Moment in Peking

This blog post is named after a book I read last year, shortly after I arrived in China. The book was written entirely in English by a native Chinese author and was a tremendous read. I recommend it entirely.

Beijing used to be known to us in the West as Peking, and thus the title is appropriate for my recent travel to Beijing. I spent three awesome days with my relatives, but looking back it all seems like but a short moment…

Arrival: My flight was delayed from South Korea to Beijing, but that turned out to be a happy coincidence because I walked into baggage claim at the Beijing airport just in time to spot my aunt Celeste, Uncle Kevin, and cousin Miranda’s boyfriend Russ collecting their bags. We met our tour guide, Vicky, and the driver, Mr. Zhang, who then drove us to the Sheraton Hotel downtown. For dinner we went out to Hot Pot and I really enjoyed introducing this experience to my relatives. Hot Pot is a popular dining out tradition for Chinese people. Think fondue dining where you cook the food at your table but in spicy soup instead of cheese and different Chinese foods instead of Western foods.

Day One: After a good power breakfast at the Sheraton, we visited Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We had a nice lunch at a traditional restaurant along the water. This was the group’s first experience of a Chinese feast: we must have had 12 or 15 different dishes presented for us on the “lazy susan” and spun around for everyone to share. The waiter asked if we also wanted some rice and we accepted, though we all wondered where we could find room for the rice on the table and in our bellies!

 

That night we went for some Peking duck. The duck was not just food, it was an experience: a chef came out to our table to cut the full duck into tender slices of meat. Then a waitress showed us a few ways to wrap/stuff the duck inside two types of Chinese bread then to add vegetables and sauces, etc.

Day Two: The Great Wall! But before we got there, we did visit the Summer Palace. A historical figure that kept surfacing in the stories from Vicky was the Dragon Lady, who was operating behind the throne, pulling the puppet strings of the Last Emperor. She suggested watching the movie: The Last Emperor.

The Wall was as big and as impressive as we'd all imagined and been told to expect.  The section we were on was well-maintained for the purpose of tourism, but other stretches were wildly overrun with plants and trees that had grown into the rock. The long stretch of wall running through the forested hillside was a sight to behold.

Going up and coming down wasn't bad either: we took a chairlift up to the wall and rode the alpine slide back down!

 Beijing Opera for the show that night. Interesting. We had a taste of this earlier in the day so we were prepared for the out-of-tune, high pitched sounds, but not prepared for how long those sounds would last! The tea was served by a kung-fu master who poured from a three-foot long spout and made twists and turns in between pours. We were joined by two Colombian women at our table so Kevin and Celeste got to show off their Spanish skills!

After dinner, we caught up with Miranda at a posh bar downtown for her class party. I showed up under-dressed, so the bouncer required me to rent some yoga slippers and leave my sandals outside. My dear family bugged me about those slippers that night and for the rest of the trip, never letting me live it down J Pictures? Oh no, I did not even think to take pictures of my rental yoga slippers!

Day Three, morning:

We finished another good breakfast meal at the hotel then loaded into the van and were taken straight to the airport. Our guide, Vicky made sure we checked in OK and had no issues with baggage weight limits, and then we made our way to the gate bound for Xi’an.