China - Land of a Gadzillion Chinese

Day Eleven -

Greetings from China,

First of all thanks for all the comments to the blog. At least we know ten of you read it.

We arrived here on Monday after the most turbulent flight I have ever been on. Eliza says she has experienced worse, so I blame her. At this time I would like to thank Korean Airlines for landing the plane safely. Some ideas/suggestions I have for the next landing include not filling the little plastic cups to the top when the plane is violently shaking about, and when landing, it is customary to touch the back two wheels first and then the front one. Not front first, back right second, back left third, back right again. I am sure my comment card will be reviewed accordingly.

After deciding to donate our lunches back to the Beijing Capital Airport, I noticed a helpful sign in front of customs. Let me paraphrase: "Those who are prone to motion sickness must get a WHO exemption. Upon arrival in Beijing, all passengers who look ill, cough, or show other signs of an infectious disease will be quarantined." At this point I turned to my travelling companion, who's face is a color somewhere between white and evergreen, and say "look lively" under my breathe. She dutifully snapped to attention, looked bright and cheerful all while glaring at me. As if I made the rule.

At this time I would like to thank Korean Airlines for preparing us for Chinese bus travel. Other than a driving style that would make a blind passenger cringe, the bus ride into Beijing was straight forward. As straight forward as it can be when you know no Chinese, they know little English, and there is a lot of pointing and head nodding.

We soon discovered that we were in the middle of the Chinese New Year. I mean, we knew it was the new year, just not that we were going to be in the middle of it. If you can light it they have. There were fireworks every where. And not the ones you can get in the US. I am talking big bangs and even bigger bangs. Six feet strings for blackjacks, no problem. Roman Candles, new name: Bigger Chinese Candles. The classic kind that only professionals handle in Seattle (but you can get smaller versions on a Native American Reservation or from the back of an unmarked van from Lynnwood), more prevalent than sparklers here. My personal favorite is the Combo-Pack. Thirty minutes of unadulterated noise, color, and sheer pyromaniacal bliss.

For dinner we sampled a Sichuan restaurant. We should know this by now, but when they say spicy, they mean spicy. As in when the waitress takes your order, leaves, comes back and (in broken English) double checks that you know the dish is spicy, the dish is spicy. But oh so good. We even managed to get a "present" of dumpling from our very nice waitress.

Day 12 -

Liza here now, calmer day given the start of a very Liza cold. Went off and wandering in our attempt to locate an active Taoist temple called the White Cloud (sounds like a lodging cousin to the Silver Cloud). As the theme goes, hundreds of people streaming in and out and more importantly, looking for a place to park. If there is more than a 2 inch margin, it counts as large enough for your car and you darn well better squeeze in. After viewing this madness it was decided lunch was the next item up (I am hungry, lets eat now, guess who said that one?). Wandered into a busy looking restaurant and plopped down. A quick browse through the menu and we had no clue what we wanted, it seemed the place only served soup and raw food. Well when you put 2 and 2 together (and your waitress insists you need the soup) the realization that the soup it actually a boiling broth used to cook aforementioned raw things, the meal gets good. One side is nice and mild, the other is John style spicy. All in all, China is definitely beating Korea in the restaurant based eats department.

Day 13 -

So the guide book tells you the Forbidden City is a full day affair. John and I take that to mean something we can surely accomplish before lunch. So off we go, after a great walk down a long skinny park situated in the middle of a 6 lanes of traffic we realize we are in the correct place by the throngs of people. Everyone there has something helpful to offer, a Mao hat, a city map, English Guide, postcards for a place we haven't even seen yet. Decided on no to all of these, but did opt for the English audio guides and we were off, with a soothing British/ Chinese accented voice to guide our way. Turns out the guides have trigger points within the FC and sometimes she would pipe in with a story of concubines double crossing one another at random, but overall very helpful. So first site we are greeted with, is the two largest halls covered in scaffolding and a sign stating the obvious that they are indeed under renovation. Luckily, this place is truly awesome and huge. Wandered for nearly 6.5 hours and didn't have a chance to see everything. Did get over to the hall of jewellery right about the time both cameras opted to run out of batteries. Pictures on this site do far better justice than words, though uploading looks a bit harder at this hostel, they will eventually follow.
Ended the day by meeting up with Hollis (a friend of a friend who is working on the Olympics in Beijing). She took us to a great hole in the wall place a few block from where we are staying and had lots of great tips on Beijing, tons of fun and the home of the best green beans we've had in weeks! Well, really the only green beans, or green vegetable for that matter, the whole "only eat things you can peel yourself" puts a damper on the fresh aspect of dining.

-John and Eliza

More to follow, off to locate the closest thing to lasagne this city has to offer for John's birthday