New Year's (proper) In Beijing

I took my folks up to Beijing a few days after Christmas. They originally wanted to go by air, but I insisted on train. It may take longer, but it's just so much more relaxing. I'd rather get on a train at night and wake up early the next morning at my destination. I feel like it saves a lot of energy overall. No security hassle. The train station security check-point is almost a joke. You just sort of move along through the metal detector that never goes off, and I'm not even sure if they look at the screen when the bags go through the x-ray. You can also show up just a few minutes before you board, so waiting around in the waiting room isn't necessary. "Hard sleeper" didn't sound appealing to my folks, so I went all out and got us soft sleeper tickets. A little less than 500 kuai each from Nanchang to Beijing (would have been 300 if we went hard sleeper). Our room was nice. Private. Four beds between the three of us. There was even an electrical outlet, so I got to play computer games and watch movies without having to conserve my battery power. I ended up watching Mongol before I fell asleep. Epic movie. Really well done.

We arrived at the Beijing west station pretty early the next morning. We cabbed over to the east side of the city, Chaoyang District, to stay with our family friends who live and work in Beijing. I'll just refer to them as the Goldman's for their own privacy. Now, we've all been to Beijing before. I went with my parents back in 2001, so we saw all the essential sites already. Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Drum Tower, etc. There wasn't much touristy stuff left for us to do besides the Olympic village, which is now the top destination for visitors of Beijing. Even the ones who have never been. They're generally choosing the Bird's Nest over the Forbidden City or Great Wall. Pretty amazing what this 2008 Olympics has done for the Chinese. And wow, it was impressive. Definitely worth checking out.

Nicotine patch vending machine--NO SMOKING

Christmas doesn't end until Chinese New Year

I finally went ice skating in the Guomao mall. That was something I had wanted to do while studying/interning in Beijing in 2007. Even having lived in the Central Business District in 07, still never got around to it. I went with my good friend Mike, and his sister who I will refer to as Kara. One of the Goldman kids recommended we have a few drinks before the ice skating, so we checked out a restaurant right next to the rink and a had several rounds. After we got good and buzzed, we hit the ice. No seriously, we hit it. We tried having a sliding on your belly across the ice contest. Some personal ice skating trainer stopped us, claiming we were engaging in dangerous activity. Not only would we hurt other ice skaters, we would hurt ourselves. We were reminded of this again by the same trainer when we tried doing a three person held hand circle spin in the middle of the rink. And again when we tried skating as a three person train. This trainer was scolding us and she didn't even work there. "There is a tournament this week and we need to train!" she said. "This is a public place" we responded. Regardless if this kid needed to train, this woman has no authority to tell us what to do in a public skating rink. Go to a proper sports facility if you want to train professionally.

On New Year's Eve we checked out this party in the 798 Art District put on by Zen. It was a sort of warehous rave event, but with a proper bar. Pretty good fun overall. The music was great, the lights were spot on, and the drinks were strong. Everything was good besides the young Chinese man who threatened to take my life. Kara bumps in to his friend, I apalogized for her and started chatting, then a hand grabs my hair and I hear a voice, "if you touch my friend again I will kill you." Perhaps he was the jealous type. I bitched out in a sense by just walking off. I awoke the next afternoon wishing I had elbowed him in the eye. But all in all, probably better I just walked off. A life could have been taken, or just put into a Chinese prison.




Otherwise, the Beijing trip was spent eating. I had a list of restaurants I've been missing since leaving Beijing in 07. I got Indian food at Ganges twice. One of my favorite restaurants in Beijing. Was introduced to a new favorite, Three Men From Guizhou, fancy Guizhou enthic fare including Guizhou style salad, mashed potatoes, and roast pork. The Goldmans brought us out to the new Kro's Nest branch at Workers Stadium north gate. The pizzas were still massive, but actually a little smaller. It seemed the mediums and larges are about the same size now. We got the free draft beer deal the night we went. Meaning the first two tapped kegs are free until they run out, then every additional glass of beer is 5 kuai, or should have been 5 kuai. That's what was advertised on Kro's listing in both City Weekend and Time Out Beijing. The manager, a young caucasion gal, American I assume, insisted that the beers were 10 kuai, claiming they have no control over what they have listed in those magazines. I somehow don't buy that considering they pay to be listed. She pulled the biggest no-no when she said, "come on guys, it's only 10, you have the money." Of course we have the money! 10 is still cheap for a beer, but that's besides the point. We want what you advertise. We should have at least got that first round for 5 kuai out of good service. Shame on Kro's for turning into one of those types of restaurants.

Speaking of those types of restaurants. My Peking Duck hankering wasn't completely satisfied. We checked out Da Dong at Dong Sishitiao. Supposed to be one of the best in Beijing. And the duck was very good. It's just when you throw down a pretty penny for two whole ducks, you want to at least get your two whole ducks. They brought the ducks over and the chefs carved them up for us. They put the first cut of meat on the table, and we dug in. Then when I looked around, the chefs and our ducks were gone. When we inquired, they claimed the rest of the ducks would go into a soup at the end of the meal. We got the soup at the end of the meal, sure enough. It's just that the soup was served in these tiny bowls and there was nothing in them besides a piece of lettuce or two. Maybe they had used duck bones to make the soup, and a little lettuce to be fair, but not much else. They basically conned us for those ducks. They apparently pride themselves on serving only the finest cuts of roast duck, but somehow, the rest of the duck disapears. Some racket they have going on. Shame on Da Dong too.

I realize how negative this post has become. Other food experiences were great though. Took my dad out to Zhongguancun to get his Blackberry fixed. That was great in itself. The guy cracked that Blackberry open, found the problem, saudered in some new parts, closed it up, and there you go. 40 kuai. We got a much needed lunch out in the Haidian area. Hit up one of my Beijing Daxue favorites. A little Tonkatsu place by Wudaokou station. Prices had gone up unfortunately, but good filling meal as usual. Mrs. Goldman cooked some great food as usual too. Spicy migas for breakfast just about every morning. Had some good homemade reuben sandwiches pre Zen party on new year's.

Other than the usual eating I so prioritize and other outside activities, I just sort of hung around the Goldman's place. The Goldman's have a new Nintendo Wii, where we downloaded some retro games, including Streets of Rage 3, an all time classic Sega Genisis game. We managed to beat the game on hard mode, but failed to get the perfect score which included the perfect ending. We'll have to wait until Mike returns next year.