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I think my first couple of posts about my new Chinese life did not seem the cheeriest, but let me assure you, Bejing and I are quickly falling in love (to be fair, I’m not sure how Beijing feels about me. But it hasn’t tried to kill me in the past two days or so, which I take as a good sign).
The weekend was good for forgiveness and reconciliation. After my last unfortunate attempt, I woke up on Saturday feeling brave, and headed for Tian’anmen Square again. As soon as I walked out of the station, some woman cheerily said hi, wanting to know if I had been to the Great Wall yet. Little did she know how savvy a traveler I am! Ready to deal with any scamming attempts, I shot her back my fail-proof reply: “I no speak Engleesh.” I tried to look convincingly confused, and quickly walked away. After trying that line half a dozen times on different vendors and “friends” of all varieties, I figured out that it does, in fact, work much better than just saying you are not interested. They give up more quickly.
When I asked some girls to take a picture of me with Mao (my first real tourist photo in China!) they actually asked me if they could take a picture with me. So yes, as I had read in my travel guide, it IS true that Chinese tourists do sometimes want a picture with a rando foreigner. This made me feel inexplicably better about my gullibility earlier in the week. Like I’d been somehow justified.
But my small triumph in visiting the city’s major tourist attraction without getting totally ripped off was not even the best thing that happened Saturday. Later that day, I met my friend Kay for an afternoon of wandering around and learning a whole lot about China. Kay and I met in a chat room where Chinese students interested in studying in the US can talk to American students. He is a cancer researcher at at military hospital, and we have been emailing back and forth for a little while. I am the first foreigner Kay has ever been friends with.
How bad would it be if I said, on the same that I visited Tian’anmen square and saw (the outside of) the Forbidden City, that one of my favorite parts about China so far has been Walmart? Well, I don’t care. It was. Kay and I spent at least an hour wandering through the aisles of the food section, and he patiently explained everything I had questions about. Which was a lot.
Did you know that in a Chinese Walmart you can pick your fish while still alive in big tanks? Or that you can buy chicken feet? Or that you can buy dried, spiced duck tongues to eat as a snack like Doritos? Or duck necks? Or that the milk is not really milk but just a “milk flavored” drink? Or that you can buy mini mangoes the size of strawberries? or fermented quail eggs? or beef-stew-flavored potato chips? Or that they crack eggs and put them in wine glasses so you can compare the difference in yolk size and color between two brands? Me neither.
Fish doesn’t get much fresher.
Nom nom nom.
Mini mangoes!
I love the Chinese versions of American brands. Especially when I’m with someone that can read the name to me
After our amazing stroll through Walmart, we went to eat at a restaurant. Kay ordered a preposterous amount of food for the two of us, and I have since learned that that’s one of the ways that a host will show his hospitality in China. He had thoughtfully looked up online earlier “food that foreigners like” and got some crowd-pleasers like scallion pancakes, sweet and sour pork, and sechuanese chili tofu. He also got a fresh salad with a nice peanut dressing, which he seemed to think the most exotic of the dishes, since it’s very unusual here to eat raw vegetables. The food was all absolutely delicious, and I learned a lot about table manners, the Chinese names of different foods, and to never offer to pay for a meal when a Chinese host is showing his hospitality.
One last thing I should mention was this fun little video Kay introduced me to, a 10 minute tutorial to understand China (if only it were so simple!). Notice Youku, the Chinese version of YouTube. Any similarities are entirely coincidental…
Kay, with the feast that was theoretically a meal for two people.
