Nǐ hǎo. Saturday, December 21, 2013

Thanks for all the notes.. Glad you’re enjoying the ride.

Beautiful sunny day and a little warmer today (at least if you walk on the sunny side of the street).

After a very light breakfast (definitely didn’t eat enough for our club membership fee), we headed to what is known as “old Beijing” — Luilichang Street. Started out on a main thoroughfare and then walked down a small street, but after meandering a while we figured out that this was not “exactly” correct. I think the taxis don’t like to get caught up in the narrow hutongs so they drop you off at the edge of the neighborhood and then you’re on your own — which is probably a lot easier if you speak Chinese. Anyway, we were exposed to yet another hutong complex.. and then decided to cross the major street and see what was on that side, which we could tell housed yet another (or perhaps a continuation of the same) hutong. Most likely, the center part of this hutong was demolished to make way for the 12-lane road that now completely cuts the neighborhood in two. We walked through the maze of streets and finally asked a few people if they speak any English. Trick is to find someone young (under 30) and then they are more likely to speak English. Apparently English is now required throughout all school years.

So we approached a young couple that appeared to be in their 20s and yes they spoke English. We showed them some pictures from the Internet on the iPhone and they knew immediately where we needed to go. So they took us.. We were in the general area, but it’s such a maze of streets that I don’t know if we would have found it. Liulichang Street sometimes called Luilichang Culture Street dates back to the Yuan Dynasty when the Mongolian emperors set Beijing as the capital city. Little villages sprang up around the outskirts of the center of town and one was called Haiwang Village, which later became part of Beijing. But Haiwang Village is known for producing glazed tiles that were called Luili Chang.. the tiles were used in building projects.

Through the years, the vendors started selling other goods and over time these commercial ventures replaced the tile factory. Calligraphy shops were added later and the area became known for selling paper, brushes, ink slabs, etc… and for its book stores.. From what we’ve read, it became a haven for scholars. But in more recent years it fell into disarray. In the 1980s it got a facelift (maybe payback for removing a good chunk of the neighborhood?).. and now there are about 100 small shops lining the little narrow streets selling books, stamps, art, etc. It’s quite delightful. We strolled around and eventually bought two stone “stamps.” We spent a lot of time in the shop looking around before we picked the ones we wanted.. I think you’re supposed to buy your “sign” but we just picked what we liked.

Then the guy gave us a very thick book.. with all English names.. never knew there were so many. He didn’t speak any English but we realized he wanted to know our names. Next to each English name was the Chinese characters for that name. He then carved each of our names into the stamps using Chinese characters. I think mine is something like “Feess” and Mike’s something that sounded like “my-car”.. We took lots of photos of the guy doing the carving by hand. Actually years ago I had a stamp made when I was in Hong Kong.. but this guy today really turned it into art.

From there we hopped a cab (well not quite that simple.. first we went to a corner that had a taxi sign and two taxis standing around.. but no drivers.. ) so we walked back to our new favorite place — The Temple Restaurant where we had dinner the other night — the one in the 600-year-old former Buddhist temple and monastery that had been turned into a television factory in the 1950s. Walking down that alley was a riot with two taxis trying to get through — one in each direction and people walking and carts.. and with about 1″ between the two cabs.. but everyone was calm and inched forward without accident. This time it would be brunch at The Beijing Restaurant.

Another amazing meal.. we opted for the 5 course vs. the 8 course even though we knew that all portions would be very tiny. So we got to pick 5 things from a menu of about 15 choices.. But since Mike was picking 5 and I was picking 5, we actually picked 2/3 of the menu..

Mike started with some kind of drink that had pickled vegetables, ginger beer, and vodka (following the complimentary champagne); I stuck with wine. Mike called his drink “salad” and determined it would be very healthy! A basket of incredible breads came to the table immediately. For the foodies reading this, I’ll do my best to remember all the dishes (each of which was presented as a work of art to perfectly match the setting and the general ambience down to the wait staff all wearing grey simple shift dresses and black tights):

• smoked salmon with freshly grated horseradish and very finely chopped hardboiled egg yolk
• beef tartar (with all sorts of spices mixed in) sitting atop egg yolk alongside some greens and marinated mushrooms and some kind of balsamic reduction (I think)
• an orange fennel salad (orange sections that had been soaked in some kind of wine or port, I think) and marinated fennel and also fresh fennel and some paper thin radishes
• beet and gorgonzola salad with candied walnuts
• we had two small pieces of fish; one had pumpkin seeds encrusting it and a side of some kind of eggplant mixture
• braised eggplant with ginger and scallions
• a very tender breaded pork with lemon and some kind of cabbage
• a small piece of super tender chicken sitting on top of a sweet potato puree and some other stuff
• bread pudding with a dollop of homemade ginger ice cream

I had mentioned that it was Mike’s birthday, so they also brought out an over-the-top, way too rich flourless chocolate cake in a cylinder shape on a stark white plate with “Happy Birthday” inscribed in chocolate… and some really nice port to have with the dessert..

After we “rolled” out of the restaurant (where, by the way, after they lay out the table cloth on a table they use a cordless iron to eliminate any fold marks!), the manager took us on a tour of the facilities which are amazing. They have a small 8-room hotel (next time that’s where I’d stay).. The manager (female) who speaks excellent English because she lived in England for 10 years) is trying to come to the states for a vacation — to the west coast. Her plan includes San Francisco and Napa.. and maybe Seattle, so we told her to get in touch. Maybe she can show us few tricks on that food presentation deal.

From the restaurant, we took another taxi (very cheap) to something called the 798 Art District, which turned out to be way further than we thought.. so we got to see a lot of the city from the window of the taxi. The District is a little like Soho in the 70s.. but quickly turning into Soho of the 90s. In any case both the morning in old Beijing and the afternoon at 798 were easy walking areas and away from the 12-lanes of traffic. Walked around a bit, bought a few funny keepsakes and then braved traffic back to downtown.

For those that have asked..

• We haven’t really seen any other Americans.. and there are very few tourists this time of year, which is fine for us. When the rare person who speaks English stops us on the street to ask where we are from and we ask them to guess, their first guess is Russia, which is what happened in Shanghai as well just a few years ago.
• It’s been cold, but not unbearable and actually quite delightful when the sun is strong.. but as you know I hate the heat and melt at 80 degrees; I’d probably opt for cold any time.
• My black, black, and black wardrobe, with the addition of scarves and vests, has served me well these first 5 days. We’ll see how long I can deal with that… but then again, I’m usually wearing black in the US as well.

We’re off for the birthday dinner.. hope my choice was a good one: Duck de Chine.. sounded good and can’t leave Beijing without having Peking Duck.. right? I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Fern

PS.. Mike wanted me to tell you that the waitress at Temple Restaurant guess Mike’s age to be “52!” — obviously angling for a big tip. In any case, she said that was “through her eyes.”

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

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”…

Greetings from the Hutong in Beijing. 11:30 pm

I trust all is well with all of you and that those of you on the West Coast are enjoying very moderate temperatures. It’s in the low 20s tonight here in Beijing; was about 35 during the day. My wardrobe is interesting but more about that either later in this email or over the coming days. Let’s just say, I’m doing OK.. but at night it’s pretty cold.

A little more about the Orchid Hotel on the Baociao Hutong. It’s really quite charming and must be delightful in good weather as there are two roof decks – one where they typically serve breakfast, and the other for lounging — and lots of vines that must be green in spring. But in the winter you need to go down the narrow open wooden staircase and into the little “lobby” and then outside and upstairs again because they keep the breakfast room closed so as to keep the heat in. When we arrived last night we received a “welcome box”.. a really nice bamboo box.. In it were post cards showing the history of the hutong area, a map (with surprisingly good graphics, information about restaurants nearby) the password for Wi-Fi, and a cell phone with charging cords. The phone is programmed to call the hotel so that if guests get lost you just push the button and it calls the hotel and they find you. We thought this was very clever, but we haven’t used it yet. We’re finding our way quite well.

We had breakfast at the hotel. They are very clever about describing their breakfasts; either someone is in advertising or they should be. We shared the poached eggs with spinach and the pancakes. They did have congee but we passed. Then we headed out to see the Hutong area and also to find a high elevation where we could get an overview of the area.

We headed to the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower. Paid for our tickets which were checked by about four people at different points, and attempted to walk through the “security x-ray machine” but no one was there so we just kept going. Climbed the very steep (no landing) 60 stairs with 12 ” risers followed by 10 very steep stairs.. all in all equivalent to walking up and down a 7 story building. Unfortunately the view from the top was not very good for photography since they have a lot of fences and it’s impossible to really see much through the lens. But we got to the top in time to catch part of the drum performance. Mike then climbed to the top of the Bell Tower, but I opted to walk the streets. Good decision, since the view was about the same, I heard.

We combed the little streets of the hutong walking down alleyways. People were mostly friendly.

At around 2 we headed for Mr. Shi’s Dumplings where we shared 15 wonderful dumplings complemented by hot tea (honey grapefruit tea for me and coconut milk tea for Mike). Then we walked some more and later decided to take the metro just to check it out, getting off at a random stop. We purchased our tickets and headed down to the tracks. We went two stops and got out near the Lama Temple. But after climbing the stairs from the platform we could not use the exit turnstiles as they are set to the station you indicate when you purchase the ticket in the machine. We had no clue which station we had selected. So the little buzzer on the turnstile kept beeping, but no one seemed to care.. We stood near the beeping turnstile expecting someone to come to either reprimand us or help us; but no such luck. We spotted someone in uniform and tried to explain our dilemma (with no possible language capacity).

Anyway either out of frustration or luck or because this happens often, the woman pushed some buttons and off we went. It turns out that the train station is literally under the temple. We opted to walk around this new area instead of visiting the temple. It’s a somewhat yuppified hutong area, but many of the hutong buildings are fairly new or so over-renovated that it’s hard to know. We had seen this in Shanghai some years ago — new buildings attempting to create the feeling of older buildings. Very upscale restaurants and boutiques. We then took the train back to Goulou — experienced and without any mis-steps.

A little note on the global economy — no one seems to take our “American” credit cards. I assume that very upscale restaurants, hotels, and shops take them.. but for now, we are on a cash economy.

Got back to the hotel at about 5:00 to do some work that needs to be finished before the end of the year…. and at about 9:30, we walked about a mile to a restaurant called Dali (Szechuan).. Turns out it is a fixed meal.. with a zillion “courses” or dishes — each coming one at a time by a waiter who described each dish in a single word: “tofu,” “mushrooms,” “broccoli,” “chicken,” “fish”.. etc. While it could have been that it was late and he was anxious to leave or that he only knew those few words in English.. or he was just not very social. Anyway, the food was great.. one dish at a time until the table was completely covered. There was a large group of Chinese having dinner as well — maybe an office party.

Walked back — about 20 degrees… and was very glad to enter our rather toasty room.

Now for the fashionistas in the email list.

Packing was a nightmare.. But thus far I’m living in the Uniqlo HeatTech tights and turtlenecks, worn under leggings and another turtleneck, vests, scarves, my down coat (at night) and my wool jacket by day, fur lined boots, a fur hat (I brought two with me — one is totally fake but adorable and the other is a real rabbit hat that I got when I lived in Finland about 30 years ago and is in miraculously great shape; I saved it more as a souvenir but now it’s coming in useful and would cost about 50 times more than what I paid for it.) My basic color scheme is black, black, black and black (as is Mike’s), but I brought a wide array of accessories in color.. so I’m faring OK.. Mike is just in black.. very continental. I may switch to a skirt for today when we move from the Hutong/Orchid to the snazzy Raffles Hotel near Tiananmen Square.

That’s it.. Not sure there’s much else to say. We’ll relocate after breakfast, walk around Tiananmen Square and then Mike is actually headed to give a lecture (I believe at Tsinghua University). I’m not going, so I’ll get to bop around a bit more.. (I had considered contacting one of the universities here to do what Mike is doing, but I never got around to it. Sort of glad — one more thing to deal with)

Shi Pei (I think this is goodbye)

Fern

PS- We’ll be in Beijing until the 22nd then we fly to Xining overnight and catch the train to Lhasa. We arrive in Lhasa around midnight on the 24th. Train is about 27 hours.

Hi All – I think I’m supposed to be saying “Wenhau” —

Anyway, this is just a very brief note as it is 6 am body time, and I haven’t slept yet. We left San Francisco at noon on Monday and now it is about 10 pm on Tuesday night in Beijing.

Mostly wanted to let you know that we arrived safe and sound after a very easy direct, non-stop flight from SFO to Beijing. Typical United.. we left late and arrived early. We were comfortably situated in the upper level of the plane, in Business Class. I must say that we packed until about midnight on Sunday night — expertly folding and eliminating things to be sure we would have just carry on (which is our standard procedure). The bags were like a work of art utilizing every single inch of space without having to expand them. Each of our computer bags weighed a ton, filled with gear and devices (me: computer, SLR camera, small camera, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry; Mike same except no Blackberry, no iPad, no iPod).

Then at about midnight we checked into the flight and saw that we were seated in the upper level (which I generally really like because it’s quiet.. only business travelers.. and lots of attention). But, you have to go up that very narrow staircase with your carry-on bags. We realized that we’d have to make multiple trips up and down those stairs… and after all that effort decided to bag it.. and check one bag each..

We had a bit of a scare once on the plane when they handed out the forms to fill out. They ask information about your departure from China… and we’ve got a little mess on our hands with that… since we are leaving from Lhasa (Tibet) and it’s unclear how that works. We do have a backup flight from Beijing to Tokyo. It’s a really long story involving the bureaucracies of nations. Anyway, we were relieved when Chinese Customs only wanted to see the arrival forms.

Landed at Beijing Airport, which is gigantic and incredibly new and clean. After Customs you have to take a train about three stops to get your baggage and then find a taxi. Long lines for everything. Relieved that our bags both arrived, we headed to find a taxi. It took a few minutes to get the swing of things and we found the taxi line. When it was our turn, we needed to say where we were going so the person handling the cabs could determine which taxi would take us. Naturally, no English… and the papers with the hotel confirmation were buried in my bag. But the trusty smart phone worked fine and we were able to explain the location of the hotel. The person in charge of taxis waved us to a very large van, not a taxi. Naturally we were suspicious and asked why we weren’t getting a taxi but no one could explain. My NY instinct was correct; we were non-Asian foreigners and they were putting us in more expensive vehicle. I asked the price.. and the driver said 700CNY which is about $100. The hotel information said the taxi would cost about 110 CNY. So we objected and then he offered us 300 and eventually 250, but by then we felt we were being ripped off so we got out of the van and went back to the taxi line and got a very nice driver who played music in English (although we have not a clue what that music was)… and we rode across Beijing to the Hutong area where we are spending the first two nights.

Hutongs are actually the word to define very narrow streets that are formed form having courtyard houses built close to the streets.. so that the buildings line the streets. They are common in northern China but are disappearing fast with new development. I imagine the whole city was once just hutongs.. Indeed apparently these neighborhoods were built in concentric circles around the center of the city with the aristocrats living in fancy hutong areas very close to the center and working people living further out. But now there is a bit of an effort (after demolishing most of the hutong neighborhoods) to preserve some remaining ones and they are becoming somewhat “chic.”.. Anyway, we are staying in a hutong (which we didn’t get to see much of last night since we arrived after dark).. so today (December 18) we will be exploring this neighborhood (and our little hotel).

What we saw as we emerged from the taxi (the driver tried to have us get out at a youth hostel which is down the street since he couldn’t easily find the Orchid Hotel).. great little streets lined with tiny restaurants and shops.. lots of activity.. clearly a working class neighborhood with some newly minted shops that cater beyond essentials… frequented by young people (like me!). The Orchid is actually down a very narrow alley off of the tiny street! It was a little hard to find, but the hotel is very tech savvy and they sent a very very detailed and quite well done graphic map (in English).. so we were actually able to guide the taxi driver from the hostel (which was on the map) to the hotel!

It’s two floors with about 9 rooms..and sort of rambles. We are on the second floor with an outdoor stair (wood and very narrow) to get to our room. It’s quite charming.. very simple.. all white. We meandered outside after getting help carrying the bags up the stairs.. and ate at a Yunan restaurant just a few doors down. Good, inexpensive. We ordered a potato dish that was like a giant latke with some chives on top.. crispy and a great side dish. We had a beef and basil something — spicy and also good.. and then some kind of wontons filled with a local and unidentifiable vegetable.. also good.. and Chinese beer. The restaurant seats about 25 and we were off on a side. Across the room were 24 college/grad school students (Brits or maybe Aussies) who are studying Chinese for a year but who I think go to Oxford.. or at least that’s what I gleaned from eavesdropping. They were celebrating someone’s birthday.

More after we explore the hutongs.

Fern