Beijing Adventures

Pam and Marie-Eve arrived around 7:30 pm on Monday and I met them at the Brickyard where they had some soup before checking in. I knew that that evening was going to be my only time off while they were there so I rushed to show them around Beigou village. They got to see inside 3 of our homes (Mumanyu, Stone Forest and Big Rock House) as well as get an idea of the village. I let them go to bed and headed back to my room to pack before heading to sleep myself.

I got up early to have a proper breakfast (the best meal we serve) with them before work and saw them periodically throughout the day. As it was raining they decided to wait to go up the wall, but had a nice walk between Mutianyu and Beigou on the way home. I worked night duty and thus got to spend lots more time with them at night even though I was constrained to the Brickyard. Once most of the guests went to bed we curled up on the comfy chairs and did some travel planning.

On Wednesday Marie-Eve, my mom and I headed to the Schoolhouse after I finished the morning shift of night duty, where they stayed until the early afternoon as it was still raining. They did make it up to the wall -- but not the toboggan. I finish work at 6 so we aimed to take a bus to Huairou and then another to Beijing. However, guests were late checking in and it was about 6:30 by the time I was done. The last bus to leave Huairou was at 7 so we were in a crazy rush. Alice was amazing and organized a car to take us to the bus and we just made it there on time. Ma Hombin came with us and we got stuck with our backpacks and suitcases in the seats because the driver didn't want to open the bottom of the bus. It was quite squished, but we eventually made it there. We checked into our hostel, had a so-so dinner in a hole in the wall and went to bed.

We got up quite early on Thursday since my mom and Marie-Eve were still fairly jet lagged and had a lovely free breakfast at the hostel before heading out to Tian'men Square. We decided that Marie-Eve didn't really need to see the Forbidden City, so we just showed her the front gate before heading to a nearby park from where she got an aerial view of it. We walked all around and even took a paddleboat on the large lake in the middle.

Then we headed off to Nanloguxiang, a trinket shopping street where we bought lots of scarves and some other cool stuff. Instead of heading back near the hostel for dinner, we took a cab to the red lantern street (I don't know what it's actually called, but it has a gazillion red lanterns) to try to go to a restaurant where my mom and I had our best meal last year. However, there was a 40 minute wait so we went next door instead and had a fairly decent, though perhaps not particularily memorable, meal.

On Friday we went to a couple of markets for more shopping and some more good hole in the wall food. We ended up at Quianmen -- a restored famous old Hutong (Alley) street -- at night since the  markets all close early and got even more shopping in before what was perhaps the best Beijing duck I have ever had.

Yesterday we decided to be a bit more cultural and went to the Capital Museum. We all decided it was a very poorly arranged museum, but Marie-Eve and my mom enjoyed a number of pieces they saw. It was supposed to show the history of Beijing but was sadly lacking in text and cohesion. On the other hand, I'm really not a museum person so I may be too quick to judge. We were all very hungry by the time we finished so we decided to try the reasonably priced buffet at the museum. It was by far the worst meal we have had. We didn't realise it was closing soon and assumed they would be refilling the mostly empty trays. The pasta tasted like it had ketchup on it and the Chinese food was very North American. We headed back to the hostel for a nap and bought some buns and pastries on the way, which were much tastier.

After the nap we headed out for an acrobatics show. It was perhaps not as good as some of the ones I have seen here, but the highlight was a motorcycle act. There was a giant metal ball and a man on a motorcycle rode in and all around -- including upside down -- in it. That might have been very impressive for someone who knew little about physics, but when they added a second motorcycle, nobody could deny the skill and fearlessness they must have had. We hardly dared watch when they added a 3rd, 4th and 5th rider, all crisscrossing paths and going at crazy speeds.

Apparently we were also part of the show because we had half the audience trying to talk to us -- especially my mom -- before the show started. They fed us chips and dried meat, played peek-a-boo and exchanged e-mails with my mom. One of them even asked me if all Canadians talk as much as my mom does. That made Marie-Eve and I laugh for a good long time. We had dinner with a guy who had come with us from our hostel and he is studying Chinese so he was explaining some of the characters to me. It was quite fun!

Today was a bit more of a lazy day. We switched hostels this morning and then headed to Yashow market to buy some fake LeSportSacs -- of which my mom bought many. We had a wonderful lunch of dumplings and buns at a hole in the wall place my mom and I discovered last year and headed back to the red lantern street for an early dinner at the same place we tried to go to the other night. They told us again that it would be a 40 minute wait, but we decided to stay. They were used to the large crowds so they had had bowls of sunflower seeds, water and even popsicles they were giving out for free. 40 minutes turned into 2 hours, but eventually we got in. We were very disappointed to find out that they no longer makeour favourite dish from last year, but ordered a number of others that mostly turned out to be far too spicy. It wasn't exactly what we had hoped for given how long we had had to wait, but we got some kebabs on the way home so it was all good.

It has been crazy hot and humid here, but somehow my mom seems to have a cold. We're planning on visiting the 798 art district tomorrow and then going for a cooking class on Tuesday.

Thoughts on Bargaining and How I Only Sort of Failed at It Today

I haven't spent a night in Beijing in a while, so I thought I would tonight and check out one of the hostels my mom, Marie-Eve and I are staying at next week. It seems decently nice for what we are paying (a little over $10).

Nothing particularily interesting has happenned today so I will share my thoughts on bargaining instead.

In my opinion, there are two methods. The first involves knowing the price something should be and aiming for that price. This takes lots of practice and you still may be unhappy with what you get if you think the typical price is unreasonable. On the other hand, you won't walk into a different store later and find out you wouldn't have got whatever you are buying for cheaper.


The second method, and my prefered one, involves not caring what something is worth, but instead considering how much you want it. You may end up paying way too much for something, but you will always be happy with what you paid and you don't have to spend lots of time checking out different stalls/stores to find out what the typical asking price is. This technique works especially well for getting things you really don't want for cheap -- so be careful!

Numerous times I have walked away from something with what seems like a reasonably typical price because I really didn't want it, only to have the price drop by half.

On the other hand, I walked by a store and found a dress I fell in love with today (this from someone who hates dresses). I asked about the price and it was way too high. I offered a bit less than half and the lady shook her head so I walked away -- only to turn around a few minutes later and walk back because I really wanted the dress. Now in the world of bargaining, going back is the worst thing you can do because it tells the vendor you really do want what they are selling. I cut a little off what she originally offered, but still paid about twice what I wanted. Oh well! At least it represented what the dress was worth for me :)

On a different note, I'm back to being the only intern as William suddenly got on a plane and went back to Spain without an explanation the other day.

On another different note, I had a great conversation about tomatoes yesterday. We had tomatoes and egg for dinner so I was asking Li Dan (the cashier from the glass shop) how you say tomatoes in Chinese. Our conversation went a bit like this:

"How do you say tomato?"
"What's a tomato?"
"The red vegetable we had for dinner. Or, well, I guess it's a fruit, but you know what I mean..."
"Hunh?"
"You know...the red thing..."
"Oh, a tomAHto"
"hahahahaha"

Then I had to explain the "tomAYto, TomAHto" expression. It was great!