798 and Food (Courtney)

Thought i had better sit down and write about some of the things we have been up to over the last few days. I think Marcus has done a pretty good job of covering most things! Tonight we leave for Xi'an, which I think i am most looking forward to because where we are staying has a pool! now, who knows what sort of quality the pool will be, but really at ths point, it's so hot I just want to swim! It seems unnatural for it to be summertime and to be so far away from the beach.

Our week in Beijing has been pretty exhausting. What with the hot weather, all of our walking and the fact the city stretches for what seems like 100 kms, we are both fairly buggered already! The city itself is really sprawling, there is no real "CBD" area and the subway does a loop around the outside of the main part of the city, so there is a lot of walking to and fro. THe subway is great though, god our system back home needs improvement. I always love other countries public transport, ours is just so lacking, even for our small population. The subway here is so easy to use, from purchasing tickets to finding the platform to switching trains. It couldn't be simpler or more efficient...which believe me, if you've ever spent any time in this country you'll appreciate more than normaly the word "efficient"!!

Thursday we decided to take it easy and head out to the 798 factory area. THis is a very large block just outside the city, which was once all factories - mostly brick making factories i think. It remained dormant for many years and was doomed for destruction when a group of artists bandied together to save the site. They moved in and soon the place was being overrun with artist studios, galleries and the inevitable tourists. I have been wanting to go check this place out for a long time, yet naively was surprised by the sheer level of people at this place. There must be a couple of hundred galleries there, but I really didn't think the Chinese would be there in such great number. i suppose that's part of the whole problem with the over population here, even if you think something is not that popular, it only takes a marginal percentage of the population to visit it to make it overrun with people.

All of the old buildings have been converted, most of them keeping a lot of original aspects which gave the place a wonderful bohemiam atmosphere. It was all very laid back with little cafes dotted around the place, bookstores and most importantly contemporary Chinese art. I know this might sound bad, but I really don't get overly excited about seeing traditional CHinese art. There are parts that i like and appreciate, but I was really interested to see what new artists are doing. We weren't disappointed, it was a great experience and we happily wiled away a handful of hours before the sun became too much! I bought a book of photography (now weighing down my pack) which detailed the ordinary lives of the Chinese over the last few decades or so. Really simple but i loved it immediately, and i know that whenver i look at these images I will be reminded of the simple things we see daily.

AFter this we headed back into the city. I wont bore you with the details but marcus was on the look out for this aquarium he had read about, and i was on the lookout for a way to waste my own time whilst he went to the aquarium. As always, nothing is as easy as it seems and i can't even begin to tell you how far we walked. But eventually we got there, Marcus got to see some fish and I got to have an incredibly warm and icky glass of wine in the Chinese equivalent of a wine bar. Hmm...

Now onto food. And man, have we eaten some amazing food in this city. Just today we had lunch for the second time in this great little place in the hutong we are staying at. It is literally someone's largish living room. Mum out the back cooking, her oldest son (about 12 or 13) doing the waiting. I feel for this kid, because he has a younger brother who is out in the laneway playng with his friend or his kitten, yet this young boy is in this hot room serving everybody. And boy does he work hard. This place turns over a surprising number of people and this young kid is taking orders, cleaning, serving food, handling the cash...and he does it all so well. Whilst the hutongs are amazing to see, the living conditions are very poor and whilst you want to see the hutongs be looked after, it's got to get to a point where people just can't live in them anymore.

BUt anyhoo, the food. THis place has a fantastic menu and for once we have been able to order actual dishes, rather than just asking for things we know, because someone has translated the menu into English. Just a little folder with texta writing but it does the trick. Earlier in the week we had this fantastic pork dish, which i think must be actually what real sweet and sour pork is. It was described as pork with vinegar and sugar...and oh it was good! Today we had some skewers and this beef and potato dish which we get at school occasionally. i think only matt and abby will understand when i say this was the good version of this dish!! It really does pay to go and eat where te locals are as invariably the food is just so much better.

Last night (after a long hot and failed attempt to see the Olympic village - namely teh birds nest and water cube...damn it all as i really wanted to see them!!) we went to a restaurant down the road that serves Yunnan food. We are heading to Yunnan province in a couple of weeks and my excitement is even higher now! The food here was fantastic and the atmosphere was great. All low tables, soft lighting, little screen prints, very cool stuff. We had this great minced beef and chilli dish, yunnan spring rolls which were different to normal but oh so good and this absolutely fantastic potato dish. All thin layers of sliced potato fried with chilli, herbs and I think sme sort of pickle vegie. Yuuuum!

The night before we headed to one of the touristy duck restaurants...when in Beijing.... We both love duck and have been waiting till Beijng to eat any, figured we would savour the experience! YEs it's a touristy thing to do but it has to be done and we had a great time. Our tour guide to the great wall had told us taht we must order a dish of sugar when we get duck - turns out you dip the crispy skin into the sugar and when you eat it, it basically melts in your mouth. Great tip! It was the full deal of course, man at the table cutting up the duck, and we were most pleased to be offered half the head and brains!

AND...the night before that we headed to Wangfujing Lu, which is the main shopping street of Beijing. Basically a huge pedistrianised street full of designer shops and odds and ends, plus a food street off to one side. I had been told by a guy at work that the original and best food street had been moved to a couple of blocks behind the main street, but we kind of forgot that as we started wondering around. So we headed down the main food street which was very cool. You'll know it from pictures, all little shops with basically everything on a stick. From beef to chicken, to of course the crickets, scorpians and seahorses. Plus pretty much anything else you can think of! We ate our way along here (and were surprised by the number of chinese people trying to take sneaky photos of us whilst we were eating?!?! go figure) with our best find being fruits on sticks that had then been dipped into a just hard toffee. Oh be still my heart! These were sooooo good. Marcus had a stick of grapes, and you couldn't imagine how sweet and juicy these things were.

So we kept on wandering down the shopping street and were about to turn around and head for the subway but decided to just see wht was around the corner. Lo and behold - the original food street!!! Oh how sad we were when we realised that this section was indeed better. More authentic and the food looked much tastier. So we snapped off some photos and indulged again, this time with a stick of strawberries and toffee. No words can tell you how delicious this was!

Thta's about it on the food front, we have eaten a ton of stuff since we have gotten here and i've no doubt that will continue once we hit Xi'an. Xi'an is known for it's Muslim area and street snacks...let's just say it's probably a good thing we are doing so much walking!

It's funny as the week has gone on, you soon realise that all of CHina really looks the same. i'm not sure how I would feel coming here as a tourist, some people must really leave witha very different impression to the one they arrived with. Outside the immediate city area, Beijing is just like anywehre else we have been. Even once you get into the hutongs, it's just normal life, just like it is in Wuxi. Crazy driving, stuff all over the streets, people everywhere. Everything here is public, there really isn't the concept of personal space. From people cooking on the street, to kids doing their homework, washing hanging EVERYWHERE, babies being washed in buckets...it's all on display. I feel so sorry for the oldies who have to walk down the street to use the bathroom. I know that they know no different but to me it's still strange to think of people not having a bathroom, let alone running water. China can be an incredibly frustrating country and i am so glad we have the experience of having lived here as it makes travelling here just so much easier. We had quite an adjustment phase coming here and I have no doubt we will strangely have an adjustment phase when we go back home. Things are just so different here, it surprises me everyday.