Beijing - Days 6 and 7

Day 6 (Friday) - Beijing

It was the first eastern meal that I considered a real success on the only rainy day so far in China. Of course there were the fried bananas and the rice and pieces of other meals, but at this place I genuinely enjoyed everything I ordered. I had noodles with a tomato-based sauce with cucumbers and stewed tomatoes with scrambled eggs that stayed warm the entire meal. The noodles kind of tasted like my Mom's chicken tettrizini minus the chicken and breadcrumbs. For dessert we had toffee covered yams that I thought were even better than the bananas, and like the bananas, the candied yams were sweet enough to be called dessert even in the US. We had chosen this place because it reminded Lei Ti of a noodle place in Taiwan, we lucked out when we ducked in an alley to get to it.

Delicious Candied Yams

After lunch we went out the other side of the restaurant to find a more traditionally Chinese street than Old Street. Vendors were selling fruit and chotchkies. Anna bought funny wallet for Lei Ti that said "Servr My Wife." Perfect and hilarious Chinglish is waiting around every corner. And, like a 12 year-old boy, I laughed out loud at the I heart BJ shirt. BJ in this instance of course the abbreviation for Beijing. Before the wallet though we got more famous Chinese peaches. We walked back to Old Street and made our way through the gates to Tianamen Square. The South gate is 600 years old and just across the way you can see Mao. It was closed when we got there, which was ok since we all seemed a little creeped out by it. We walked to the other side of the Mao memorial to the People's Hero monument and the site of the 1989 protests.

Tianamen Square

There really is nothing on the site mentioning it ever happened. I would have taken my picture there, but what kind of face do you make at a place like that? Anna chose a more frightened, nervous face, which seemed appropriate, but I opted out. There is also an iron sickle in the square now commemorating 90 years of communism in China. The sickles are a little disturbing, but we keep reminding ourselves that we aren't seeing signs of communism in Iowa, but in a country where they have been "communist" for nearly 100 years. Close to the square is the Museum of China. It was free and kept us from the rain, so it had those redeeming qualities, but otherwise it was pretty sparse. There were bronze and stone sculptures similar to Shanghai, and porcelain too. There was an Ancient China exhibit in the basement that was ok. My favorite was actually the Inca ancestry exhibit. Like the Maori in Shanghai, it seemed a little out of place, but it was a good display and a nice change of pace from Chinese painted porcelin and sculpted stone, which was great to see, but a break was much appreciated. We were loosing steam fast. We made it to H&M and then McDonalds before calling it a night. I noticed my throat feeling itchy that night and my head getting stuffy so I took some nose drops and cold and sinus pills, crossed my fingers and went to bed at like 9:30.

Day 7 (Saturday) - Beijing
We got a late start, but I was trying to psyche myself out of being sick, so it was worth it. I eventually sucked it up and we went out to the Temple of Heaven. A bicycle taxi took us to the gate where we saw a horse drawn cart with a man selling apples next to a man selling roasted yams. Anna let me have a bite of hers, yams are fabulous. The Temple of Heaven, like everything in China, is too big. It was nice to walk tree shaded pathways from temple to temple and through a small rose garden. Anna and I climbed to the perfect seat made from a cut branch of a centuries old tree for a photo op, and when we continued on the path we came across a traditional chorus and listened for a minute. According to my map, the Temple of Good Harvest is the most famous temple in the world, though, before walking up to the temple I had never heard of it. Here's a little bit of what Wikipedia has to say about the Temple of Heaven: "The temple complex was constructed from 1406 to 1420 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor who was also responsible for the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing. The complex was extended and renamed Temple of Heaven during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor in the 16th century. The Jiajing Emperor also built three other prominent temples in Beijing, the Temple of Sun (日壇)in the east , the Temple of Earth (地壇)in the north , and theTemple of Moon (月壇)in the west . The Temple of Heaven was renovated in the 18th century under theQianlong Emperor. Due to the deterioration of state budget, this became the last large-scale renovation of the temple complex in the imperial time."

Temple of Good Harvest

I climbed the three small tiers of concrete steps to the azure tiled temple and got a view across Beijing. I tried to get a look in the temple, but there were too many people, it was hot, and they were pushing far more than I was willing to deal with at the moment. So, I stepped back and enjoyed the view instead. We stoped for ice, which to me tasted like frozen sweetened tonic water, so a few minutes later I had an ice cream break. Anna and I had our pictures taken with a Chinese family who were excited to see foreigners, and we were off to the sacrificial circle. Some people were having their pictures taken in the center, like where the sacrifices would have been made, I thought that was creepy. But it wouldn't be the most odd thing we've seen on this trip.

Our next trek was in search of a new hotel sans luggage so walking wasn't so terrible. We walked and tried a few different places and were almost done with looking when we found the "business" hotel we would stay in for the rest of the trip. We then lucked out again at the dinner place. The snack bar had noodles with a spicy nutty sauce and cucumbers and for dessert we had a chinese version of fried dough with sugar, both were really delicious. We walked in search of a night market. We found the shopping district, wifi, and cute couples taking engagement photos outside of a church. There were two couples, and I think one was winning. She was smiling and laughing, while the other was kind of bummed. Anna promised to be the happy one. We let the brides be, and found the "night market". Really though, it seemed like a watered down attempt at a night market. Sure, there were weird foods like scorpion, snake, stinky tofu and squid all on sticks, but all the vendors wore the same clothes and seemed part of the same company.

Starfish on a stick

Or maybe it was government run considering the government tried to "clean up" the city before the Olympics. We walked the row of vendors, and then headed home. Well, first tried to find a taxi that would take us and not rip us off. The first guy was an unmarked taxi which creeped me out, then the second wouldn't take us to where we wanted to go because he said it was too complicated and the third wanted too much money. It was nearly a Goldilocks situation, but though our last option wasn't just right, it got us home safe.