We arrived Saturday March 22nd around 8pm to the hotel. We were quite tired but also in need of some dinner. We checked out the hotel menus and they were very expensive so we decided to venture out in search of something light and something that Dave could eat since he requires gluten free food.
We found a small restaurant about a 5 minute walk from the restaurant that had photos on the walls of the foods that they offer. We took out the gluten free card that our agency had translated for us but it didn't work very well. However what did work somewhat was a translation app I had on my phone. The people working there seemed to understand and we ended up with some plain rice and some chicken soup. It was all welcomed into our tummy. The strange thing to us was that in the soup was all random parts of the chicken. I'm not sure if it's all of China like this or if it was just this restaurant but they don't debone the chicken and they seem to use all parts of the chicken so there is no waste. Which I guess is a good thing but will certainly will take some getting used to.
Back to the hotel we went and fell fast asleep. The room was very very hot so we woke up in the middle of the night and with the jet lag could not get back to sleep. The air conditioning is not turned on and available for use until later into spring/summer regardless of the temperature outside.
We started the day on Sunday March 24th with a wonderful breakfast buffet at the Marriott hotel where we were staying. It was fairly westernized foods with made to order omlettes, toast and jam, fruit, juices, and some Chinese food as well such as rice congee and dim sum and a few types of rice nood soups.
Our guide MauRui met us around 10am to start our day touring Beijing. First we visited a very old/traditional kite maker shop. The shop had been in the family of the man working there for generations. In fact his grandfather was the official kite maker for the emperor a long time ago. In this shop only silk and fabric kites are made because they are much more durable. Very thin silk is hand painted in colourful designs and then glued to hand made bamboo structures. We got to watch the kite maker as he showed us how to heat the bamboo sticks with a small lit oil lantern and then bend the bamboo as it heats and then when it cools it remains in that shape. Me and hubby and sister tried it out but it was very difficult. It is quite obvious a skill learned by many years of practice.
We then took our van to an older part of Beijing where we walked around a beautiful lake. Lots of peoples were out enjoying the spring weather since it was a Sunday afternoon. Close to the lake was an original hutong which is an old street that represents how the Chinese used to live with narrow corridors and alleyways. Now most people who live in large cities like Beijing live in high-rises and most of the hutongs have been destroyed. The one we walked down however is being preserved to maintain some history.
Next around the corner we walked over to tour the Drum Tower which is an old traditional building with a very steep staircase that leads up to a tower containing large drums. A long time ago these drums (well ones similar) were beaten every hour during the day to let the residents know what time it was since most people did not have a way to tell time. Now they are only beaten a few times during the day as a show for tourists. There was a fairly good view from the top but the polluted smoggy air was very apparent from up there. It's such a shame that a beautiful city like Beijing is covered up in smog.
We then were taken to a traditional Chinese restaurant where we got to eat in our own private room. Ordering was very hard as there was not many dishes that any of us could or wanted to eat. We ended up with some sweet and sour chicken that was too spicy for our taste as well as some fried shrimp that my mom liked but hubby could not get past the smell since it's cooked a much different way that at home. This reminds us of how different everything will be at our home for little Vivi when we bring her back to Canada. Our culture shock serves as a good way to more deeply understand what she will be going through as we take her from her culture into ours.
We then went back to the hotel for a rest. A few do us went swimming while others napped. We hummed and hawed about what to do for dinner because none of us wanted to try Chinese food again after the lunch we barely ate so hubby and I tried the Italian style restaurant in the hotel. It was very expensive so while what we ate tasted amazing it was very expensive and not enough to fill our bellies. We went to bed after dinner and I work up at 11pm and did not fall back sleep that night. I have not switched over to China time 12 hours ahead and the room was 28'C with very little breeze from outside. I mostly played on the iPad to pass the time. Hubby was wake with me from 2am onwards. This made for a long day the next day.
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