Hipster-chic Beijing

This weekend I went on a mini adventure to find a hidden cafe that claimed to  grow their own herbs in their garden POWERED BY CATFISH. They also claimed to have "furniture made from up-cycled materials." Totally perfect for my compost-maniac-natural-food-eating-obsessed self. Needless to say after getting lost here:

My friend and I finally found this:

We had a blast sharing an amazing duck sandwich, gluten-free sugar cookies and great coffee. The price was a bit expensive for China, but totally worth it. It was so interesting to see the old and new China ---- hipster-chic cafes and all  ---- collide with the older, more traditional China. This hidden cafe was in an old electrical factory, right across from small, traditional dumpling, huo guo (hot pot) and roast duck restaurants similar to this one: 

One interesting thing I noted (as I have been noticing since I arrived here) are not only the amount of couples on the street, but the amount of young couples. I am not exaggerating when I say that 90% of the people I pass on the street are with a partner. At first I thought that maybe love was in the air, but that is obviously not the case. The pressure to get married by 26 or 27 years of age is extreme. People are supposed to get married young. The idea is that once you are too old, no one will want to be with you.

We also have this notion in America. The idea that women have a "biological clock" and if  we don't hurry we will be too old. Ideas in America are changing in this regard and maybe they will change here too. It is clear that Beijing is adapting with it's hipster-chic cafes, CSA's and farmers markets, artsy stores and restaurants, but also still keeping intact the vibrant Chinese culture that makes this city so interesting to live in. 

Here are some photos from around Beijing: 

                        Lama Temple- the scent of incense is everywhere. It's such a spiritual atmosphere:

 With their graceful movements and beautiful traditional Chinese music, these women make my daily walks to the can ting (pronounced sawn teen) or dining hall, a pleasant experience. 

I love nice food and nice prices. just saying.

 My new favorite pizza place on Wudaojie the hipster-chic street

Dancing with Stone Lions (which I keep mistaking for dragons)

I had my first exam on Friday and boy was it rough. So, needless to say I was in need of a break. As though the universe had heard my prayers, my break came in the form of an outing to the Summer Palace, and it was absolutely magical. I went with Alliance, so all of us in the group spent the day taking pictures in every corridor and under every tree.  
 
The Summer Palace sits alongside Kunming Lake and consists of a plethora of gardens, temples, halls, bridges, and  roofed corridors. For a Chinese tourist attraction, it was rather empty that day and  it felt as though we had the gardens to ourselves.  
Being obsessed with Chinese lion sculptures, I took pictures with every stone lion I saw. I ran up and down corridors taking pictures with every stone sculpture I could find. I also spent the day in dreamland, wondering what it would have been like to be there when the powerful Empress Dowager Cixi ruled the kingdom. ( I want to read this book). 

We took a boat ride across the lake to the Seventeen-Arch Bridge passing the main temple on Longevity hill. After arriving at the other side, we were welcomed by a tiny elderly woman belting out Chinese songs and playing an accordion. 

Longevity Hill

Walking past a row of willow trees, I gravitated towards the most beautiful pagoda I had ever seen (shown down below). At first sight it looked like any other  Chinese pagoda. At a closer look the normally bright red, green, blue, and gold colors were peeling and faded. Granted, I would also have looked that way too if I had been through the Opium War, the Boxer Rebellion and countless other wars and revolts; it's age made it seem all the more wise and alluring. 

 It's as if this pagoda was awaiting my arrival. Although fleeting, as I stood under it's traditional Chinese roof, I felt at peace and as though everything was going to be alright. It helped me appreciate the moment and realize that I have been moving non-stop since I arrived here without taking a breath. This moment made me pause for a fleeting second and appreciate where I was and how lucky I was to be there. 

For most of this trip I have been so intent on doing well that I have been buried in my books and worrying about everything from learning Chinese to where I am going in life. I have not had time to  stop and just appreciate being alive and being able to live my shenghuo in a new place and in a new culture. So thank you Summer Palace for demanding that to take a chill pill and  reminding me to just enjoy the adventure.

Ps: say hi to my new best friend. He was just chilling by one of the pagodas: 





 

How to Embarrass Yourself in Chinese

If you want to know how to embarrass yourself in Chinese, just take lessons from me. Every time I try to speak in this language, my sentences come out all wrong.  At first, things started out great. While going to the the Forbidden City, markets, temples, and exquisite restaurants with my group and hilarious program director, I felt as though China would be a blast and Chinese would not be too difficult. After all, languages are my forte how hard could it be?

Me and my classmate in the Forbidden City

Reality hit as soon as I started school. Lessons are five hours a day (sometimes 6) and by the end of the day,  my head is so heavy that I can barely understand my laoshi. On Friday I was definitely struggling with my hanzi (chinese characters). My tutor and I went to the market  and everything I said was wrong! For example, I told her that I felt like my computer was going to explode instead of my brain (dian nao means computer and  nao means brain). She looked at me as though I were speaking Martian. Later that night as I was hopping on the subway with some friends, I told them  that I was going to have a son on Friday instead of a Chinese character exam (haizi means children, hanzi Chinese characters).  

It is safe to say I need to take a nap---- an extensive two-day long nap. Maybe Buddha will visit me in my sleep and help me survive another week. 

A giant Buddha on top of the picturesque Mount Xiqiao in Foshan

Here are some pictures from around China. Enjoy and have a great Mid-Autmn Festival---- i.e. Moon Cake Day!

   A popular yogurt that you drink through a straw

I WANT ONE!!!!!

Zu Miao Temple in Foshan

Starfish-on-a-stick

 Food stands at the Dong Huamen night market in Beijing. 

China has a sense of humor too! (Picture taken in Foshan)

First impressions of Beijing

Although I have only been in Beijing for one week, it feels like a decade. My arrival here is a distant memory: waiting one hour for a taxi into the city, defending my spot in line with my life, and trying to convey basic questions in a language that is as exotic to me as Mars. I feel completely out of my element in China; if I can make it here I will be able to make it anywhere.

Here is a list of surprising observations I have made this past week.

1. On motorbikes and scooters, I see whole families piled on top of one another, with little to no

    safety precautions taken. On electronic scooters I sometimes see I'll see a child standing in the 

    front and his or her father sitting behind him. On the busy streets of Beijing, that is 

    very scary. 

2. Most of the time when you ask for shui, water, waiters will give it to you steaming hot!The traditional reason being that it is better for digestion than cold water. Modern reasons being that tap water is not safe, so to make it drinkable it must first be boiled. The first time a waiter asked me if I wanted hot or cold water, I thought it was a trick question!

3. It is so hot here, I see people fall asleep everywhere: on benches, in open cars, in their stores, on little stools on the side of the street; even taxi cab drivers have been known to drift off to sleep while driving!

4. I see fake crocs everywhere, worn by teen girls, young women, mothers, grandmothers and even little kids!

5. In the Guangdong region (in the south) they will serve hot water with your plates and utensils so you can wash them 
    before eating with them. Don’t forget to discard the old water!

   These are hundred-year eggs that I ate in Foshan (in the Guangdong province)

6. Unlike in the north, people rarely eat off of plates. Their use is mainly for holding the bowl and

    discarded food items. Often, restaurants  send the dishes off to factories to clean them. When they 

    come back, they are covered in plastic.

7. I have finally gotten used to the public bathrooms here: procelain holes in the ground instead of toilets. Nowadays what makes me over-the-moon happy is to see hand soap in the bathroom!

8. In touristy areas, it is very common to take ask to have a picture taken with you if you look western. I have gotten this at least 10 times. Sometimes parents drag their kids to have their photo taken with me.

9. Here, honking is used by larger vehicles to tell the smaller ones that they are coming and they are not going to stop, So they better move or else! On the road it is a hierarchy. The bigger vehicles can do whatever they want and the smaller vehicles (people being the lowest on the totem pole) have no say in the matter.

     NBD, just a car driving on the sidewalk:

China is a dynamic country where old meets new, creating interesting innovations for new situations arising everyday. Here, I have met some extremely nice people who have gone out of their way to help me and make me feel comfortable. For one of the most populated cities this level of generosity is amazing.  I am excited to make Beijing my home for the next four months.

Photo: Julie Lamin-Sidique