Hello again. I have had an excellent week and a half in Beijing. Highlights:
The food. We've gone out to eat every night (not that there is a kitchen available), and all the meals have been very tasty. Various kinds of dumplings, spicy chicken/peanut/chili pepper concoctions, fried rack of lamb, sweet and sour fish (I thought it was more like honey garlic, but anyway this might be my favourite), lots of other fish, it goes on. Probably the most out-of-the-ordinary dish (for me) that I've eaten is pig skin, both in dumplings (a little better) or served cold (sort of pickled?) with vegetables as an appetizer (not so great, even before I knew what it was). Of course, there are things I've eaten where I didn't know what they were, but they were good enough that I didn't want to spoil it by finding out . . .
The Great Wall. The tour I ended up on with Henning, a German friend of Nicki's who also happens to be visiting China at this time, was kind of bogus. We spent most of the 10 hours on detours, including a tour a big jade factory (the largest in Asia, we are told, and it was kind of cool) and a Chinese medicine academy (turns out I need to exercise more and eat fewer fatty foods - thanks, so do 95% of North Americans). But the Wall itself is spectacular, even at the touristy section we visited (it is winter, so not as crowded anyway).
The Forbidden City. It is kind of cool to stroll along the walkways that used to be reserved for emporers. Yes, I feel like a big man now.
The Summer Palace. Huge, though mostly outdoors, which is what all these palaces are like. It made for an interesting walk around, though I hear it is better in spring and (you guessed it) summer. There are buds on the trees, so I guess this is not far off, but it is a bit late for me. Next time, I guess.
Day trip to Tianjin. This port near Beijing is famous for its antique markets. It was formerly under European control, and there is a section of town that is a mishmash of various European styles - it was very weird to drive around there and feel like you'd suddenly dropped out of China.
Pictures to follow from all of these, someday, hopefully in 2004 .. . .
Nicki and I have been getting along famously as roommates. Of course this tends to be easier when only one person is busy with school and the other is, well, sleeping in and lazing around a lot. I even have my own key (the keys are not copy-protected like those of UBC res). She has school every morning during the week, and one morning we discovered an interesting feature of the door to the room. You can set the lock so that it catches when you close the door, or you can close the door and use your key from the outside. One would expect these to have the same results, but the designers of this door had something a little more sinister in mind: Nicki locked the door from the outside on her way to class, and when I finally dragged myself out of bed, I found that there would be no unlocking the door for me. Fortunately she is not gone all day, and I got out a couple hours later (I was imprisoned with food, tv that has a french channel, and books, so it could have been worse). I'm not clear if such locks are university policy, but I am sticking to my plan of not asking questions.
I've got an overnight train ticket for Xian (about 1000km southwest) that leaves tomorrow. I'll have some time there to check out the renowned terracotta army and other sights before heading to Shanghai for next weekend.