August 2009

Friday morning was nice and calm. We hopped in a cab and went to an area that I didn’t even know existed. It is called the 798 Art Zone, and it is blocks and blocks of buildings that used to be factories or other industrial sites that have since been turned into art galleries. You could spend days looking at all the art. We roamed from gallery to gallery enjoying the art on the inside, but unfortunately I was unable to take pictures of any of the fine art we saw. However, there were numerous statues outside that I could photograph. All were beautiful or very strange.

When I was in Beijing in 2006, Dad and I got a lot of stares for being westerners. These stares still come, but not as frequently in Beijing, probably because of the Olympics. Many Chinese tourists in touristy areas even asked me to be in pictures with their children. This only happened once this trip before today. One of the exhibits in a gallery was a hunk of clay where people were encouraged to make their own art. A little boy was playing with the clay and his mother used hand gestures to indicate that she wanted me to be in a picture with him. I knelt down to take the picture, and then she instructed me to move closer to him, grab some clay and pretend I was playing with the clay like the boy. I hope she was pleased with the picture she created.

Lunch was at a place called Café Pause where the clock was paused at 5:30. The day before there was a 100 day old birthday party for a baby girl. The waitress, who spoke English, was surprised when I asked about the party, because she had no idea that I had noticed a giant poster dedicated to the infant. Evidently celebrating the first 100 days of a baby’s life is very significant in China and Korea.

Since we were being joined by Jamyoung, Eigyoo and Hyangji in Shanghai, YK said that we should have some western food while we could. We had a club sandwich that had an egg in it, pizza, and penne pasta with chili and chicken.

We continued exploring gallery after gallery, when we were done eating. The use of space was so creative that we would walk down what looked like an abandoned alley, and then there would be this modern gallery out of the blue. I look forward to exploring these galleries the next time I visit Beijing.

When I travel, I always bring a couple of things with me. One of these things is a deck of cards. I did not pack a deck of cards this trip. So, I set out to buy one after enjoying the galleries. In Beijing, instead of bringing a product up to register and paying for it, many of the stores do things a little differently. When I found the deck of cards I wanted, I got a receipt from the deck of cards lady at the stall. There are many people throughout these stores to finding someone is never a problem. Then you take the receipt to the cashier, whom you also give the money, and she gives you back a claim receipt and a payment receipt. Then you have to go back to the stall and find the lady to give her the new receipts to get the deck of cards. Seemed like a lot of work for something so small.

In 2006, the group went for a quest to find a particular well known Peking (Beijing) duck restaurant named Da Dong. We were unsuccessful and had to settle for another duck place. Since then, YK found the restaurant, and we had dinner with Aihua and Xuesong there. We ate a whole duck, which was carved tableside. In fact, there were four people carving ducks all around me. We also had beef tongue, which was actually pretty good, and a number of other dishes. Again, we ate a feast.

Lastly, we had Chinese whiskey. Xuesong wanted to get drunk, and had brought with him two additional bottles of whiskey that were given to him by a university professor at a communist officers’ university. Two former students, who became high party communist leaders, had given the professor the whiskey bottles. Xuesong’s plan was to order one bottle at the restaurant and then replace it with one that he brought in so we could have the better alcohol. However, even though the original whiskey bottle was special, the other more expensive “communist” bottles looked so different they would have stood out, so we saved them for later. Both Xuesong and Aihua laughed when I asked if I could take the original whiskey bottle home. I think it would make a lovely vase in the guest room.

Since we were going back to the apartment to drink the whiskey, it was clear that though Hyun had bought anju earlier in the day, we did not have the customary little whiskey drinking glasses. I went on a quick quest to find some at the supermarket, but found shot glasses instead. I bought 7 even though there were only 6 of us that evening, because I anticipated that we would use them in Shanghai with Jamyoung, Eigyoo, and Hyangji. On the walk back to the hotel, I realized how odd it was that I bought 7 glasses when 8 would have not only made more sense, but would have been a Chinese good luck number.

I met up with everyone else at the hotel room, and they were eating the anju and waiting patiently for the glasses. We opened both bottles so we could compare. After a couple of glasses of whiskey, the doorbell rang. Xuesong had dipped into the No. 9 Café next door, where he had gotten a snack earlier in the day, and ordered delivery because he was worried about anju. So, in addition to the anju that Hyun had got, we had two complimentary drinks, a salad, a plate of fruit, soup, and chicken and potatoes. There was not enough room in our stomachs to eat all that food. We sat, ate, drank, and chatted until the blue bottle was empty. Xuesong suggested we save the other bottle for Shanghai, and so we did.

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August 2009

Every day since our arrival, someone, a hotel employee, has brought an apple, banana, and peach to our room. Thursday’s breakfast was fruit. Xuesong picked us up solo because Aihua had meetings. We took a long ride to the Tanzhe Temple. None of us had ever been there before. On the way there were about a dozen people trying to sell incense. When we got there, I could see why. To us, this temple was like a museum, but there were many people there to pray and burn incense at all the temple shrines throughout the property. Xuesong said back in the day people would go there to pray for rain.

Each room was dedicated to one god or theme. Unfortunately, pictures of the interior were forbidden, but they were beautiful. Many of them had either one huge statue of Buddha or other Hindu gods, or they had hundreds of little ones. One room that was particularly memorable was about Hell. On the walls were intricate paintings of humans getting tortured, cut up, or squashed for the bad things they did in their lives. The paintings were very graphic.

Throughout the temple grounds, certain trees were highlighted for their age, beauty, or because they were rare. Two trees in particular grew side by side as if they were sharing one space, which was rare. They said that they were wishing trees and if you touch both trees together and make a wish it will come true. I totally touched both, but I’m not going to tell you what my wish was!

When it came to the incense, I have never seen such a variety. I am used to the skinny little stick incense, but here some were two feet long and in bushels with about a three inch diameter. Worshipers were burning chunks at a time and they were pretty smoky, at times, but never too odorous. My favorite kind was a giant spiral cone that hangs and burns from the bottom to the top. Each one had writing on it, which I can speculate was a wish or prayer.

The temple continued up the hill which meant a lot of stair climbing. After we climbed to the Tiger Cave, a cave with a ceramic tiger in it, we spent some time in an area where one could buy a fish or a turtle and place it in a deep well. Xuesong bought a round of tea and had his fortune told. We were there for quite a long, but the fortuneteller had good news to say, so it was worth it.

It was here that I saw a strange sight. A toddler with a Mohawk. This is not something I have ever seen in China. Also, he was wearing something that has come to fascinate me in my travels in China. Many of the boys wear pants that have a waist all the way around, but the crotch through the butt region is missing. This leaves all of this part of the small child exposed. I have figured out that these pants are worn quite frequently to avoid the cost of diapers. When the baby pees shouldn’t be a problem, but I can’t help but wonder what someone does when a baby starts pooping. I have never seen poop on the floor of any kind in Beijing, so do people clean it up or anticipate it happening and have a plan? Also, I noticed that only boys had these pants on, but after thinking that it might be a pride thing in showing off that one has a boy, I soon realized that girls could have the same level of freedom with a dress. You can see a little peak of the tush of said Mohawk toddler below.

 

We climbed down the temple stairs and ate at a place right outside the temple grounds. What was cool about this place, was it was completely vegetarian (probably even vegan, dad surmised) but many of the food items were shaped like what they were trying to imitate. We had “seafood” shaped like squid-like things, “hot dogs” on sticks, and two “fish”. Below is a picture of the “fish” after YK and I ate their heads.

We hopped in the car and I fell asleep as I do every time I am in a car lately. I thought we were going back to the hotel, but instead, we went to another temple. The Jietai Temple did not have nearly as many visitors or incense burners. It had its own charm, but was nowhere near as impressive as the Tanzhe Temple. We walked the grounds and again trees were highlighted. Two of my favorite parts were two giant pagodas. The one that is covered much of the pagoda in the background is significant, but I do not remember why. Notice the benches on the floor, that’s how massive these pagodas were.

As we continued climbing the stairs of this temple, we found an odd feature. A tennis court. We laughed about how the monks meditated after a hard day on the court.

Xuesong dropped us off on the earlier side so we could shower and take it easy. We first went to a supermarket around the corner to pick up some supplies. We ran into a tall Caucasian man who noticed Dad’s shirt and said, “Did you actually go to Boston College?” When my Dad said “why actually yes” the man asked him “Do you know where I can find shoes here this size? Is there a New Balance store in China?” It was an odd transition, and we weren’t able to help the large-footed, socially-awkward man.

We showered and rested back at the hotel room. Noticing we were out of toilet paper, YK called to the front desk and asked for some. She was then asked, “What size, big or small?” Finally the person understood that what YK was asking for did not come in sizes, and we were brought two new rolls.

Before the trip, I bought a number of dresses to wear in the warm weather. I was unable to wear one dress in particular because it was scraping the floor long and I feared for it when it was raining so frequently. I finally wore the dress this night with my flip flops. As we were waiting for Aihua and Xuesong to pick us up, it started pouring. I joked that our visiting the rain temple earlier in the day must have caused the rain.

Aihua and Xuesong were actually at the No. 9 Café next door getting a little snack before dinner. Dinner was supposed to be at an Italian restaurant that YK had been to many times. She said the food and atmosphere were great, but it was in a weird little neighborhood. When we got to the restaurant, the whole building was gone.

Plan B was at a place called The Noodle Loft, which YK had been to before. One of the major benefits of traveling with a large group is that we have a wide variety of dishes from which to choose. Since YK was last at The Noodle Loft solo, she did not have the luxury and yearned to have a true sampling of the noodles. To the left of the entry doorway one could see many men making noodles with big chef hats. One was cutting noodles into strips with scissors. Another was shaving off chunks from a roll or dough. Two others were working together to make hand-rolled green noodles.

We had quite the spread. Some highlights were chicken in apricot sauce with pineapple and oranges, a tofu pyramid with dill and parley, mutton with onions, and brown, warm Chinese whiskey with fruit. When we couldn’t eat anymore, we noticed that we hadn’t gotten the green noodle. It turned out that it was called “one chopstick noodle” because it was a bowlful of one giant long noodle and you need the one chopstick to chop it. This noodle came with a brown sauce called jajangmyon that is not only Eigyoo’s favorite dish, but he was a judge in a jajangmyon contest. Thinking of Eigyoo and though we only had a little room in our bellies, we ate what we could, and for dessert, we ate sweet potatoes with hot caramelized sugar. The dish is so hot that you must dunk the sugary potato into the water to solidify the sugar and keep it from burning your mouth.

That night, as we were getting ready for bed and throughout the evening, the rain, which had stopped during dinner, came back in the way of thunderstorms. The view from the 17^th floor of the lightning as it brightened the whole sky was beautiful.

 

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August 2009

Beijing driving is nuts. Here, the lines are just a suggestion and cars weave in and out on a moments notice or just drift for the sake of it. Frequently they even straddle the line as if they are just waiting to decide what they want to do. Turn signals almost don’t count and horns are used constantly. Most roads are like mini highways. There is a bike lane, which is closest to the curb, then a little fence, then a single lane for drop off or going to a store, then there is another fence. Finally, then there are about three lanes of traffic in one direction and then another fence before the exact mirror image happens on the other side. These fences are to prohibit jaywalkers or driving where you shouldn’t be. There are pedestrian bridges and crosswalks everywhere.

Also, another major difference is the toilet situation here. In Korea, I was lucky to find Western toilets all of the times and toilet paper most of the time. In China, most of the toilets are Asian toilets and more often than not, there is no toilet paper or soap. An Asian toilet is like a glorified porcelain hole in the group, and though it must be easy for a guy to use, a woman must squat down as low as possible and pull their pants forward to avoid an accident. The rest of the trip is now BYOTPAHS (and hand sanitizer).

Lunch was an experience. Since YK has gone to Beijing so many times, Xuesong and Aihua try to find new places to bring her. This place was definitely unique. We came inside and walked into another room where there was a small pond with giant fish swimming around. Most every store that sells fish has a tank or seven, and since we went to the aquarium, another ongoing joke is “look, an aquarium!” Soon, one of the fish in the pond, a two-foot-long catfish, was sitting right next to me all chopped up and ready to be cooked.

There was a lid on the table, and when it was removed a giant wok was revealed. A man came over with a bunch of raw ingredients and just like the table-side guacamole makers at a Mexican restaurant, this man made a huge wok of catfish and tofu stew. Of course, Xuesong ordered tons of other plates of food, and when I was stuffed and all the fish was gone from the stew, the waitress made a whole other stew with the same broth by adding lettuce, two types of mushrooms and potatoes. It was so good.

Xuesong, Dad, YK, and I went to the original Summer Palace. The original Summer Palace was burned down years ago and spent three full days burning before it stopped. That’s how big the grounds are. Now the palace itself is gone, but they have recreated the gardens and redone a lot of the ruins. It was beautiful. There were huge ponds with giant lily pads, and ruins everywhere. One major highlight was a maze. The walls were about four feet high and in the center of the maze was a little pagoda. We figured out the maze after a little confusion.

Tired, we swung by and picked up Hyun and had to kill some more time before dinner. What did we do? Got a massage, of course. This time, however, it was different than any massage I have ever gotten. YK, Dad and I were in one room while Hyun and Xuesong were in another. Fully clothed, we lay down on tables and were given a ridiculously deep tissue massage. My lady looked very young, and her fingers were like needles. She also used her pointy elbows and leaned with all her body weight into me. I was lucky that my face was down so she couldn’t see the faces that I was making. I was thinking of saying something, but I didn’t know what to say and I figured that she was a pro and maybe I needed that kind of pressure. Lastly, it felt great once she stopped working on a particular area.

Soon I heard snoring and figured Dad had fallen asleep. I was wondering what kind of massage he was getting because there was no way that anyone could sleep through my massage. Also, parts of my neck and shoulders were still sore from the last foot massage, so bits were agonizing.

We then were instructed to flip over, and she massaged my face and head. She rubbed all over my forehead, and then pinched my eyebrows from end to end. Then she spent about 6 minutes on my ears alone. She massaged my earlobes, pinched the cartilage, and rubbed up and down on my ears. She then moved on to my stomach, which she kneaded like bread, and then my arms and legs. It was fascinating to see that she did not massage my feet at all.

This place was also very loud. I could hear the suction cups of someone’s foot massage through the wall, and when all three ladies in the room were smacking our backs, it was like a symphony.

When we regrouped and were finally able to share our experiences, they all seemed to have been similar. I asked Dad how he was able to sleep through such pain, and he said, “Are you kidding me? I just didn’t want to be the first one to scream!” Xuesong then came out and I noticed that his pants were rolled up. My guess is that he was the one getting the foot massage next door and he was the snorer.

We picked up Aihua and went to a Korean Chinese restaurant for dinner. This place’s claim to fame was their giant beer servers. We got a five-liter cylinder and it had a spout at the bottom. Hyun used the beer to demonstrate TPR (Total Physical Response).

The food was the spiciest meal of the trip. There was meat on sticks and spicy fish. It also had some dishes that were not as delicious to us as most. One was a dried fish that was hard for us to eat. YK said that it was an acquired taste.

Stuffed, Xuesong asked me if I wanted corn noodle soup. Three years ago, when we were in Yanji, China, I was introduced to a dish called corn noodle soup. It was a thin noodle in a spicy broth with cucumbers and an egg. It was a simple dish that was simply delicious. It was also really cheap at 6 Yuan (8 Yuan was about a dollar then). This dish isn’t just anywhere because it is a Chinese Korean fusion dish and Yanji is very much a Chinese Korean fusion city. However, this restaurant was a Chinese Korean fusion restaurant, and when Xuesong asked me if I wanted it, I had to say yes. My exact words were “Yes, I’d love to share some.” He ordered five bowls. This corn noodle soup was spicier than normal and instead of egg, it had beef, but it was delicious. Also, I was told that the price was nowhere near as good as it was in Yanji. I was so stuffed and it was so spicy that I ate slowly, but Xuesong helped Aihua and me out. They wrote down the name of the soup in Chinese so I can again begin my quest of finding this soup in LA.

We stopped for coffee after dinner at a little Starbucks-esque coffee place. I didn’t dare order a caffeinated beverage because it would affect my sleeping, so I got an iced hot chocolate. While we were waiting for the coffee, I saw a sudoku in a Korean newspaper that YK had grabbed. I started to do it, and Aihua and Xuesong asked me how it worked. I showed them, and they were hooked. We didn’t hear from them until they finished the puzzle.

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