China '99 trip

week 2

may 23, 1999

Beijing

Sunday, May 23.

In the morning, I got up around 7 but stayed in bed to 'sleep in' for a change. We had to get up to catch breakfast (since there was limited serving hours as well as make the most of the day. Breakfast was okay-- a set meal (not buffet), where we sat with the pediatrician in our tour group. He didn't have that much to say. After breakfast, we got our flight and seats back to Canada confirmed. We finally decided to go to the Forbidden City with the Yong family.

Along the way, we toured some of the ghetto regions of Beijing-- what a waste of time. The other couple, the Tangs, took a different taxi to go to this bookstore instead of following us (smart people). We went to the Forbidden City because my mom wasn't feeling well the time we first visited China in 1992. It was a shame that my mom didn't go the first time-- since China is preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary of communist rule, major renovation was being done on all the major landmarks-- the Forbidden City had many pieces of scaffolding on each building, Mao's masoleum was closed as well as Tienanmen square (the last being closed since it was 10 years ago when the peace protest occurred-- many students were killed during that time if you can remember that far back...)

As stated earlier, the Forbidden City was under great repairs-- scaffolding was covering many of the buildings. My dad was feeling a little tired so he waited at the midway point-- my mom and I explored further inside. The heat was rather overpowering that afternoon-- my mom decided we should head back to the front door and get some pineapple ice desserts. The Yongs came back as well (A little confusion at this point but was quickly resolved) and we headed back to the hotel.

For a late lunch, we went back to the 'tseow tse' place on our own. My mom ordered quite a bit-- this place is not for the smalled stomached. I couldn't believe how cheap good food can be in this city. If I ever go back, this will definitely be one of my stops. Of course, I need to bring a person capable of reading Chinese and / or literate. No English here folks! Actually, I was not looking forward to eating the dumplings but noodles (but the place doesn't serve noodles!) so it was a wasted trip for me this time...

My mom and I went shopping before dinner, leaving my dad in the hotel room to relax. We went to the department store where my mom loaded up on clothes-- my mom was rather appreciative of Asian sizes (things here don't fit properly on the more petite Asian females... I am the opposite; male Asian are tiny on me-- I always have to look for large / extra-large sizes)

We rushed back to get ready for the banquet dinner. I got dressed in my typical club gear (my apparel for the next two evenings). Dinner was good-- lots of food and the quality wasn't bad, considering they were feeding close to 1000 people. That night, I sat next to Anna-- if I didn't, I would have been bored stiff (the whole ceremony was in Mandarin). The performances during dinner were entertaining-- lots of Chinese folk stuff (acrobatics, singing, etc.) as well as songs/dances from other Asian countries (Malaysia, Phillipines, Indonesia).

We came back when the ceremony ended. I got cleaned up for bed-- it was raining outside (thus we took the corridor from the convention centre to the hotel) so I couldn't explore...

Tuesday, May 25.

Yesterday was a relaxed, slow-paced day. After breakfast, Ma and I went to the computer district in Beijing. The taxi driver was really nice and pointed out the good places to check out. Ma and I did a little walking before being approached by some sly looking character-- he asked if we wanted to purchase software. At first we followed but after 5 minutes and no resulted, we bailed. We were going deep into the ghetto, away from the main road, and I was getting a bad feeling-- he was slick-looking as well.

Upon return to the main road, a cracker-farm boy (a Chasing Amy quote-- anyone remember Hooper-X spiel on Star Wars at the beginning of the movie?) teenager came by and asked us if I wanted stuff. Due to his humble-looking appearance, he looked honest. We accepted and he took us to his house-- his mom manning the door. Their place was close to the road so that was a plus. Their selection wasn't too bad (wasn't too good, either). My only complaint was much of their stuff wasn't that English-oriented. I guess demand dictates supply here. I bought quite a bit of stuff-- hope it works when I get back.

Before returning to the hotel, we went to McD's for a quick snack. I was getting the craving for some good ol' fries and chicken nuggets. It cost 16.8RMS (about $3 Canadian) for a meal combo-- quite expensive considering the average citizen makes about 10 times less than the Canadian equivalent! A second reason for the visit was to get a bag to carry my pirated CDs-- it's illegal to purchase / possess copyright-violated materials. The police can confiscate the goods and bring you to jail. While eating, my mom started up a conversation with three teens in their school uniforms (track suits). I checked out the facilities while they were talking since I couldn't understand jacksquat.

We got back to the hotel at noon-- a 7km taxi ride cost 24RMS (with tip). One thing about China-- they don't tip. Most people are hesitant to accept, especially waiting staff. Dad was tired and his feet were sore-- mom and I went to look for take-out. We were tempted to go back to the tseow tse place but my mom asked a local where we could find a place with fried noodles. She took us to this one place (she worked in the building next door)-- it was expensive but the food was pretty good. I found it most shocking the directness of this particular waitress-- she asked me where I was staying in Beijing in front of my mother. I didn't know what to say (at least I understood what she asked) so I responded in my default answer, "I don't understand Mandarin" (in Mandarin!). My mom answered for me that we're only visiting.

In retrospect, the desire to have a functional level of Mandarin was near its highest. I wondered how far I could have gotten in the short period of time I had remaining in China... She was cute but nothing to write home about. One thing I did notice is that the complexion of the people in general in China is really good: most people have smooth, fair skin. Is it in the water? (There's a lot of things in the water-- I wouldn't recommend drinking it to the tourist...)

On the way back to the hotel, my mom was shocked by the directness of the people. I replied that I didn't blame the girl-- after al, look who she was talking to! We took the food back to the hotel and had a belated lunch. I ate soup noodles-- they were yummy. My dad had the fried rice noodle; Ma ate the 'sha long bao' and a seaweed entree. The lunch was rather expensive 45 RMS for 4 dishes?

After eating, Ma and I went to the silk store. It was closed for the day (for inventory) so we went back to the department store for groceries (bananas and 7-Up) and other stuff.

For dinner, it was another banquet at the convention centre. Again, the food was the same quality as the previous day. This evening, I sat next to Dr. Liu, a world famous U of T biochemist-- I was told his work was based on AIDS research, namely an AIDS vaccine. He and his wife thought Anna was my girlfriend, based upon our demeanour-- FAR from the truth. Anyway, the entertainment (besides amusing conversation) was more of the same. The one-string fiddle girl was back-- she was bad. We bailed when dzai tsien was said.

Before bed, I was insane enough to see much of the Barbra Streisand movie, The Mirror has Two Faces. What was I thinking??? I got sick of watching and flipped to Channel V for some more laughs at Chinese videos. They were having some special on Sammi-- now that's one cutie. Pretty talented for an HK pop star to speak Mandarin pretty well-- you could hear the Cantonese accent come out when she sings / speaks. (C'mon, after 2 solid weeks of Mandarin, I can distinguish the accent-- I live in Canada and hear Cantonese almost 24/7...)

Today, we got up to have breakfast and wished Anna off-- she was leaving for SF and back to work! Breakfast was the standard stuff for the hotel-- congee, cabbage, wontons, cold dishes, ham/sausage, scrambled eggs, fried noodles.

After chowing down, we went to the fake designer goods alley just outside of Embassy Row. Before walking into the vendor's alley, we got a good look of the US Embassy. It was shortly after the NATO bombs striking the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. The American embassy didn't look too bad-- the windows were replaced but it didn't look right. We took a picture but the Chinese guard told us not to take them. I found it ridiculous that when white people took pictures, he didn't say squat. Stupid-- tell them not to take pictures, not your own countrymen! (I noticed a lot of double-standards working against our favour while in China-- why cater to white people when they've done so much bad to our people?

While shopping we managed to score some good stuff-- Ma came back with an extra piece of luggage fearing we'd run out of storage space (it was later discovered we had plenty of room so we ended up putting a piece of luggage inside the newly bought luggage!) I came out with some shirts and a pair of tear-aways.

We went back to lunch at the same place as yesterday (with the aggressive girl)-- my dad wanted to take a look for himself. The girl was much more tame compared to yesterday. In fact, she was gone for much of the time. Today's lunch was much more expensive (no correlation to the change in girl's attitude, I must add...) 85 RMS!