Beijing Day 2

For my second day in Beijing I was flying solo. I took a cab to the Forbidden City and spent the best 20 bucks of the trip. Meet Emmy: tour guide. Her English was so-so. Her zeal was fantastic.

From here I took a rickshaw ride through a typical Beijing neighborhood and stopped at a tea house. Cool, but probably a rip-off.

I went to the Silk Market and bargained my way through all 6 floors. They even hemmed my pants. $1.50. Sweet. From there I had a slightly sketchy cab ride, but was fine.

For dinner we experienced Hot Pot. Melting Pot, Chinese style. It was fantastic. You make your own little dipping sauce at a Chinese salsa bar, of sorts. Sesame-infused goodness. Then you swish-swish your thinly sliced meats in the savory boiling pot and dip it in your sauce. As the night goes on they fill the pot with vegetables, seasoning and at the end they bring out the Chinese equivalent of tossing pizza dough--"dancing noodles." Yum, yum.

Beijing was fascinating, dirty, polluted, crowded, expansive and definitely foreign.

Beijing Day 1

I met up with Ryan's cousin Caroline who is living here in Beijing. She was fantastic and took me to the Great Wall and the Summer Palace.

At the Great Wall I had a singular experience. A 20 something, hip looking couple made the universal "will you take a picture?" gesture. Sure, I smiled back. We did an awkward back and forth dance until I finally realized that they wanted to take a picture with me. Apparently not all the world dislikes Americans :)

the couple who wanted to take their picture with me

A similar thing happened at a small noodle shop. The owner really wanted me to take a picture with them and then have Caroline print it out and bring it back. Ryan and I were hounded at the Bird's Nest as well. My own 15 minutes of fame.

one of Ryan's colleagues at the Bird's Nest

We went to dinner at family style Chinese restaurant. Tons of beautiful food spread out on a huge Lazy Susan.  My aversion to spicy foods saved me from sampling some of the more exotic things (pig knuckle) but I did have some intestine. All in all, though, it was really good.