Bring on the Night

2nd July 2007 Beijing

8.20am I was fully refreshed again from a good 8 hours sleep. Not sure the jet-lag is gone, but sure feels that way right now.

Ate breakfast at the hotel diner for 10RMB. Ok breakfast. Nothing fancy, but the food did what it was meant to do. We were full as we left to go to the Forbidden City. Oh yes – it’s a couple of touristy days here in Beijing. What’s to say about the Forbidden City? Its big and under repair. Besides that I weren’t surprised. Cool to have seen it and all, but probably won’t be back again. Bought a commie hat and a book of Famous Mao Zedong Quotes. Can’t be more kitsch than that, eh? When in Rome and so on.

Then we went to Wang Fu Jing to get a light meal and pick up our new glasses. The glasses were in good shape and we decided to and stroll down and do some more shopping. Bought tonnes of tablecloth, fabric napkins, pillow cloth and similar for our home. And the last some textile to renew our worn out dining chairs.

It was by then I saw my number 8th or so spitter. As we head for the exit we walked behind a younger man who pranced along as if he was a real playboy. I was talking to C as I heard a huge clearing-my-throat-sound followed by the well-known “raaackpheeew” noise. And there before us appeared a giant brownish pile of spit. Inside the freaking mall on a white shining marble floor. That’s so freaking disgusting I do not know what to say.

C infront of the Beijing Duck restaurant

I have read other expats stories about it, but never saw anyone this gross. That was a real whopper. This dude joined with his friends on the escalator and instantly shouted “hellooooo” to a girl on the opposite escalator. What a dream guy. At the end of the ride, he and his buddies turned and glanced at me. I hadn’t done anything to attract attention other than being a laowai, but they had a real sinister look at me and C told me to be careful of my belt bag. She didn’t have to, I already had a firm grab at it as I have had all the time in China. Fortunately they didn’t follow me, but was drawn to a clerk shouting a “Hello-try-this-excellent-product-rubbish” or similar to me. Guess the clerk wouldn’t have attracted attention if he knew these boys would react. Bad for him, good for us.

The Beijing Duck restaurant

Eating at the Beijing Duck restaurant

Time to eat again, and we decided to try out a nearby Beijing Duck restaurant named ‘Quan Ju De’. I’m pretty sure it’s one of the more famous spots. It looked fancy all right, and it was. Nice setting and clean spot. Ordered some duck and yes, it tastes ok, but to tell you the truth, I’ve had yummier duck at my family’s home round Christmas. I don’t know what all the fuzz is about. All in all it was an outrageously expensive and disappointing experience. 205RMB for half a standard issue Beijing Duck, some (disgusting) soup and plain tea. Anyway, we can say: “been there, done that” to that one. We can also say: “Done that and won’t be back”. The cab driver who drove us back to the hotel laughed a bit and agreed that we were ripped off.

Back home we relaxed a bit. I wrote a bit on this blog. The net is insanely slow and unreliable here at the hotel, so most stuff is posted with delay. This is why I’m so happy to have a laptop with us. Wise decision I made to buy this sucker Now I just have to convince the missus.

Back on the street to find a restaurant at 8.30pm. Yes – you read correct. The Beijing Duck trip were so disappointing and the duck so scarce that we both were hungry. After walking a bit we dropped in on a restaurant and ate some noodles. As we sat there I saw 2 foreign girls looking pretty helpless asking for an English menu. They could have asked for anything, because they weren’t getting any. The waitress didn’t understand a word. I offered to help them by using C to translate and found out they were both Danes.

C and I eating at the Beijing Duck restaurant

It’s a small world out there. They accepted and C went to their table and helped them out. Afterwards they both thanked C. A small victory for C using her Danish to help others. This is her playground now. The complete opposite of when were back in Denmark. Good girl, that C.

Back at the hotel now, and writing this stuff while C is sucking in some lousy Chinese series with B actors and stupid plot. I’m at the computer. It’s almost like being back in Denmark.

Tags: beijing, China, hotel, restaurant