Bing in Beijing

Regrettably, a month in China only taught me two words:

1. Ni hao, which means “Hello” Listen here.
2. Xie xie, which means “Thanks” Listen here.

That’s right – I didn’t even learn the word for “please.” It’s not because I’m rude though; it isn’t commonly used in China.

Apologies for the delay in posting. Although nobody believes me, I feel like I’ve escaped jet lag entirely. Except that it felt like Friday on Thursday… but that happens every now and again regardless of what time zone you keep. I think I kept such odd hours in China that my body hasn’t figured out the difference.

Now that I’m stateside, I’ve been trying to digest how best to sum up the trip… I keep debating, whether I should tell you:

• How I pledge to live differently now that I’m back? Like by taking EXTRA good care of my teeth – a shockingly low priority for the Chinese.
• What I couldn’t have lived without in China? Like the Moleskine book with the super handy subway map.
• The most shocking moments, separated into several categories? Like driving – and the U-turn I witnessed from the far RIGHT lane.
• What I learned to say in Chinese? That list would be embarrassingly short.
• Should I confess how many times I ate at McDonald’s?
• All of the above?

There’s just so much to share, even now that I’m back in the US and not living it every day.

So expect a few more “Bing in Beijing” posts from the stateside as I fill in the details. And keep the questions coming – if there’s anything you want to know, chances are someone else is curious too. I’ll post the answers or Q&As here.

Thanks for the warm welcome home.

One last post to mention the foot massages we had last night… Someone is sending me pictures because you would never believe the experience we had.

We arrived at the massage studio around 2am for a 90-minute massage EVENT that included 9 masseurs, tea, wine (by our request), hammers and fire. And a free pair of silk socks. For $17 USD.

Afterward my whole body felt like marshmallows… I floated into a cab and into bed just after 4am.

Exactly 12 hours til takeoff.

I’m down to my last hours in Beijing… and I’m scurrying around checking the final “to do” items off my list:

• Lunch with the couple who own my apartment – they had lots to tell me about how Beijing transformed for the Games and about the “civilization” lessons the Chinese received in preparation
• Temple of Heaven
• Kite Shop – where a family has been making and selling hand-made and hand-painted silk and paper kites for almost 100 years
• Men’s Marathon – where Kenya won the gold and set a new Olympic record
• Forbidden City – home to the Imperial Gardens

Here are a few photos from the last sightseeing excursions:

Today I went to lunch with a small group of volunteers, including Mei Li, one of the Mandarin speaking volunteers. Mei Li had been craving Peking Duck and made reservations at a very nice place just a few blocks from my apartment called DaDong. Peking Duck is a famous dish in Beijing (Beijing used to be named Peking), and it’s considered one of the national foods of China. Ducks are bred specifically for the dish and then roasted.

We ate so much.

The waitress worked with Mei Li to create a menu for us. There must have been a dozen dishes – at least. They just kept coming. We had chicken, lobster noodles and lobster tail, cod, asparagus, veal, some sort of blueberry mash, two soups, six or seven desserts, a “sorbet” dish, chilled fruit… AND Peking Duck.

Peking Duck looks a little bit like a deep fried turkey – the outside is very crispy and brown. The skin is very thin though, and doesn’t contain any fat (well, it doesn’t include any layers of fat like you might find under the skin of a piece of chicken). A Peking Duck chef presents the entire bird and then carves it for the table. Here’s a quick video of our bird being carved:

You can barely tell that he’s cutting anything because the duck is sliced so thinly.

To eat Peking Duck, you start with the skin; you take a small piece and dip it in sugar. I know that sounds odd, but it is so good!

Then, you eat the rest of the duck… They give you small dishes with sugar, hoisin sauce, strips of cucumbers and radishes, crushed garlic and ginger which you assemble into little wrap sandwiches using warm “tortillas.” The tortillas are very thin and I’m pretty sure they’re made of rice instead of flour.

When we were done with the duck, they took our leftover meat from the table and made a soup out of it – which they served us later in the meal.

The desserts… not so good. Not bad either, I guess, but definitely not the same. Peas turned into gelatin will never call out to me in the middle of the night like a plate of cookies might. When I get back to the US, my first meal might be chocolate cake with a side of Oreo pudding, ice cream and cupcakes.

My camera battery died before I captured all of the dishes and plate arrangements, but you can find a few on Flickr here. The surprising thing about Chinese food is that after you overeat (which I did), you don’t feel terrible.

I do get sleepy though…