menu, but you select from many options based on price. We opted for the lower end with fewer dishes. What a surprise. Food was fantastic.. about 25 little dishes.. from a spicy cabbage soaked in wasabi to an egg custard with steamed snow frog oil to roast pork geoduck and tea smoked pork to a soup to a pea mousse…and on and on. Bright lights, about 12 little tables. When the meal ended we asked if they could call us a taxi and they had no idea how to do this, so we ventured out into the alley again thinking we might be buying real estate in the hutong and moving here, since there was no way we would find a taxi. We figured that if all else failed we’d call Raffles and they’d have to pick us up. The stars were with us and a taxi was driving down the narrow hutong… he was going slow, probably wondering what in the world these two non-Asian people were doing in this neighborhood. We hopped in and now we are back at Raffles, getting ready to jump into bed. It’s close to midnight.

Another day awaits… Tomorrow it’s markets and an art district and the brunch at Temple Restaurant and dinner at Duck de Chine for Mike’s birthday.

Best to everyone.

Fern