Saturday February 19th, 2011

I woke up this morning and finally felt like a person! I had but one choice open to me, and that was to walk around the city and explore. I left the dorm at 10:30, with no map in hand. I am following the advice of Fodor’s and leaving my map behind; today it is just me and Beijing. The weather could not have been better today. It has finally cleared off, and visibility is over 2-3 miles.

I took the subway to west of Tian’An Men Square, and then took a winding course to the northeast. Traveling so, I wound my way through the southeastern part of Dong Cheng, and then across the Chao Yang district. I saw some really interesting things on this tour, including a group of people pulling cooked duck skulls out of what looked like congealed BBQ sauce for consumption. I was thoroughly disgusted. I walked through some of the older Hu Tongs in those districts, and one thing that I noticed today was the situation that these Hu Tongs face. Again, many of them are being destroyed by the CCP for newer, better housing projects. At the same time, the people living in the Hu Tongs are preserving traditional housing in Beijing, but many are being forced out of their homes due to rent increases. Real estate in China is a very interesting monster, and I will be sure to elaborate on that soon.

I also passed a good number of shopping centers and an innumerable amount of bike shops. I passed one center that boasted to be a hypermarket – even better than a supermarket. We are falling behind, I fear. Seeing all of these bike shops and walking around in this 60-degree weather really makes me want to get a bike. I also stumbled across the Chinese “State” Department, and that was very cool to see. It was covered with guards, and I was a little afraid to try to take a picture of the building.

I eventually wound my way through Chao Yang, and saw all of the foreigners in all their splendor. While I was in this district, I tried to take another street around San Li Chuar, and as a result, I got lost in a huge housing facility. The apartment complex kept expanding farther into the recesses of the city, and it took me a while to realize my folly in trying to pass through a Chinese residential district. By this point, it was after 1:00 in the afternoon, and I needed to find somewhere to eat.

I entered the next restaurant that I chanced upon, where I was snubbed by the waitress. She would not even look at me to get me a table, so I left. I didn’t want to eat their crappy food anyway. I had better luck at the next one, and I ordered a Kung Pao Chicken roof food. The dish was at best sub par, and I left most of it uneaten.

I then felt my way to a subway station using my impeccable direction skills. I headed back to campus, where I played some guitar and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

Around 6:30, I was coerced into going to eat hotpot with other member of the 6^th Floor Club. We visited the restaurant with the free beer again, and the owner recognized us immediately. We have some serious guan xi with him, and that is very important for g us foreigners. We ordered a plate of beef and lamb, along with mushrooms, pumpkins, lotus, noodles and more.

We took a cab back the dorm, and I engaged in my second favorite activity in China – talking to taxi drivers. What is the first, you ask? Why making faces at Chinese people who stare at me, what else? This taxi driver was not much fun, though, not much fun at all. He had no hobbies, nor does he like being a cab driver. He is only driving because he can find no other work, but even so, I don't think that he could find a job that he would like. I believe the cab driver just liked to complain – and do nothing.

We came back to the dorm and celebrated Joy’s birthday by eating cake, and hanging out in her room. I found some obscure pretense to leave the room, as I was not in the health or the state of mind to go out with them tonight. I got some sleep.

I’ll write soon!

Love,

Jamey