Ni Hao from Beijing

I’m in China! I can’t get into my email account right now, but I am able to update my blog. I don’t have anything terribly insightful to say at this point – just a quick post to say I’m here and doing well and to document my small amount of travels so far. I slept 6 hours on the plane (a miracle) and slept 12 hours last night, so my body is well-rested. It is still confused, though. It’s as if it doesn’t understand why it’s well-rested, awake, and eating when it should be asleep. I also miss my boys terribly. (And Dave too, of course).
The skyline view from my hotel is so amazing. Buildings and buildings as far as the eye can see (through the smog). The city is full of construction as they work madly to get things built in time for the Olympics. The Beijing Olympic symbol is everywhere.
Yesterday, Paul took me to the Silk Market – 4 floors jam-packed with people, knock-off shirts, bags, and touristy knick-knacks. Haggling is expected and part of the fun. Calculators serve as a kind of voice – you go back and forth, with them putting the number of RNB they want on the screen and then you hand it back with your offer. It’s expected that you will walk away at least once. They grab you by the arm and say “no bye-bye, no bye-bye”. Paul is the haggling expert. I managed to bargain for a Chinese-style shirt from 1080 RNB down to 150. Who knows what the “real price” is? Trying to figure it out is part of the fun.
After the market, we went to Xiao Wang’s Home Restaurant and ordered up a feast: broccoli and asparagus stir-fried in garlic, lemon chicken, Peking duck, Beijing noodles, and deep-fried crispy bean curd (tofu) with mild chlii sauce. It was amazing – like all the flavor of Asian food back in the US, but none of the grease. The sauce on the lemon chicken was bright and flavorful, and actually looked like a natural color (unlike the sno-cone type syrup they pour on it in the States). My favorite thing was the tofu – it was crispy on the outside, soft like butter on the inside, and served with a sauce of the perfect balance of spicy and sweet. Amazing – I can’t believe I get to eat like this every night!
We are headed to a Tibetan restaurant and show tonight. This is one of Paul and Shanti’s favorite places and I’ve heard so much about it, it will be fun to experience it in person.
Feel free to use the comments as email if you need to.
Cheers!
UPDATE: My email is back in action (thanks to Dave Smith, Wonder Husband! He can troubleshoot from Seattle all the way to China. Swoon.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 19th, 2007 at 1:49 AM and is filed under 200708 - China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.