Rain, rain, don’t go away, I’m going to shop anyway. Since it was raining what better way than to take the bus to Hongquiao Market and go shopping inside the 7 story market outside of The temple of heaven. The prices aren’t as crazy as the Silk Market. You still need to haggle. I feel there are more visitors here, because it’s right next door to a destination(Temple of Heaven). Lots of people had their suitcases with them. The Silk Market is just easy to get to at a subway stop, mostly the visitors are on lunch from a conference at a nearby hotel.
We ate at the food court in the lower level, bypassing McD’s and Subway. The rest of the places you order your food you get a ticket to pay at the one cashier stand then go back for your food. Only 1 place sells drinks, we bought fancy drinks, I tried a kumquat lemonade. Yummy. My meal was a bowl of cold noodles with cucumbers and watermelon radish and chicken and sauce. The sauce pictured was a different one I’ve had cold and expecting. What I got was a peanut butter/seasame sauce. Still good, just not what the picture showed. Mine was 16 yuan, and I could only eat half. The kids didn’t want kungpao chicken that comes over rice. No, my kids want a different chicken and rice, which they won’t do as a combo like the kungpao. Costs twice as much separate. Oh well, they ate it all. The bathroom by the food court had an automatic toilet paper machine. You had to stand with your face in front of it for 3 seconds and it would spit out 4 squares of 3 ply tissue.
The higher the level the fancier the jewelry was. But we decided to take the escalators all the way to the top. I’m glad we did, we were rewarded with a garden terrace. The rain had stopped and we got an amazing view of Tiantan! Since the floor had a layer of water on it, the boys were re-enacting the Kungfu Panda scene!
Got some cool things, more breakables I need to carry. The problem is you can’t buy too much from one vendor, they give you a good price on one or two items(which you can buy multiple of), but that third item they don’t want to budge on their price. I guess they feel you will cave after they give you two of your prices.
Saturday, July 14, 2018
Friday, July 13, 2018
Chinese Ethnic Culture Park
Our last week’s forecast is all rain except for today. So we went to the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, it is right below the Olympic Park. We got off at the subway stop right by the park with the lest amount of walking, since I knew we would be walking a ton inside. They must’ve expanded on the exits out of the subway since on-line it said to exit D2. In reality it said to exit F. Which we had to walk around the corner to the entrance finding a closer exit of A right outside. When we went back in via the closer A exit we could see it used to be the D2.
The park is rather expensive. They left me get kid tickets so it was 300 yuan for the 4 of us. Cheap. For an American park, but expensive for here. This Park is about how the normal people lived, trying to preserve their history and implements. Versus every other place you visit is about the rich, royalty, and emperor.
All the signs are in English and Chinese. They gave us a Chinese map and English map, there is also a map on the ticket. The three where not consistent on restaurant locations. I was expecting a food court to sample all the different types of food. We couldn’t find any restaurants, except 1 right before we left and no one was there.
Because the park is so big they lock “museum” sections until they do a show in that section. Now the show guide was only in chinese. I found a show guide on line, but it was too hard to chase them around and see the 20 min show. Mostly if we heard music we followed it and lucked out seeing a show. We stopped trying to stress ourselves with finding it. The park is just too big. That is the only instance in which you need to have a Chinese speaking/reading person with you. This park would not be good for older people. Too big, too much walking and climbing. Didn’t appear wheelchair friendly.
This is definitely recommended if you have time though, to see so many of the 56 Chinese cultures represented is amazing. Plus there are never a lot of people here, so you can actually feel alone for once in Beijing.
Lots of family
Sunday was our scheduled family day. The twins were to arrive around 11ish. I think they might’ve spoken English? Both twins had daughter’s with English names. Bella and Sophia. The twins could’ve been identical if they had their hair in the same hair style. They were only interested in talking with my twins. That’s fine. Amazingly Wensen took the lead this time in talking. The twins were in their 30’s , their kids younger than mine 5 & 7.
We went to lunch at a dumpling restaurant across the street. I remember going there once 5 years ago. It was good. Then they walked us back to our housing complex entrance before departing for their ride. After they left we got ice cream.
I tried to clarify how they were related to Ma. They kept telling me they were my sister, the kids sister. I am a huge no on calling relatives I don’t know and am not close to my sister. They were saying you are grama to the twins kids. NO. I am only a grama when my three boys have kids. I thought it was my mother-in-laws mother’s sister’s child. But it could be further removed as a cousin to my mother-in-law’s mother’s sister.
Ba was telling me know one of the twins is close to him because he introduced her to her professor when she went to university........chest puffed.....That’s why my husband has never met them before in his life. Never mentioned twins before to us? I’ll never understand how they think of family.
As evening rolls around my father-in-law went out and it was almost 5 when the cousin who went to Japan would be picking us up. He called my mother-in-law to let us know he has arrived, he did drop them off at out house before. She is trying to tell him where to pick us up. And starts freaking out about WeChat. I open my WeChat and she watches me asking about location. I’m thinking I know where we live to get us home. No she wanted me to send my location to him. He knows where we are. No get the kids to ask me to open WeChat, which she watched me open again. Ours look different so I must not be opening the right thing.
She tells us to go out the front entrance and walk left we should see him. We go out the front and walk left cross the block and I think this is too far. Luckily the cousin sent me his location so we could find him. We should’ve went out the back entrance and left or front entrance and double left. But we finally found him.
Because it was rush hour we went a round about way through parking lots and a different part of the city than I haven’t seen before. Considering the ride home was on normally travelled high ways I recognized. The dinner was a Mongolian themed restaurant. Outside they had yurts, goats, geese, trampoline, swings and other stuff for kids to play on. We had a room inside with A/C, which was working hard against the huge soup pot with a full fish and broth. There was a buffet of snacks from edemame, kettle corn, and other rice crackery things. All the cousins where there to see us again. The oldest with out his wife and kids, but he brought one of his pals with his son. The son wants to study what 2 of the cousins have studied so he came to talk with them. Our chauffeur’s wife did not come. The motorcycle cousin brought his wife. And the girl cousin and her husband came. Their smiley happy daughter was staying her summer vacation at her grandparents. We got to FaceTime her to see her.
The boys got to play outside every time someone went out to smoke. The dinner was really good, besides the main meal of fish and tofu in broth, they put corn muffins on the side of the pan to steam(they needed salt to me, but I’m sure were authentic this way). We got the best fried mushrooms. A dish of candied sweet potato slices that you had to force off and into a bowl of water to stop the sticky. And a plate of fried sweet potatoes coated in a sugar salty mix. The decore was traditional pictures made out of fish skins! Some were a flat design, other’s puffed and stitched like pillows.
There was much laughing. Much eating. The cousins are very nice, even if I can’t understand them. They would love it if we stayed, they wanted me to learn Chinese and get a job teaching English. I wonder how often they actually get together. They seem like a good group to be friends with. Japan cousin stood up for me that I can speak Japanese too. And Spanish(very rusty) I said. Luckily they didn’t know a lick of that. I said I can’t hear the tones of Chinese. And then they went through the tones, all sounding the same to me. Then into a discussion of the Beijing ”murr”. I still need to figure out what this “murr” is, a Beijing thing from what I understand. I did learn why people make a certain hand gesture when taking pictures. It represents the bottom of a heart!
We didn’t get home till 11 and the kids needed a shower from all the running around. So you can imagine how sleepy they were the next morning!
We went to lunch at a dumpling restaurant across the street. I remember going there once 5 years ago. It was good. Then they walked us back to our housing complex entrance before departing for their ride. After they left we got ice cream.
I tried to clarify how they were related to Ma. They kept telling me they were my sister, the kids sister. I am a huge no on calling relatives I don’t know and am not close to my sister. They were saying you are grama to the twins kids. NO. I am only a grama when my three boys have kids. I thought it was my mother-in-laws mother’s sister’s child. But it could be further removed as a cousin to my mother-in-law’s mother’s sister.
Ba was telling me know one of the twins is close to him because he introduced her to her professor when she went to university........chest puffed.....That’s why my husband has never met them before in his life. Never mentioned twins before to us? I’ll never understand how they think of family.
As evening rolls around my father-in-law went out and it was almost 5 when the cousin who went to Japan would be picking us up. He called my mother-in-law to let us know he has arrived, he did drop them off at out house before. She is trying to tell him where to pick us up. And starts freaking out about WeChat. I open my WeChat and she watches me asking about location. I’m thinking I know where we live to get us home. No she wanted me to send my location to him. He knows where we are. No get the kids to ask me to open WeChat, which she watched me open again. Ours look different so I must not be opening the right thing.
She tells us to go out the front entrance and walk left we should see him. We go out the front and walk left cross the block and I think this is too far. Luckily the cousin sent me his location so we could find him. We should’ve went out the back entrance and left or front entrance and double left. But we finally found him.
Because it was rush hour we went a round about way through parking lots and a different part of the city than I haven’t seen before. Considering the ride home was on normally travelled high ways I recognized. The dinner was a Mongolian themed restaurant. Outside they had yurts, goats, geese, trampoline, swings and other stuff for kids to play on. We had a room inside with A/C, which was working hard against the huge soup pot with a full fish and broth. There was a buffet of snacks from edemame, kettle corn, and other rice crackery things. All the cousins where there to see us again. The oldest with out his wife and kids, but he brought one of his pals with his son. The son wants to study what 2 of the cousins have studied so he came to talk with them. Our chauffeur’s wife did not come. The motorcycle cousin brought his wife. And the girl cousin and her husband came. Their smiley happy daughter was staying her summer vacation at her grandparents. We got to FaceTime her to see her.
The boys got to play outside every time someone went out to smoke. The dinner was really good, besides the main meal of fish and tofu in broth, they put corn muffins on the side of the pan to steam(they needed salt to me, but I’m sure were authentic this way). We got the best fried mushrooms. A dish of candied sweet potato slices that you had to force off and into a bowl of water to stop the sticky. And a plate of fried sweet potatoes coated in a sugar salty mix. The decore was traditional pictures made out of fish skins! Some were a flat design, other’s puffed and stitched like pillows.
There was much laughing. Much eating. The cousins are very nice, even if I can’t understand them. They would love it if we stayed, they wanted me to learn Chinese and get a job teaching English. I wonder how often they actually get together. They seem like a good group to be friends with. Japan cousin stood up for me that I can speak Japanese too. And Spanish(very rusty) I said. Luckily they didn’t know a lick of that. I said I can’t hear the tones of Chinese. And then they went through the tones, all sounding the same to me. Then into a discussion of the Beijing ”murr”. I still need to figure out what this “murr” is, a Beijing thing from what I understand. I did learn why people make a certain hand gesture when taking pictures. It represents the bottom of a heart!
We didn’t get home till 11 and the kids needed a shower from all the running around. So you can imagine how sleepy they were the next morning!
Changes in 5 years
I was so worried about the bad pollution that I had bought us all masks before we left. But we are either here at the right time or it’s changing for the better. We haven’t used the masks. The streets are so much cleaner. You see the street sweeper out all the time, even under the underpasses there isn’t the garbage. Less poo too. I still see some people not picking up after their dog, but most are now and I’m not seeing much from the 2 legged variety either. Or maybe it was just down the street to the preschool, we only rode by it not walked the street this time.
The bikes are seeming to make a come back. Not as many private pedal bikes, but tons of bike rentals that you can leave anywhere. A lot more bike delivery vehicles. I feel less people are riding the buses too. Maybe we are just traveling at different times since the kids aren’t in school we are more free to choose our own schedule. But I feel more people start off at the bus station and then call a DiDi(China’s Uber) and are whisked away. You can even do ride shares.
Less cash. Everything is pay with the phone app. WeChat or Alipay primarily. WeChat is like Facebook 100.0. You can call, send voice message, text message, share pictures, pay all through this app. It’s kind of nerve wrecking not carring cash around, just in case. All the little carts and sellers all allow payment with one or the other. My father-in-law says he never carries cash and if he needs money he will find someone who will give him the money by using their personal WeChat to scan. Even beggars have a WeChat!
Things cost more now than what they used to. Especially the haw on the stick is now 10-15 yuan, 5 years ago it was 3-5 yuan. Clothing isn’t as cheap. Most people buy everything and anything on-line. It helps my mother-in-law she doesn’t have to leave the appartment. But it’s a bit ridiculous. Because of every restaurant allowing on-line to-go orders sometimes the people dinning in suffer as they wait while the one floor worker deals with all the to-go orders before the in-store people.
What I noticed the first day is the change in cleaner. I only smelled the toxic cleaner once or twice over the 5 weeks I’ve been here. It used to be a constant smell that made me feel sick. My guess it really was toxic and they finally figured it out.
They also have some smoking laws, I’m not sure what they are, but there is a lot less smoking. None in restaurants except for the workers smoking in a back room or back doorway. People sneak a smoke in the bathrooms wherever they are.
The driving has gotten better due to the metal divides creating lanes for bikes on both sides and 2 way traffic. This keeps traffic moving. They still drive a bit more crazy in Beijing than in Shanghai. But as my father-in-law’s brother-in-law told me today Beijing is a city with a lot of poor people still living in terrible conditions. Shanghai has less poor people and better living conditions.
In Shanghai I didn’t see any guards with machine guns outside banks. My first time here almost 15 years ago everyone wore their backpacks on their fronts. The crime must be better, only a few people wore them on their fronts and I really had to look for people doing this over the few days we visited.
The poor housing development, Hutong, shanty towns are disappearing as the need for sky rises are needed for the ever growing population.
They got rid of all the poor country people coming into town selling their wares in the subway tunnels and in the under street cross walks.
The bikes are seeming to make a come back. Not as many private pedal bikes, but tons of bike rentals that you can leave anywhere. A lot more bike delivery vehicles. I feel less people are riding the buses too. Maybe we are just traveling at different times since the kids aren’t in school we are more free to choose our own schedule. But I feel more people start off at the bus station and then call a DiDi(China’s Uber) and are whisked away. You can even do ride shares.
Less cash. Everything is pay with the phone app. WeChat or Alipay primarily. WeChat is like Facebook 100.0. You can call, send voice message, text message, share pictures, pay all through this app. It’s kind of nerve wrecking not carring cash around, just in case. All the little carts and sellers all allow payment with one or the other. My father-in-law says he never carries cash and if he needs money he will find someone who will give him the money by using their personal WeChat to scan. Even beggars have a WeChat!
Things cost more now than what they used to. Especially the haw on the stick is now 10-15 yuan, 5 years ago it was 3-5 yuan. Clothing isn’t as cheap. Most people buy everything and anything on-line. It helps my mother-in-law she doesn’t have to leave the appartment. But it’s a bit ridiculous. Because of every restaurant allowing on-line to-go orders sometimes the people dinning in suffer as they wait while the one floor worker deals with all the to-go orders before the in-store people.
What I noticed the first day is the change in cleaner. I only smelled the toxic cleaner once or twice over the 5 weeks I’ve been here. It used to be a constant smell that made me feel sick. My guess it really was toxic and they finally figured it out.
They also have some smoking laws, I’m not sure what they are, but there is a lot less smoking. None in restaurants except for the workers smoking in a back room or back doorway. People sneak a smoke in the bathrooms wherever they are.
The driving has gotten better due to the metal divides creating lanes for bikes on both sides and 2 way traffic. This keeps traffic moving. They still drive a bit more crazy in Beijing than in Shanghai. But as my father-in-law’s brother-in-law told me today Beijing is a city with a lot of poor people still living in terrible conditions. Shanghai has less poor people and better living conditions.
In Shanghai I didn’t see any guards with machine guns outside banks. My first time here almost 15 years ago everyone wore their backpacks on their fronts. The crime must be better, only a few people wore them on their fronts and I really had to look for people doing this over the few days we visited.
The poor housing development, Hutong, shanty towns are disappearing as the need for sky rises are needed for the ever growing population.
They got rid of all the poor country people coming into town selling their wares in the subway tunnels and in the under street cross walks.
Saturday, July 7, 2018
Incredible
The boys have been wanting to ride the double decker bus since we got here. So today we rode the bus and even got the front seats in top level! Not being able to see the driver or the nose of the vehicle below us, it felt like we were on an amusement ride. After arriving at Qianmen I convinced the boys to go across the street to the Center City shopping mall. It was a market, mostly beauty supplies like hair, nails, salon attire taking up at least 1/2 of the space. There was a toy aisle and the kids got another car. Most of it is so cheap they won’t let you bargain any less. I did get 2 pairs of shoes. The boys said I have a problem, too many shoes. I reminded them the large suitcase filled with their shoes. They said they didn’t buy it, Nainai did, so it doesn’t count.
We walked a side street to get into Qianmen where they had display cases outside filled with clay people each a foot high. I asked my mother-in-law later what they were, she said everyone used to have one of those figures in their old house. So I guess they took them after they tore the houses down and put them up for display? I don’t know.
We walked down the food street to the east this time and found meat on a stick 3 for 10 yuan, further down 4 for 10 yuan. You can guess we ate a lot of meat on the stick that day. We did not find any cheaper haw. We also got some small fried potatoes tossed in a spicy sauce. Very good. We walked down to the tower taking more pictures. I filled my phone with pictures, so now I have to use the other phone. I told the boys we could eat here for dinner and see the lights. Then we called home to tell them our plans. No. Come home I make wonton. Make being frozen, heat it for you. Not wanting to leave we dragged our feet and went to a few clothing stores. Found my shirt from 5 years ago that I love, but I didn’t like the color, so I didn’t buy another.
We walked down a Hutong street on the way back to the subway station passing guys washing down thin brick face. I can’t tell if it was taken off of somewhere and they are cleaning to reuse.
The next day is raining, the whole last week says it’s going to storm or rain 5 out of 7 days. The boys ask Yeye to take them to a movie. He buys us tickets calls a taxi and sends us on our way. We arrive 10 min late, but see Incredibles in 3-D. After we go to Burger King for a snack. Most of it is the same as McDonalds. They have a tuna fish spread on a burger. I’ll pass. I try the spicy whopper Jr. All they did was swap ketchup for a prickly ash bbq like sauce. Good thing I can figure out which busses will get us home.
We walked a side street to get into Qianmen where they had display cases outside filled with clay people each a foot high. I asked my mother-in-law later what they were, she said everyone used to have one of those figures in their old house. So I guess they took them after they tore the houses down and put them up for display? I don’t know.
We walked down the food street to the east this time and found meat on a stick 3 for 10 yuan, further down 4 for 10 yuan. You can guess we ate a lot of meat on the stick that day. We did not find any cheaper haw. We also got some small fried potatoes tossed in a spicy sauce. Very good. We walked down to the tower taking more pictures. I filled my phone with pictures, so now I have to use the other phone. I told the boys we could eat here for dinner and see the lights. Then we called home to tell them our plans. No. Come home I make wonton. Make being frozen, heat it for you. Not wanting to leave we dragged our feet and went to a few clothing stores. Found my shirt from 5 years ago that I love, but I didn’t like the color, so I didn’t buy another.
We walked down a Hutong street on the way back to the subway station passing guys washing down thin brick face. I can’t tell if it was taken off of somewhere and they are cleaning to reuse.
The next day is raining, the whole last week says it’s going to storm or rain 5 out of 7 days. The boys ask Yeye to take them to a movie. He buys us tickets calls a taxi and sends us on our way. We arrive 10 min late, but see Incredibles in 3-D. After we go to Burger King for a snack. Most of it is the same as McDonalds. They have a tuna fish spread on a burger. I’ll pass. I try the spicy whopper Jr. All they did was swap ketchup for a prickly ash bbq like sauce. Good thing I can figure out which busses will get us home.
It’s a Balancing Act
Tonight we are going to see an acrobatic show. Last night Ba told me how to get there and then from there to the restaurant. I was worried why he was telling me, when my mother-in-law was to be coming with us.
Well most mornings I let the kids eat first while I get ready and then I come eat and clean up. Well someone must’ve woken up on the wrong side of the bed because there is a lot of yelling between the adults and geared toward my kids. Normally they put lots of bowls out filled with baoza, fruit, fried egg, left over dinner and let us choose what we want. Well today they wanted to decide what the kids eat and they must’ve wanted quiet as he kept telling the kids to “shut up”. Mama bear getting really upset I go and can tell someone is power tripping(having an adult tantrum) over trying to get a kid to eat part of an egg he is gagging on. The kid goes to throw up, is crying. There is so much yelling, I take my plate and all of us are in my bedroom to get away. He comes in to yell at the kid before storming out to take the trash. I pray the kids didn’t understand whatever he was saying.
I go to clean up and throw out that egg. He comes back, sees no egg, looks in the trash and starts yelling at my mother-in-law. I say “I threw it out. Really all this over an egg? He eats everything else and is gagging on one egg. He doesn’t need to eat it.” I’m shaking and tell the kids grab your stuff we are leaving now. We will be home before 3 in time to leave for the show. Nainai tells the kid to apologize before leaving. Later I explained how even though he didn’t do anything wrong, the other person was clearly not rational and you may need to apologize to calm the other person and diffuse the situation.
When we get ready to leave it’s been decided we will take a car and Ba will visit his sister and we can meet them at a different restaurant than we discussed the previous night. Okay. When we get to the theatre, the parking lot is packed with busses. I feel a sense of dejavu in this craziness as we are standing on the steps, waiting for our tickets. Then it’s lots of tour groups and people pushing down a hallway into a different entryway until we are let in and a mad scramble for seats as you pay for a section but not assigned seats. One of the workers grabs my ticket and points to the front middle seats marked VIP. We ended up in the 5th row!
After we sit down my, two guys sit next to us. They are from Argentina and just got here today. He asked how much we paid for our ticket, they worry if their ticket is real. I advise my father-in-law bought them discounted on-line, so I don’t know. But if their ticket was fake they would not be inside. Most likely the person who sold them the ticket got it at a discounted price and had them pay full price. But not knowing how to get a discounted price or at the window he wouldn’t paid full price anyway. He told me their horror story the classic scam of being told the Forbidden City is sold out and being taken to tea. Luckily they bought the tickets from said scammers already and had no other cash to be taken advantage of. I gave them some tips and where they should go and don’t get into any rickshaw. Good luck guys.
The show has umbrella balancers, a yo-yo act, jugglers, spinning in the air on a double wheel, 6 bikers in a ball. It was really good show putting the kids on the edge of their seats. After we took the bus to meet at the restaurant we meet Gu Nainai at. Only Ba shows up, the others are too tired. We have Peking duck again! A good ending to the day.
Well most mornings I let the kids eat first while I get ready and then I come eat and clean up. Well someone must’ve woken up on the wrong side of the bed because there is a lot of yelling between the adults and geared toward my kids. Normally they put lots of bowls out filled with baoza, fruit, fried egg, left over dinner and let us choose what we want. Well today they wanted to decide what the kids eat and they must’ve wanted quiet as he kept telling the kids to “shut up”. Mama bear getting really upset I go and can tell someone is power tripping(having an adult tantrum) over trying to get a kid to eat part of an egg he is gagging on. The kid goes to throw up, is crying. There is so much yelling, I take my plate and all of us are in my bedroom to get away. He comes in to yell at the kid before storming out to take the trash. I pray the kids didn’t understand whatever he was saying.
I go to clean up and throw out that egg. He comes back, sees no egg, looks in the trash and starts yelling at my mother-in-law. I say “I threw it out. Really all this over an egg? He eats everything else and is gagging on one egg. He doesn’t need to eat it.” I’m shaking and tell the kids grab your stuff we are leaving now. We will be home before 3 in time to leave for the show. Nainai tells the kid to apologize before leaving. Later I explained how even though he didn’t do anything wrong, the other person was clearly not rational and you may need to apologize to calm the other person and diffuse the situation.
When we get ready to leave it’s been decided we will take a car and Ba will visit his sister and we can meet them at a different restaurant than we discussed the previous night. Okay. When we get to the theatre, the parking lot is packed with busses. I feel a sense of dejavu in this craziness as we are standing on the steps, waiting for our tickets. Then it’s lots of tour groups and people pushing down a hallway into a different entryway until we are let in and a mad scramble for seats as you pay for a section but not assigned seats. One of the workers grabs my ticket and points to the front middle seats marked VIP. We ended up in the 5th row!
After we sit down my, two guys sit next to us. They are from Argentina and just got here today. He asked how much we paid for our ticket, they worry if their ticket is real. I advise my father-in-law bought them discounted on-line, so I don’t know. But if their ticket was fake they would not be inside. Most likely the person who sold them the ticket got it at a discounted price and had them pay full price. But not knowing how to get a discounted price or at the window he wouldn’t paid full price anyway. He told me their horror story the classic scam of being told the Forbidden City is sold out and being taken to tea. Luckily they bought the tickets from said scammers already and had no other cash to be taken advantage of. I gave them some tips and where they should go and don’t get into any rickshaw. Good luck guys.
The show has umbrella balancers, a yo-yo act, jugglers, spinning in the air on a double wheel, 6 bikers in a ball. It was really good show putting the kids on the edge of their seats. After we took the bus to meet at the restaurant we meet Gu Nainai at. Only Ba shows up, the others are too tired. We have Peking duck again! A good ending to the day.
Wangfujing Street
It’s so hot, the kids energy is zapped over the struggle of the A/C battle. The boys have been getting bloody noses due to the heat. They seriously have had less candy here and only 1 chocolate ice cream a day. Only my room stays cool all night with my single room a/c unit. Every night my mother-in-law wakes up and turns the A/C unit in the living room off and then the fan off and then the covers on the kids. Apparently besides it not being healthy for the kids to be cold. The A/C must leak something that after being on for a while doesn’t make her feel good so she turns it off roasting my kids. Instead of closing their bedroom door. Even if she did turn the A/C off for a while. Leave the fan on and the blankets off! So I am getting up during the night, turning it all on, she turns off. Repeat, every night. Then when it’s starting to get cooler (79) outside, I just open the window since I know she’ll turn the fan off. Nope she shuts the window! You can’t win.
My father-in-law took each of the older boys out by themself to go food shopping at the store, he wanted to buy them a gift they pick out. But when it came time for Aidan to go, he insisted the older brothers come to help. Don’t get it.
Today we are going to Wangfujing Street. I don’t remember coming here. I looked it up, 2 bookstores on this street. Once we get to the part of the street for people only we only get half a block for our whole visit. First stop bookstore. They have a food court in the basement and we see Subway so we eat there, free drink refills! Not as much meat on my spicy Italian sub, but it’s actual salami not chinese salami so I’m good with that. They only had a table of 8 chairs as their sitting area. Another foreigner sat for their lunch. A German who’s lived here 11 years, has a Chinese wife and a dog. I told him I was amazed how well the dogs behave not being on leashes. He said many run away because they are not on leashes.
After eating we venture into the book store. It was either 6 or 7 floors, I realize I have been here before, but I remember always going to a different bookstore. Kids books were on the 2nd floor. We spent hours there. I couldn’t find as many books with Chinese and English in them as I was hoping. But I found a few and a few Chinese painting books and picture quilting books. If you buy in Chinese it’s so much cheaper. I saw a few quilting books in Chinese that I’ve seen back home for $20-25, they have for about $6. The imported books are expensive, the ones not wrapped in plastic are well worn, the covers all bent and pages all wrecked.
There is a whole floor for calligraphy. The books, brushes, paper, ink, everything you would need. If you are looking to study English you can find cheaper books that have both Chinese and English in them or a set of books one in English one in Chinese that are cheap. They just happen to be older books not for kids.
Finally we left the bookstore which started to fill up with people sitting everywhere reading. And then I remember 5 years ago going to a bookstore on a rainy day and it being packed, people everywhere reading to get out of the elements. Then we stepped out side into the heat.
A few paces we could see down a side street with a big fancy gate, where all the people were. I thought it was shopping like Qianmen. But it was mostly food. I did see meat on a stick 2 for 10 yuan. They had live scorpions on sticks wriggling about wanting to strike, the vendor waiting to fry it fresh for you. Besides the scorpions on a stick, they had snakes, sea horses, and starfish on a stick! When you thought you were standing next to an outhouse, you found the stinky tofu aka fermented tofu.
As most of the stores when you want to buy something, you need to take the slip to the cashier, once stamped paid you take it back and trade it for your item. Well if you buy over a certain dollar amount they swipe it from the cashier so you have to follow them to the jewelry counter at the back of the store where they give you a free gift(scarf or bracelet) and a scratch off coupon. Well I got the big discount 900 yuan off whatever I wanted in the cases. They showed me now others normally only got 300 off. I did see a peach and white agate looking bracelet. They told me it was jade and have the laminated certificate proving authenticity for each items in the cases. Well after my 900 discount it would still be 400 yuan. Naw, can’t spend that much. I say 200. No. No. No. Okay. They showed me the receipt book of others paying only getting their 300 discount. Too bad. I’m sure I still overpaid for them, but I liked it. At another store I was also the lunch 900 off winner again. I told the boys I’m sure it’s rigged, that I got a big discount. I didn’t buy anything here, but I saw pretty necklaces, jade with a gold overlay like we got in Korea enroute to Japan.
We walked around a few back streets from here and found the famous rickshaw statue and took pictures there. Saw another older German visiting family and talked with them a few minutes. After we got home I got a call from a cousin to make plans for this weekend. I said we are free anytime Sunday. Okay he will let me know. I let my father-in-law know we have plans on Sunday. I am not free all day Sunday, of course they made plans for us and didn’t tell us. The twin girl cousins will meet us in the morning for lunch and bring their children. Each has 1 daughter. It would be good to meet them because......(they are family and you’ve never met them and they are twins. Is what I’m thinking. No.). .....because they both have a good job and maybe in the future they will need to ask you for something or you will ask them for something. Huh.
My father-in-law took each of the older boys out by themself to go food shopping at the store, he wanted to buy them a gift they pick out. But when it came time for Aidan to go, he insisted the older brothers come to help. Don’t get it.
Today we are going to Wangfujing Street. I don’t remember coming here. I looked it up, 2 bookstores on this street. Once we get to the part of the street for people only we only get half a block for our whole visit. First stop bookstore. They have a food court in the basement and we see Subway so we eat there, free drink refills! Not as much meat on my spicy Italian sub, but it’s actual salami not chinese salami so I’m good with that. They only had a table of 8 chairs as their sitting area. Another foreigner sat for their lunch. A German who’s lived here 11 years, has a Chinese wife and a dog. I told him I was amazed how well the dogs behave not being on leashes. He said many run away because they are not on leashes.
After eating we venture into the book store. It was either 6 or 7 floors, I realize I have been here before, but I remember always going to a different bookstore. Kids books were on the 2nd floor. We spent hours there. I couldn’t find as many books with Chinese and English in them as I was hoping. But I found a few and a few Chinese painting books and picture quilting books. If you buy in Chinese it’s so much cheaper. I saw a few quilting books in Chinese that I’ve seen back home for $20-25, they have for about $6. The imported books are expensive, the ones not wrapped in plastic are well worn, the covers all bent and pages all wrecked.
There is a whole floor for calligraphy. The books, brushes, paper, ink, everything you would need. If you are looking to study English you can find cheaper books that have both Chinese and English in them or a set of books one in English one in Chinese that are cheap. They just happen to be older books not for kids.
Finally we left the bookstore which started to fill up with people sitting everywhere reading. And then I remember 5 years ago going to a bookstore on a rainy day and it being packed, people everywhere reading to get out of the elements. Then we stepped out side into the heat.
A few paces we could see down a side street with a big fancy gate, where all the people were. I thought it was shopping like Qianmen. But it was mostly food. I did see meat on a stick 2 for 10 yuan. They had live scorpions on sticks wriggling about wanting to strike, the vendor waiting to fry it fresh for you. Besides the scorpions on a stick, they had snakes, sea horses, and starfish on a stick! When you thought you were standing next to an outhouse, you found the stinky tofu aka fermented tofu.
As most of the stores when you want to buy something, you need to take the slip to the cashier, once stamped paid you take it back and trade it for your item. Well if you buy over a certain dollar amount they swipe it from the cashier so you have to follow them to the jewelry counter at the back of the store where they give you a free gift(scarf or bracelet) and a scratch off coupon. Well I got the big discount 900 yuan off whatever I wanted in the cases. They showed me now others normally only got 300 off. I did see a peach and white agate looking bracelet. They told me it was jade and have the laminated certificate proving authenticity for each items in the cases. Well after my 900 discount it would still be 400 yuan. Naw, can’t spend that much. I say 200. No. No. No. Okay. They showed me the receipt book of others paying only getting their 300 discount. Too bad. I’m sure I still overpaid for them, but I liked it. At another store I was also the lunch 900 off winner again. I told the boys I’m sure it’s rigged, that I got a big discount. I didn’t buy anything here, but I saw pretty necklaces, jade with a gold overlay like we got in Korea enroute to Japan.
We walked around a few back streets from here and found the famous rickshaw statue and took pictures there. Saw another older German visiting family and talked with them a few minutes. After we got home I got a call from a cousin to make plans for this weekend. I said we are free anytime Sunday. Okay he will let me know. I let my father-in-law know we have plans on Sunday. I am not free all day Sunday, of course they made plans for us and didn’t tell us. The twin girl cousins will meet us in the morning for lunch and bring their children. Each has 1 daughter. It would be good to meet them because......(they are family and you’ve never met them and they are twins. Is what I’m thinking. No.). .....because they both have a good job and maybe in the future they will need to ask you for something or you will ask them for something. Huh.
Beijing Zoo
Today was supposed to be a cooler day than the past week, and it’s not a weekend, so lets go to the ZOO! If you take the subway line 4 get off on Beijing Zoo exit B you will come up in a mall. From the mall going up to the stairwells out ot the street there were vendors selling water, starchy corn, and umbrellas. Now the boys finally got to see what used to be everywhere 5 years ago.
I was totally prepared to buy 4 adult tickets because the kids are all over the height restriction. But I was surprised when they gave me 3 kid tickets. Great saved me some money. We got the combo ticket of zoo plus panda adult 19.5 yuan, kids 9.5 yuan. Ethan wanted to wait to see the panda. I recall the option of being able to go back in the day to see the panda last time, but I could be wrong. Now it’s a ticket, one time only if you leave that area.
We saw the bird pond, so many different types of birds on an island, lots of swans and pelicans swimming in the water with ducks. The orangutan was particularly pathetic, fat and in a small cage. I recommended not seeing the elephant due to last time it was heart wrenching. It took two passes before the pandas moved. One of them was giving us a show walked around their cage and then sat pretty getting Oohs and aaah’s from the crowd. Then we went to see the Polar Bear, also taking 2 passes for them to get moving. One left to go to inside the other went swimming in the green algae water. The kids were done, they saw what they wanted to see, we walked so much at the end of the day the kids said their feet hurt and we didn’t see everything. The zoo maps are not precise and there are so many paths you may want to go one direction but end up somewhere else. Or thinking you are leading from one section to another and you are off in another direction. Several buildings have now closed too. The buildings appear to have been shops, non-animal enclosure, etc. We didn’t have time to go to the aquarium. There is a string of shops that closed at 5, other stores at 5:30. Not as much shopping as the Toledo Zoo, OH.
For lunch we got cup-o-noodles. Big steaming hot bowls on a hot day, we were already sweating, now we were swimming. All around the zoo they have smoking spots and in the food seating area at every seat it says “No smoking” in English and Chinese and with the picture for those who don’t know how to read. We found the guy who must’ve been blinded by his phone as he smoked between 2 non-smoking signs. Then the rest of his party showed up who also started smoking, leaning against the signs to cover them. The worker came over and pointed out the signs.
For our drinks we tried a bubble tea place, we all tried a different flavor, kiwi with bursting bubbles, squash or melon we weren’t sure with bursting bubbles, strawberry cream shake and I got rose! It had real rose petals in it, it was so yummy, even the kids thought mine was the best.
I was totally prepared to buy 4 adult tickets because the kids are all over the height restriction. But I was surprised when they gave me 3 kid tickets. Great saved me some money. We got the combo ticket of zoo plus panda adult 19.5 yuan, kids 9.5 yuan. Ethan wanted to wait to see the panda. I recall the option of being able to go back in the day to see the panda last time, but I could be wrong. Now it’s a ticket, one time only if you leave that area.
We saw the bird pond, so many different types of birds on an island, lots of swans and pelicans swimming in the water with ducks. The orangutan was particularly pathetic, fat and in a small cage. I recommended not seeing the elephant due to last time it was heart wrenching. It took two passes before the pandas moved. One of them was giving us a show walked around their cage and then sat pretty getting Oohs and aaah’s from the crowd. Then we went to see the Polar Bear, also taking 2 passes for them to get moving. One left to go to inside the other went swimming in the green algae water. The kids were done, they saw what they wanted to see, we walked so much at the end of the day the kids said their feet hurt and we didn’t see everything. The zoo maps are not precise and there are so many paths you may want to go one direction but end up somewhere else. Or thinking you are leading from one section to another and you are off in another direction. Several buildings have now closed too. The buildings appear to have been shops, non-animal enclosure, etc. We didn’t have time to go to the aquarium. There is a string of shops that closed at 5, other stores at 5:30. Not as much shopping as the Toledo Zoo, OH.
For lunch we got cup-o-noodles. Big steaming hot bowls on a hot day, we were already sweating, now we were swimming. All around the zoo they have smoking spots and in the food seating area at every seat it says “No smoking” in English and Chinese and with the picture for those who don’t know how to read. We found the guy who must’ve been blinded by his phone as he smoked between 2 non-smoking signs. Then the rest of his party showed up who also started smoking, leaning against the signs to cover them. The worker came over and pointed out the signs.
For our drinks we tried a bubble tea place, we all tried a different flavor, kiwi with bursting bubbles, squash or melon we weren’t sure with bursting bubbles, strawberry cream shake and I got rose! It had real rose petals in it, it was so yummy, even the kids thought mine was the best.
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Sunday Flea Markets and Strolls
My father-in-law wanted to take us to a Green Tea Restaurant for lunch today. He knew I wanted to go to the park so he said we could go early, like 11. Well after spending the morning doing laundry and reading. We had to wait for my mother-in-law to wake from her nap to go. So we didn’t leave the house till noon.
We rode the bus to the mall we used to buy cake from 5 years ago. It is a fancy mall but reminds me Japanese Malls with all the little shops in the open areas. I’d rather walk around this fancy mall than the new mall we went to last week.
The Green Tea Restaurant had a lot of unusual foods. Green tea fish(yum), green tea chicken, green tea BBQ(mostly pork fat but good), cauldron potatoes(spicy and yummy), green tea cakes(filled with perhaps some type of bean paste and rolled in seasame seeds). Their specialty was this sweet bread. It was basically a square loaf of bread with the inside cut out and sliced, buttered and cut into cubes then put back into the loaf box and toasted so the inside warm and melty and the outside toasted then they put a scoop of ice cream on it. It was very good and the kids have asked to go back.
We left them to hop on the subway, at this time it’s past 2:30 P.M. I’ve decided we’ll go to the Panjiyuan Market aka Panjiyuan Flea Market aka Panjiyuan Antique Market. It looks like some places are already closing. They open at 4:30 Saturday and Sunday. There are shops open M-Th but on the weekend are the free vendors the more local “flea market” guys who set up under umbrellas on blankets. We walked around, up and down aisles. So many things to see, lots of walnuts, paintings, books, a building for stamps and coins and memorabilia, clay tea pots, beads, and stone stamps(hanko). We didn’t get too much and the haggling wasn’t always optional. But the prices were more reasonable so you didn’t have to. I got some agate that I didn’t recognize. We got 2 shadow puppets. 3 tea pets, Wensen is the only one who didn’t find one that called to him.
We walked 2 long blocks down to Longtan Park. Stopping along the way for drinks and ice cream. In the river outside of Longtan Park they had a few places where steps lead down to the river and we saw people going in to swim. When we got to Longtan Park it was about 6. Gone are the tourists. Here are the locals who come to walk or exercise. It was cloudy or hazy so we couldn’t even see any pretty sunset. It was a bit of a disappointment this trip as lots of construction, lots of parts closed off. They had several rides and even though adults had to go on with small kids. It was for the toddler sized kids only.
We ended up jumping busses halfway home so we wouldn’t have to walk at the end. Wensen has been asking for a burger all week. Instead my in-laws get chicken sandwiches, then ground pork because the market doesn’t sell ground beef. So I take them to McDonalds for dinner. You can still order at the 2 token registers they have left, but are encouraged by signs everywhere to order at the 6 kiosks and then choose if you want to pick it up yourself or have it delivered to your table. There is an English button to make it easier. The only drinks that can come with a value meal is sprite or coke, else upgrade to milk tea, some fruit teas or jumbo drinks. They all order normal stuff we can get at home, outside of letting them get coke. I went for something we don’t have a French shrimp and beef patty sandwich, upcharged to soccer ball hash browns and jumbo coke because they put lemon slices in it.
So funny they put slurped tops on liquid drinks to make it look bigger then give you the give bubble straws. As soon as I smelled my sandwich I knew it was bad, the shrimp didn’t smell good and the sandwich didn’t look fresh. The beef was tough. I took a bite and spit it out. I took it up and used charades to mime the smell(they didn’t think it smelled bad). My interpreters didn’t know how to say it was bad/old, just that I didn’t like it. They respond but you ordered it. I hand it over and walk away to order myself a new sandwich at the kiosk. The manager comes over to stop me and brings the menu for me to point to a sandwich I want. Thank you.
After waiting for 20 minutes the kids are done, my sandwich still not arrived, we order desert. They have a matcha sauce Oreo cone and at night it’s buy one get one half off. So I order, but we pick up at counter this time. The manager sees me and I shake my head no, she knows I didn’t get my sandwich and asks the other worker who couldn’t be bothered. She apologized. I thanked and ate it. The matcha sauce wasn’t that good, I wouldn’t get it again. We decided we wouldn’t not eat there again. Except maybe for one of their teas.
We rode the bus to the mall we used to buy cake from 5 years ago. It is a fancy mall but reminds me Japanese Malls with all the little shops in the open areas. I’d rather walk around this fancy mall than the new mall we went to last week.
The Green Tea Restaurant had a lot of unusual foods. Green tea fish(yum), green tea chicken, green tea BBQ(mostly pork fat but good), cauldron potatoes(spicy and yummy), green tea cakes(filled with perhaps some type of bean paste and rolled in seasame seeds). Their specialty was this sweet bread. It was basically a square loaf of bread with the inside cut out and sliced, buttered and cut into cubes then put back into the loaf box and toasted so the inside warm and melty and the outside toasted then they put a scoop of ice cream on it. It was very good and the kids have asked to go back.
We left them to hop on the subway, at this time it’s past 2:30 P.M. I’ve decided we’ll go to the Panjiyuan Market aka Panjiyuan Flea Market aka Panjiyuan Antique Market. It looks like some places are already closing. They open at 4:30 Saturday and Sunday. There are shops open M-Th but on the weekend are the free vendors the more local “flea market” guys who set up under umbrellas on blankets. We walked around, up and down aisles. So many things to see, lots of walnuts, paintings, books, a building for stamps and coins and memorabilia, clay tea pots, beads, and stone stamps(hanko). We didn’t get too much and the haggling wasn’t always optional. But the prices were more reasonable so you didn’t have to. I got some agate that I didn’t recognize. We got 2 shadow puppets. 3 tea pets, Wensen is the only one who didn’t find one that called to him.
We walked 2 long blocks down to Longtan Park. Stopping along the way for drinks and ice cream. In the river outside of Longtan Park they had a few places where steps lead down to the river and we saw people going in to swim. When we got to Longtan Park it was about 6. Gone are the tourists. Here are the locals who come to walk or exercise. It was cloudy or hazy so we couldn’t even see any pretty sunset. It was a bit of a disappointment this trip as lots of construction, lots of parts closed off. They had several rides and even though adults had to go on with small kids. It was for the toddler sized kids only.
We ended up jumping busses halfway home so we wouldn’t have to walk at the end. Wensen has been asking for a burger all week. Instead my in-laws get chicken sandwiches, then ground pork because the market doesn’t sell ground beef. So I take them to McDonalds for dinner. You can still order at the 2 token registers they have left, but are encouraged by signs everywhere to order at the 6 kiosks and then choose if you want to pick it up yourself or have it delivered to your table. There is an English button to make it easier. The only drinks that can come with a value meal is sprite or coke, else upgrade to milk tea, some fruit teas or jumbo drinks. They all order normal stuff we can get at home, outside of letting them get coke. I went for something we don’t have a French shrimp and beef patty sandwich, upcharged to soccer ball hash browns and jumbo coke because they put lemon slices in it.
So funny they put slurped tops on liquid drinks to make it look bigger then give you the give bubble straws. As soon as I smelled my sandwich I knew it was bad, the shrimp didn’t smell good and the sandwich didn’t look fresh. The beef was tough. I took a bite and spit it out. I took it up and used charades to mime the smell(they didn’t think it smelled bad). My interpreters didn’t know how to say it was bad/old, just that I didn’t like it. They respond but you ordered it. I hand it over and walk away to order myself a new sandwich at the kiosk. The manager comes over to stop me and brings the menu for me to point to a sandwich I want. Thank you.
After waiting for 20 minutes the kids are done, my sandwich still not arrived, we order desert. They have a matcha sauce Oreo cone and at night it’s buy one get one half off. So I order, but we pick up at counter this time. The manager sees me and I shake my head no, she knows I didn’t get my sandwich and asks the other worker who couldn’t be bothered. She apologized. I thanked and ate it. The matcha sauce wasn’t that good, I wouldn’t get it again. We decided we wouldn’t not eat there again. Except maybe for one of their teas.
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