I was terrifically lazy yesterday and did nothing but go to Silk Street Market, eat a manky O'Briens sandwich, have a panic attack that I lost my credit card in Dubai (I didn't, it was perfectly safe) and take another evening stroll down Wangfujing. In the cheap plastic toys market, they have this new fad. I'm calling them "spinners". They're a bit like a sycamore seed with an LED on the end, and when you flick them up into the air with an elastic, they light up and spin down. It's very cute. I got four of them for Y10, and caused a mini scene in the middle of the street (if you start buying something off one street vendor, all the others selling the same thing come up and try to sell you more - as well as advising the guy you're dealing with to rip you off).
Today was better, despite me sleeping crappily
. I got up bright and early, had my breakfast (and was greeted by name by the staff - they're so darned friendly in here) and headed out for the day. Into the "fog". Serious "fog". My nose and lungs are practically bleeding. We were followed for a while by an "art student" who tried to convince us that it was just water clouds in the air and would we like to come and see an exhibition of his art? We shook him off just before arriving at Tiananmen Square, where we joined the queue for Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall! And had to leave again straight away, since we didn't have our passports. I had to run back to the hotel for them. We hadn't brought any bags or stuff at all, because they're not allowed in the hall, but we didn't realise we'd need ID. Despite our hotel being right beside the Forbidden City, it still took me half an hour to run back, get up to the room, get the passports and some money, get the subway one stop west and run back through Tiananmen Square because the spaces here are just colossal. Crossroads take nearly two minutes to cross. It's nuts.
Anyway, nobody even checked our passports, but the coins I'd brought back beeped in my pocket and I had to have the metal detector wand put over me. Then it was a slow and constant shuffle into and out of the building. Some people bought yellow flowers and placed them in front of a big Mao statue just inside the door, bowing repeatedly in front of it. Then it was along a corridor and into a second room which had another glass room build inside it, and inside that was the glass coffin with yer man in in it
. He looks a bit wrinkly. As far as I remember, he had his grey/green suit on, was covered with a Chinese flag, and was very, very big. I was surprised by how big he was. There were two soldiers in the room too, on either side of him. There were also people employed to keep the queue moving and to shush anyone that made noise (or take hats off anyone who wore them too, I presume - part of the rules).
--Oh, my TV just "broke". BBC News was talking about the first Chinese person ever to win a Nobel prize, something about him being in jail, and now the signal is "gone". At least I can focus on typing now. The last few paragraphs took me an hour and a half.--
Next was a visit to some hutongs. If you remember last year, my original hostel in Beijing was (--TV is back, Nobel segment is over--) in a hutong, and despite having a map, a taxi, Ma Ying, her phone and directions from the hostel themselves over the phone, it took a ridiculous amount of time to find the bloody place
. Hutongs are often listed on Top Ten lists of things to see in Beijing. What they are is old alleyways, east to west, in the neighbourhoods around central Beijing. The houses along them usually have red wooden doors and an internal courtyard, but they're very ramshackle and run down. They're basically just a little old alleys. If you enjoy eating Chinese street food with almost no hygiene standards, then I hear that they're pretty fun at night. There are some nice hostels and hotels in them too, but it's finding them that's the problem.
Anyway, Daddy really wanted to see some, so we went back to Dongsi road, since I knew we had passed a lot of them in the taxi returning from the Olympic Park. We wandered down into one, and the first thing you notice is that the traffic noise just disappears. It's the best thing about them, in my humble opinion. It's such an ease to have the clamour just disappear. We passed some men mixing cement on the street, and stopped to watched them
. Another man walked out of the house and coughed, saying "Ugh, so much dust!". He turned out to be the owner of the house, and he was renovating it. He was also a proud Manchu, although he grew up in Beijing. He was disappointed that the hutongs were disappearing, and that the ones that were left were filling up with domestic immigrants, rather than true Beijingers. We left him at a fruit stall and headed back to the subway.
Another interjection: I don't know if you've heard, but there has been terrible flooding in Vietnam and in Hainan province in China. Hainan is that little island sticking off the bottom left of China, near Vietnam. In the last four days they've had over a metre of rain fall. A METRE. 1100 villages have been completely submerged. It's insane. And it's still pouring. There's a depression stuck over the island and it's showing no sign of easing off. Between them, India, Pamplona and Hungary, there's an awful lot of unwanted water around the place these days, isn't there?
After the Hutong's, we split up and I went back to Silk Street, because I didn't really get enough time there yesterday
. I didn't buy an awful lot, but I got told I was a "hawd bawgin", which is of course a "hard bargainer". When you consider that I was trained by Chinese and Israelis, it's not really a surprise. I also told them I'd keep the prices they gave me a secret, so don't tell, okay? :D I went for a pedicure, which was lovely, and a head, neck and shoulder massage which was goddamn brutal. Those head pounding girls in Luang Prabang had nothing on this lady. NOTHING. I'm hoping that I'll be shockingly relaxed and loose tomorrow to make up for it. At the end she told me I had "some problem" with my shoulders. I KNOW, LADY. Thank god I only went for the half hour massage!
While I was off having my back broken, Daddy went to have a look at the China Open tennis tournament, and had his own adventure including two wonky taxis, a few lost Taiwanese students and the match between Caroline Woziancki of Denmark and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia (he left early and I had discovered that Woziancki won before he even got back to the hotel)
. The taxi that brought him home wasn't working properly and the engine quit at every red light. To get the car moving again, he had to put the car into gear and literally jump start it. When they got back to the subway, Daddy discovered that he hadn't any small change left for the Y15, so he gave the driver the few coins he had and US $1 that happened to be in his pocket. That was fine by the driver, and off he went. :D
For dinner tonight, we evaded Abdul and Shirley and sneaked into the Beijing International Hotel, where they have an Outback Grill. Mmmm. Burgers and free soda refills. Woohoo! I had gorgeous chips and a burger that was nice until the last few bites, and endless Fanta. We made friends with the people across from us who were from Birmingham, at the end of a cruise from Vancouver and had an aunt in Corrandulla. What is it with Irish people that we're just connected to EVERYONE that we meet??? They were staying in the BIH, which was apparently manky, and they had photos to prove it
. Glad I ain't there. We chatted to them for about an hour, then headed back to the room. Shortly after, we went down to try the pool. It's open til midnight, which is brilliant (and breakfast, by the way, is open til 10:30 and they don't start clearing til 10:45 -I love them here), but the water was quite cold in the pool, so I stuck to the jacuzzi. That got very hot after a while, so I didn't stay too long. I'm hoping it'll help with the battering my back took from the massage today though. :P
We've run out of bottled water in the room, but we have a full size kettle and loads of tea, so there are china cups slowly cooling all over the coffee table at the moment (we'll, we only have two cups, but you get the picture). Do you suppose English Breakfast Tea is any good for a sore back?
Back breaking work
Friday, October 08, 2010
Beijing, Beijing, China
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