TCC 3: Another tale of adventure, coolness, and those silly Communists. Oh, that probably wasn't very PC, was it? Sorry If I offended anyone.
If you are one of my avid readers, you will probably have already guessed that "TCC 3" stands for The China Chronicles 3, meaning that this is the third in a series of witty and dashing reports (note my shameless self-promotion, it comes up quite a lot). However, a few of my family members brought it to my attention that more people will want to spend some of their valuable time reading this, people who have not had the pleasure of getting the first two installments on a first hand notice. As such, the list of subscribers has grown, so if you are confused by seemingly inside jokes, I will gladly explain them to you and/or send you the first two wonderful letters. Capiche? Rereading that paragraph didn't really help me understand it anymore, so if you are picking up what I am throwing down, kudos to you. As I am not in possession of any delicious power bars, however, you will have to do with imaginary Kudos. I hope they are Snickers flavored (or perhaps Milky Way, those have always been my favorite).
Speaking of flavors (look at the segue! Man, I even impress myself sometimes), China is full of crazy ones. And crazy food. Yesterday we picked up some potato chips: a bag of Mexican Tomato Chicken flavored, and another of Italian Red Meat flavored. We have also had the pleasure of trying Cucumber flavored, as well as Seaweed. So far the Seaweed was the best. The MTC flavored mostly tasted like barbecue and taco soup, the Cucumber was… fresh, and I haven't worked out the courage to try the red meat. Do you think it will taste like raw or cooked red meat? I'm sort of hoping for the former*, just for some variety. Because you know how hard it is to get variety here in China. We tried some dragonfruit on Monday. It has the texture of a kiwi (which as a kiwi, isn't bad) the taste of an Asian grocery store (of course I haven't licked one! I mean, the taste of the smell) and the color exactly the shade of Klingon blood. It all added up to a very unappetizing fruit, in my opinion, and I will gladly stick to bananas, of which you can buy bunches and bunches for only a few kuai (we're so savvy now, we can say kuai instead of yuan. It's sort of like saying bucks instead of dollars).
Speaking of variety in China, though (man, that segue wasn't as good. I couldn't figure out how to get the dragonfruit in there before, so I had to do it after, and now you guys are all confused because some of you didn't remember that I was talking about variety before, so all in all I have become un-impressed with myself, also this paragraph started with the same words as the paragraph before, so really I just fail as a writer), ARCHITECTURE. *pauses for breath* There is a lot of variety in architecture in Beijing. I think that's kind of what it is known for, except for its duck. You know, Beijing duck, Beijing architecture? Isn't that what pops into your mind? Well, I have this cool picture of the Lama Temple (there was only one 'l' there, smart-aleck, that's not where they worship llamas) where you can see these old Chinese-style roofs in a courtyard, and in between them in the distance is a power line and a dilapidated apartment building. Is very interesting. As interesting as the cool, Forbidden-City type buildings are, though, there's only so many pictures you can get of a curved roof with pretty tiles and lots of ornate paintings. Maybe I won't tire of them yet, though, because I'm sure I already have twenty.
There's that picture I was talking about
Oh yeah, the Forbidden City. That old thing. I bet you guys were just waiting on the edge of your seats to hear about that. You can sit back and relax, now, I have seen it. I was not assassinated by Chinese ninjas on the way in, nor tied to a bed and had water dripped onto my face until I told my clan's secrets or anything like that to get inside. In fact, I walked in. Crazy huh?
Our Forbidden City tour day started with us taking the subway to the meeting spot with the China Cultural Center tour. We spent some time consulting our maps, had no luck whatsoever in finding the place, and finally I was brave enough to ask for help with a "Qing bang bang wo?" to a lady who looked like she had nothing to do. Yes, that really is how you say "Please help me!" in Mandarin. We found it, and got off on our tour by getting in Pedicabs. One of the scariest rides of my life. Well, not really. It's like, a guy on a bicycle and you sitting on this rickety chair whose center of gravity is precarious, at best. But it was sort of fun. We then went on a ride through the hutong!
See? pedicab!
'Hutong' is in fact a Mongolian word, for all of you people who were wondering how you could get that word from the Mandarin initial and final parts of words. I know my initials and finals, guys, sheesh. It means 'water well' because when Beijing was starting they would dig wells and communities would spring up around them. It was a very interesting place, kind of ghetto-ish and I felt like we were this rich foreigner tour group come to sneer at them (I wasn't sneering, I promise! It just sort of kind of felt like that), but I don't think they felt that way. It actually seems like a very nice place to live if you grew up there, and in fact we got to meet with a lady who had lived there her whole life. She was over 80 and very nice, and was happy to have us visit as she is retired and lonely. They live in these little courtyard houses, where three or four buildings are protected together, holding a bunch of different families (one we saw had 11 families in one courtyard!) and they don't have private bathrooms. You have to go to a little bathroom down the street somewhere, and if it's one in the morning and raining, tough luck. It was really quite a maze of gray alleys and old stone, with laundry hanging out of windows and a little market street selling intestines and paintings (okay, there were two different streets for that). Altogether a very cool place, and very culturally different.
Peering into somebody's house
Cricket seller. It's a thing.
Going down the hutong...
Tiananmen Square!
On that happy note, we then went to the Forbidden City, which was big and hot and had lots of interesting facts and red buildings that only got used like twice a year in their heyday. That's all I have to say about it.
:P I'm kidding. There's a lot of history that went into it. For instance, when they were laying down the bricks on the floor of the plazas, they didn't want any chance of the Emperor getting assassinated by someone digging up through the ground, so the put NINE layers of bricks all the way everywhere on the plaza floor. And this place is huge. That's like, billions of bricks. The garden in the back of the city is really beautiful too. That really is all I have to say about it, it was very interesting and all, but we were pretty tired by then.
I brought my friends with me :)
Those bricks I was talking about
See? curved roofs. Rooves?
gardens in the back
The view from the top of a hill, looking south over the Forbidden City. Yep, that's all pollution.
On a different note, we are taking language lessons that Microsoft so nicely bestowed on us. Our teacher's English name is Judy (although I like to pretend it's Joo Dee and be scared of her, Avatar:TLA fan that I am, but it doesn't last long as she is super cute and nice). We have good times in that class. She makes us pretend to be host and guest a lot, so Sarah and Dad's conversation went like this on Tuesday (it was in Chinese, of course, but I'll give you the English version):
Sarah: *knock knock knock*
Dad: Hello! Please come in.
S: Thank you!
D: You're welcome. Are you thirsty?
S: I am not thirsty.
D: Are you hungry?
S: I am a little bit hungry.
D: Do you want some chocolate?
S: umm...Yes.
D: Please eat. Please.
S: uhh…. How much is it?
At which point we all laughed horrendously because "Duo shao qian"- "how much is it", is one of the first phrases we learned and the only thing Sarah could think of to say at the time. Judy was quick to correct her: "You are guest, you are guest! You no ask how much!" So that's language lessons for you.
Wednesday (wow, I really haven't gotten very far in the week, have I?) was market time. Oh my gosh, markets. Like, real, silk and clothes and knock-off purses and chopsticks markets, where people are grabbing at you and asking you if you want to buy their wares ("It's Prada, real leather!"). Quite a cool experience, and we went with the Relief Society president who has lived here a year, so that was nice to go with a veteran. I was really close to buying a coat, and when I asked 'Duo shao qian' (remember what that means? I expect you to now) the seller said "Oh, you have very good Chinese! Because you speak ver good Chinese, I give you friend price. Here's what I ask most people (680) but I will give you this price (450)!" 450 yuan is about 75 dollars, a price I wouldn't pay in the U.S. no matter how good the coat is, and certainly wouldn't pay in China for a wool coat that would fall apart in a few years (or months, or weeks) anyway. So, there you go. We bargained a bit and she finally went down to 200, but I didn't want to pay that in the first place so I left. Now I sort of feel bad because apparently it's unethical to leave when they come down to your price.
Selling anecdote aside, the past few days have been a little boring, as Sarah and Mom have gone places while I babysat Danny Boy. Sarah left for Qufu today (tear) to go learn Kung Fu, so she was doing as much Beijing stuff as she could. We did all go to the Yonghegong Lama Temple, though, which was cool. It is home to the biggest (Guiness says so) carving from a single tree, ever. It's this gigantor Buddha that is like, 18 meters high, so high that you have to crane your neck all the way back to see it. It was crazy. Here's a picture, because my camera couldn't do it justice:
It was in this really cool temple complex that was once a palace and was rather pretty. Outside was a street full of incense shops and traditional music. It was a really nice day, too (I found blue sky! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope that sufficiently imparts my excitement at actually being able to see the sky) so it was quite a pleasant walk, too. We went to a vegetarian buffet that was AMAZING. Too bad it was way expensive. Ah, me.
The Lama Temple
Daniel looking at the giant Buddha
Pretty tile!
Incense shop
Well, quite the week, I have to say. Good times, bad times (not really, actually, but it sounded poetic) and lots of Chinese people. Good luck to everyone starting school Tuesday! I am included in that group. I want to hear your schedules so I can pretend it will make a difference when I come back in January :D (I don't think I will have much say in my schedule). Let me know what y'all are doing in Washington, Utah, and the world (and please stop me if I ever start to say "y'all" again). I start early morning seminary tomorrow. Yay. It's virtual, so I have to call in on Skype and stuff. It will be weird.
Okay, goodbye for real. I feel like I'm doing that thing when you're chatting with someone and no one wants to not be the last person to say goodbye. I just keep thinking of more things to say.
Tune in next week for TCC 4.
~Ellyn
P.S. I think TCC 3 has a much better ring to it than TCC 4. I might go back to calling it The China Chronicles, which can be said with much more dramatic flair.
P.P.S. OMG, new favorite drink! Apple Fanta. It's delicious. White Peach Fanta is pretty good too, although it sort of just tastes like Peach Fresca. But I could seriously drink Apple Fanta all the time. Love love. Look for it in the U.S.! I hope someone will find it so I don't have to pine (or repine, perhaps? Oh hoh hoh!) for/about it.
P.P.P.S. The 'silly Communists' comment was because the weirdest things are banned here! Youtube, for instance, but instead there are a bunch of Asian versions of YouTube that spring up anyway, where you can watch whole movies that aren't even out of theatres. Also, hilarious signs (are from silly Chinese, not banned). Dad went down to Guilin for a work conference, and at the hotel breakfast he saw a centerpiece that was a bowl of fruit, but not part of the breakfast, and next to it a sign that said "Please don't be touchable". Okay, silly Chinese, I won't.
*I don't really want the chips to taste like raw meat. That would be gross.
No comments:
Post a Comment