Nina's Tianjin Blog: My National Holiday - Part 2

THE TIANJIN-BEIJING BULLET TRAIN
After returning from Shandong on Wednesday morning, I stayed in Tianjin for two days and then went to Beijing on Friday morning. After my last horrific experience pushing and shoving and then standing for 2 hours on the regular train to Beijing, I decided to go all out and pay extra for the bullet train. True, the bullet train costs 58 yuan, double the price of regular train tickets, and it takes you to the Beijing South Station, where there is no subway stop and you have to take a 20 minute bus ride to the nearest subway line, but that 30 minute train ride is so luxurious. No crowds, no pushing, no line-jumping. Everyone has an assigned seat; no one stands, and the stewardess even gives you a free bottle of water.

SHOPPING
On Friday, I went shopping in the famous Silk Street market by myself because Janny, my high school friend from the U.S., had signed up for a 1-day Great Wall and Ming Tombs tour. I ended up buying too many things and probably paying too much for them, since I tend to make poor judgments alone. I always end up giving a price that's too low and angering a vendor, and then I feel bad and give a price that's too high at the second vendor. But the shopping, haggling, and hurrying through the holiday crowds in Beijing tired me out pretty fast.

On Saturday morning, I headed out early (before 7am!) to grab some breakfast and try to get to Tiananmen by 8am to meet Janny and her cousin. At 7:45am on the subway, Janny calls and tells me that she's still in bed at her hotel and she's moving hotels. So I propose that I meet her at her current hotel. After 45minutes of commute, I arrive at the hotel that she's supposed to be at, and Janny tells me that she's just arrived at her new hotel. By this time, I'm a little upset. I was patient when she wanted to meet at 8am in the morning to go to the Forbidden City; I was patient when she suddenly changed the meeting place from Tiananmen to her hotel; but this, leaving when she knew I was on my way, irked me. She couldn't have waited an extra 10 minutes until I arrived? I almost wanted to give up meeting with her and just go off on my own in Beijing. But then I remembered how a few days ago, I had fallen asleep and completely missed my dinner appt with my hallmate Alex, Chinese friend Wang Rong, and three of my MBA students. They must have been pretty upset with me for being so flaky. They graciously forgave me. So, remembering that everyone is flawed, everyone needs grace, I took a few deep breaths and went to chase down Janny at her new hotel. At last, I met up with her, her cousin, and her Chinese lawyer friend Lynn.

AT THE SUMMER PALACE

In spite of the rough start, we ended up having a very good time that day. Lynn, being our fearless guide, navigated us through the confusion of Chinese bus stops. Even a Beijing resident like Lynn didn't know what bus to take to get from where we were to the Summer Palace. (Goodness, you'd think that SOMEONE in the population of 1 billion would know something about metropolitan transportation planning. How hard is it to keep an updated bus route map and to do upkeep on the bus stop signage? Or how about starting a traffic and public transportation hotline like the 511 we have in the Bay Area?)
Summer Palace was packed with tourists for the National Holiday week, so we got so sick of the lines and crowds that we explored some of the side paths instead of the main lakeside pathway. That was exactly what I wanted, since I'd been to the Summer Palace before and done the whole typical touristy routes. The Summer Palace is so big and beautiful that it's more rewarding to meander at a leisurely pace exploring side tracks and detours. I really like parks and nature, especially now in people-filled, cement-filled Tianjin, so I enjoyed the time of respite immensely. Even better would be to bring a picnic and spend the whole day exploring, but Janny and her cousin wanted to hit the other popular attractions like the Bird's Nest and Wangfujing Street, so I was happy with a morning's full of natural scenery.

FUN AT THE OLYMPIC GREEN

Michael Phelps is larger than life in China.

A little girl learns to use the camera.

Kites soar over the Olympic Green.

FOOD
The most exciting thing about this Beijing visit was the food. I had Beijing Roast Duck for the first time!! At last, I was with enough people to try it. I've wanted to eat it for a while, but I was always alone and one person can't eat a whole duck. Lynn, our Beijing lawyer friend, took us to a place near her work, which she said was 1) less expensive than the oh-so-famous QuanJuDe, 2) tastier than the other places she'd been to in Beijing, and 3) had a terrific atmosphere. Indeed she was right. I can't compare the taste of the duck with other places, but definitely the price and atmosphere was amazing. For 98 yuan, we got a whole package of duck with the pancake wrappers and the duck bones stewed in cabbage soup. It was enough for 4 people. The skin was super crispy and luxurious. My friend taught me to roll the skin first in raw sugar crystals and then to eat the sugar-covered skin by itself, no sauce, no wrapper.

The texture in your mouth is quite interesting. The sugar crystals add crunch and sweetness to the crispy duck skin and make it taste lighter and less oily. With the duck meat, green onion slivers, cucumber, hoisin sauce, and thin pancake wrapper, you get a very nice balance of sweet, salty, crunchy, chewy, rich and refreshing tastes all exploding in your mouth. It's very nice. The only complaint I have is that I'm used to HongKong-style roast duck being seasoned with Oriental spice rubs. Beijing roast duck isn't as flavorful and is quite bland without the hoisin sauce. The sauce makes a big difference in this dish.

See the video I took below of the chef's quick, skillful slicing of the duck skin.

After a filling dinner, we also went to Wangfujing and strolled through their Food Street. Good thing we ate already, because everything looked so tempting. Even I caved in and bought a cool looking PaoPaoCha 泡泡茶, which is sweetened tea with a piece of dry ice dropped in. It tasted just ok, sort of like Coke because the dry ice makes the tea fizz in your mouth. It sure looks cool.