#274 Night Market

After dinner on our last night, we walked through the Donghuamen Night Market and were fortunately not hungry. This block-long set of stalls have the mission to offer on a stick every creature you never imagined frying up and eating on a stick. The menu includes starfish, sheep testicles, whole baby sharks, scorpions, centipedes, octipus, beetles, sea urchins, and even sea horses.

I wondered if this market is just a show for the tourists. All of the foods were labelled with signs in Chinese and English and I didn't see a single local person buying anything to eat except candied fruit. I wonder if the Chinese are videotaping this scene with the foreigners trying "Beijing Local Cuisine". They probably review the films and laugh about the garbage the foreigners like to eat.

#273 Beijing Day 3

Day three held a variety of sightseeing activities that included the Summer Palace (the emperor's summer residence), the Bird's Nest, the Beijing Zoo, and dinner at a Beijing Duck restaurant.

Our Summer Palace visit was a bit hampered by foggy and chilly weather. The kids seemed excited to see the bird's nest. They were interested to hear some more about my trip to the Olympics last summer after seeing the Olympic Village. The panda bear exhibit at the zoo was a highlight. They have four pandas on view and one of them was quite actively swinging and climbing in a tree in the outdoor section of his habitat. We found him very entertaining and stood to watch for more than 30 minutes.

We spent an hour or so at the Beijing Pearl market where everyone had a chance to buy some copy market crap. I got a rubber cover for my iPhone. Joseph bought a powerful green laser pointer. Marco a flashlight. All the girls bought purses or bags.

We asked George to find us a cheap Beijing Duck restaurant so we could avoid paying for five kids to eat at the famous Quanjude restaurant. Instead we went to a small place called "Beijing Duck Restaurant" and had a great meal at a reasonable price. A good close to a fun day.

#272 Great Wall

The main event on day two in Beijing was a trip to the Mu Tian Yu section of the Great Wall. During the two and a half hour drive north from Beijing, we saw foggy conditions all around us. Though, by late morning when we arrived at the wall, we were very happy to see the sun showing through and brightening and warming the day a bit.

The wall is a spectacular thing to see. The terrain on which it runs is steep and remote. The challenge that must have been faced to build this thing is unimaginable. With so many children in tow, it was too high to walk up to the wall, so we took the cable car. We walked for a couple of hours on top of the wall then took the Great Wall tobaggon ride back down. Fun !

#271 Wknd in Beijing

The kids had Friday and Monday off from school, so we planned a trip to see Beijing - our first time as a family to see the city and the sights. We went together with our friends and neighbors - Michael, Paige, and Caroline - and stayed for three days and four nights in the Lee Garden Serviced Apartments. We gave the hotel two thumbs up.

On the morning of our first day we visited Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen is, of course, the infamous public space where large gatherings and major political events take place. Tiananmen is a huge space with mammoth government buildings surrounding it. There is a tower in the center which was installed by Mao Zedong to demonstrate his power over the "Dragon Line" of China. Mao still lies today in a crystal casket in the Mao mausoleum in the square - 30 years after his death. Unfortunately, the line was too long for us to wait and pay a visit to Mao.

Directly across the street is the Forbidden City which was the home of the emperor and the seat of government during the most recent Chinese dynasties. It is a massive complex of buildings built in the style of a Chinese temple. Our guide, George, shared with us some interesting stories about the emporer's staff of concubines and eunichs. Strange stuff.

Third agenda item for the day was a visit to a traditional Bejing hutong neighborhood. The hutong is a style of residential housing where four or more families live in a brick compound with a central courtyard and shared bathroom. George took us to lunch in a hutong family's home. We traveled to the house by bicycle rickshaw. The food was great, but the experience was a bit overpriced at $110 USD for our family of six.

#270 HB's Wedding

One of our poker buddies got married on Sunday to a local Suzhou girl. He had a traditional Chinese wedding ceremony at the Shila Hotel in SIP. Six of us and our families attended to give Brian (a.k.a. Huggy Bear) our support.

There are certainly some interesting traditions to the Chinese wedding. The bride started out the ceremony in a traditional western white dress but later disappeared and reappeared in a Chinese red dress. When she appeared in red, her face was fully veiled. The groom led her across a threshold of bamboo to the front of the room where she was revealed for the next part of the ceremony. There was food, wine, and cake like a U.S. wedding, but no band or dancing. There was also baijiu, that vile flammable rice alcohol that burns going down and coming up. You can see us toasting the groom with shots of baijiu (I took a sip and threw the rest in a plant - god help the fern).

Later in the event, the bride and groom circulated to greet and chug a beer with each guest and light a Chenghua cigarette. It is supposed to be good luck for the smoker who gets his cigarette lit by the bride. All in all, it was a rather brief affair compared to a western wedding - only about two hours. It was an interesting experience and a very happy day for Brian and Demi.