Beijing! Ohh yeah!!

So alrighty then,  this is Beijing:

We found this lawn of creepy pandas at the zoo. China: Of course!

The Watercube and Bird's Nest Stadium

Tiananmen Square. There was some very important meeting of very important people going on at the People's Hall, so the Square was closed. Also closed was the building in the background there. It's the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. So sadly we were unable to view the lifeless yet preserved body of Dear Leader.

Oh, but there's his beaming face, looking down upon us from the wall of the Forbidden City.

Inside the Forbidden City. If you're like me and have seen the Last Emperor, you'd be walking around talking to yourself, "I know this place!"

Proof it was like crazy cold. But begs the question, what good is an Imperial Moat if you can just walk over it?

The cold didn't stop these brave Thai Buddhist Monks from rocking bath slippers in the Forbidden City.

Check back! More to come! (just humor me, okay?)

What I Ate in China - a photo essay

The title of this post says it all, so lets begin:

Mystery meal, day 1: we were tired and not that hungry so we went to the grocery store and picked up a few mystery items. This meal was so so. 

Beijing night food street had many interesting options. I chose shrimp on a stick! Yum. 

This ramen was all the way delicious. If only we could get this in the States! This was basically fast food. 

OMG! The stuff that looks like twisted noodles is the best ever! EVER! I still don't know what it is, but if anyone does, let me know. It's a sweet crumbly dessert thing. Tasty! 

I'm a sucker for grass jelly, and this ice cream with grass jelly that we got at Honeymoon Dessert in Shanghai didn't disappoint. 

Last meal - this Shanghainese meal was our last in the country and it may have been the best. Spinach, crunchy tofu, dumplings (not pictured), and the best shrimp ever! Note to self: go back to China. 

Shanghaied!

Well no, not really, but I couldn't resist.  Oh, it's so sad though, we've now spent our last day in China . We spent it schlepping around the city on foot, on subway and on the tackiest tunnel ride ever. Highlights of the day included finding the bird and cricket market where locals meet to sell birds/cricket and all the gear required to raise them. Yes, apparently there is gear involved, and this being China that means the cages are made of wood and the birds drink from, what else, china.

For reasons unknown our split pants baby sightings went through the roof on this last day. For the uninitiated, split pants are used on babies instead of diapers (although this practice is changing). When the baby needs to go, he just squats where he is and gets it done. Hmm, there definitely seem to be some pros, and umm, a lot of cons to this practice, but hey, you can't deny those pants are ridiculously cute.

Our day was capped off with maybe the best meal of the trip.  We found a Shanghainese restaurant near the hotel and tucked into crunchy tofu, spinach, dumplings and shrimp.  Boy was it delish!  Our bellies full we were ready to face the next day and 30+ hours of travel.  Wait! What? 30+ plus hours! Noooo!

(pics coming soon)

Oh Hai Haibao!

So this is Shanghai! We got here a few days ago and it's all flashy and shiny like I thought it would be.

My current obsession is Haibao who is the official mascot of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo which begins May 1. They are expecting millions of visitors to the expo and as a result there's an army of construction workers building a multitude of construction projects in preparation. Haibao, who is basically a huge blue gumby, is everywhere cheerily proclaiming the motto of the Expo - "Better City, Better Life!" And of course, I'm in!

We spent yesterday riding the subway and walking all over the city people watching (and dodging lugeys which is apparently a sport here, the producing and dodging I mean), going to temples and shopping. I bought a cheap winter coat at Shanghai No 1 Department Store on Nanjing Road, their largest shopping street. I also spent yesterday taking too many pictures of Haibao!

Last night we went to a hole in the wall restaurant (Anthony Bourdain would be proud!) and having mutton hot pot. Basically there's a burner in the middle of your table and they bring out a huge pot of mutton in broth w/cabbage. You order additional veggies, noodles, dumplings, etc and add them to the pot to cook. It was yummy! It also helped that some random Russians shared their cheap Chinese wine with us.

And oh yeah, how could I forget! Dreams really do come true! Several Chinese people have asked me if my hair color is natural. AND ... wait for it ... wait for it ... they've told me my hair is just like Chinese! HA!

This is China!

Our last day in Beijing we went and saw the Temple of Heaven, which in the olden days is where the Emperor prayed and where the peasants stood outside looking hungry. Today it is used mainly as a park and as a tourist attraction. Local seniors use it as a gathering place to meet up with friends, and do exercise. Things like tai chi and fan dancing that sort of thing. But also in this park you will find the most best part of China. Senior citizens playing hacky sack! Nearby you will find their brethen dancing in twos to music, but not just any song, it's the remix! As they waltz along, with stoic faces the jumpy rhythm of techno blares through the trees. This is China!

Our last night in Beijing we ate super delicious Peking Duck! The skin was definitely the best, it was like candied wild game sent straight from God! Thanks to Soledad for the reccommendation!

Today we traveled to Xi'an which is an interior city to the west of Beijing. It's just a medium sized city for China. Just 8 million or so. The site of the Terracotta Warriors is outside of the city. It really was amazing and I hope to upload some pics here once I get back home. The rest of the day was spent spotting split pants babies and passing the nuclear facility where I'm sure the Chinese Homer Simpson works.

On to Shanghai tomorrow!

Beijing in March

Let me just tell you one thing, Beijing in March is cold. Like crazy cold. Like double glove cold, like snow on the ground cold, like imperial moats are frozen cold. And the coldest place in China in March? It's gotta be the Wall. So is it worth it? ... Yes definitely.

Here are some notes on China/Beijing:

1. You want to know what one of the best things about China is? One of the best things about China is the gawking. Gawking is okay. Not only is it okay, it's encouraged. See something weird? See somebody weird? Want to stare? want to gawk? want to take out your camera and take a picture? Go right ahead. It's quite possibly some sort of partriotic Chinese duty! This is my kind of country!

2. The Great Wall - I'd like to say something sarcastic about it. National monuments aren't really my thing, but I have to say that the Great Wall is definitely worth it. It's big, like really big, and really long (in case you didn't already know). It's also steep, and have I mentioned it's cold in March?

3. Goals completed. Forbidden City, Tianaman Square, Beijing night food street, Great Wall, Summer Palace, working hard on my Chinese. And more importantly, picked up what is sure to be magic elixir for my hair, at the supermarket. The fact that it was placed somewhere between the duck necks and the thousand year old black eggs I think is a good sign. Engrish: you really can't avoid it. Mystery food on a stick. Yeah, and it was quite delicious!

4. To go. Tomorrow is our last day in Bejing. We're going to the free market where I'm hoping to pick up some cheap knockoffs. Tomorrow night I'm hoping we get to the roast duck place. Yum! Then it's off to Xi'an on Sunday to see the terracotta warriors.

See everyone later! (& I'm hoping this emailing the blog entry thing is working as still can't see the blog, which is also the reason that I haven't put any pictures up. Plus I'm going through slight Facebook withdrawl as that is also blocked, but that's probably a good thing.)

Beijing

So alrighty then, we're here. Well that us and 1.5 billion Chinese. Sadly those 1.5 billion Chinese will never see this blog as it seems to be blocked here. Thankfully I thought ahead and set up a way to email this to the blog! Woo, always thinking ahead!

Ok, I gotta be quick here since my computer time is running out ...

I have been breathing as deeply and fully as possible in the interest of science in order to see the full effects of the air. So far nothing. I feel good and have only spotted a handful of face masks here. Those that do sport them tend to go for the more decorative kind (most of those sporting patterns of playful cartoon animals).

We spent the first day visiting the Summer Palace which I won't bore you the details of, but it was nice, if not warm. Once back near the hotel which is in downtown Beijing (near Tianaman Square) since we were so tired we decided we wouldn't go far and occupied ourselves by wandering the mall attached to our hotel. I can't really explain how bewildering the mall was, but we spent most of our time there horribly lost. Higlights included the manicure bar and the many unreconizable animal parts being sold at the market at the bottom of the mall. That's where we got our mystery meal for the night, which was okay, but not horrible, so I'm calling that a win!

The journey was 28 hours and we landed at about 5 am which meant that we had to stay up an entire day afterwards. I had the ambitious goal to stay up to 8 pm but only lasted till 7:15. That's mostly the reason I haven't gotten to writing this yet. My bad. Sorry gotta go now though! Time's up!

And so it begins. Waiting to board flight # 1. Just 28 short hours till Beijing. *sigh*
See ya on the other side!

China!

So, here's the thing, my mom and I are going to China. Yeah, China. For a while I resisted the urge to do a blog, because ... well ... it's just so nerdy. That time has passed and so here I am.

On the agenda:

Shanghai

Beijing

Xi'an

Great Wall

Terra Cotta Warriors

etc, etc

On the other agenda ('cause I always got one!):

SOMETHING'S IN THE AIR - What's all this fuss about the pollution? How bad is it? Are those masks really worth it? Were all those Olympic athletes at the Beijing games a bunch of whining cry babies? I will investigate and report back!

THE HOLY HAIR GRAIL - All my life I have had one dream, well one dream that I have consistently worked towards achieving. No, it's not finding the end of PI, or discovering life's real purpose. No, not at all. Since my childhood I have dreamed that one day I would achieve the perfection, the beauty of silky, straight, luxurious stereotypically Asian hair. While this concept may not even exist in real life, it hasn't stopped me from looking, in Japan, in Thailand, wherever. And while the Chi (my flatiron) has brought me infinitely closer to this goal, I haven't gotten there yet. However, I remain convinced the holy grail of asian hair exists! I will be on the hunt.

NOODLES - In my former life I would have cared less about homemade artisan noodles, but with  increased age has come an unhealthy obsession with Anthony Bourdain. So here I am, itching to eat some real homemade chinese noodles. Extra points for seeing them being made. Super extra points for getting a picture.  Also in this category will be the all the delights (and the potential not-so-delightful aftermath) of street food! Woo!

ENGRISH!  - Imagine you had to create public signage in a language you had no knowledge of and the only help you had was a bad english/other language dictionary. Here's a hint, hilarity ensues.