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After some much-needed sleep and a shower (and a change of clothes! I had been wearing the same outfit non-stop from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday morning!) we headed into Beijing. Tricia's first stop, as usual, was Hard Rock Cafe. Nachos and veggie burgers. She got a t-shirt and I got a Panda bear magnet for our fridge that says "Hard Rock Cafe Beijing." Then we stopped by the Pearl Market, which might have pearls but we didn't see any. Mostly, they have knockoff watches, fake brand-name purses, and clothes. I got a North Face gore-tex jacket for the train ride, and Tricia got a Louis Vuitton makeup bag.
We relaxed in the hotel a little more -- we have 2 weeks here, so there's no hurry to see too many sights! We watched some Chinese TV, caught the end of
Knight's Tale, and now are going to bed fairly early. Tomorrow should be the Forbidden Palace and Temple of Heaven -- but everything's flexible.
Thursday June 3rd
Yesterday we toured the Forbidden Palace. It's interesting -- no one but the Emperor and his court were allowed in for centuries, and all that. But mostly, it's large empty rooms, with big courtyards in between. On the sides are all the houses where the eunuchs and courtesans and concubines lived. I would much rather have gone through their housing and seen it decorated in the ancient style, but you're not allowed. (I guess when they call it "Forbidden" you can't expect completely open access.) We had heard that there was a Starbucks there, but we couldn't find it. Either it's tucked away in a corner or it was forced out.
Forced out by one of the many overpriced bottled water and pre-packaged ice cream vendors, no doubt.
Not that the ice cream vendors caused a commotion -- Starbucks or McDonalds open a Forbidden City Palace branch, and you'd think it was the apocalypse. But it's fine and dandy for a random Chinese guy to sell Dasani water and Nestle ice cream sticks for $5 a piece.
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Speaking of Starbucks, we wanted a cup of coffee before leaving Beijing (for our 3-day trip to Xian), so we went to the nearest Starbucks by the hotel. It's less than a block away. We woke up at 6 and were hoping to catch the taxi to the airport at 7. Starbucks doesn't open until 9. Someone needs to explain to the Starbucks franchising group that if you don't have a culture with an early-morning caffeine dependency, you can't make a lot of money selling them $5 cups of coffee. And in order to foster that early-morning coffee need, you're going to have to open up early.
So we had a $5 cup of coffee in the hotel instead. And a $7 basket of Danish pastries. Beijing is a lot more expensive that I figured. You just think "China" and it sounds as cheap as Laos or Cambodia, but boy it isn't. Beijing is a pretty first-world city, with skyscrapers and big glass hotels, and malls on every corner. Each street we drove down had a 30-foot wide sidewalk on each side, one bike lane in each direction (the size of a regular lane of traffic, but separated from the road by a tree-lined median) and then 8 lanes of car traffic. Big roads have 10 lanes -- five each way. Far bigger than any streets in Phoenix or
Manhattan. and these are just city blocks. If you had to speculate based only on being in Beijing for an hour or two, you'd figure that fully 75% of the ground-level land mass of China was roadways, and the rest was shopping mall cosmetics counters. Anytime I needed to go to the bathroom, we just went into the nearest big shiny doors, and popped in to a mall. Of course, the bathrooms are always 2 flights up and tucked away in a dark corridor. Much easier to find
Lancôme than a ladies room.
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Where was I . . . after the palace we went to the Zoo. Saw the pandas. It was only 4 p.m., and we wanted to go to the aquarium, too, but they wouldn't sell us tickets, since it closes at 5:30. I think we could have squeezed it in. But then, we have 4 or 5 more days in Beijing when we get back from Xian, so maybe we'll do it then. We were hoping that the Pandas would be a little more exciting. They have these big hills to play on, and treehouses and jungle gyms --- even a teeter-totter to play on. But mostly they just sit next to the door and eat bamboo. The zoo keepers throw more bamboo out the door, and the pandas eat it. And judging from the wear marks (or lack of them) on the see saw and metal slide, and the intact bark on the natural wood treehouse, I think it's safe to say the pandas don't play with them much. Just sit and eat. can't blame them. Boring life, being in a zoo.
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