Duck for One

Today was one of those days when you looked outside and were delightfully optimistic because the sun was shining, you intended to be outdoors most of the day, and sun meant warmth. WRONG! Weather.com says the high today in Beijing was 37 degrees. I don't know where I was when the temperature spiked, but I missed it. Personally, I don't think Weather.com knows what it is talking about. I saw two temperature signs today and one said -4 degrees Celsius and the other said -9. My brain immediately translates all temperatures with a negative sign in front of them into TOO COLD FOR SHARON. Brrrrrrr!!!!

But, since I can't let the cold deter me, I headed out for some adventures anyway. (I came prepared--sort of--I have long underwear, a scarf, hat, and gloves, but all that didn't stop my teeth from chattering). Today was Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square. My hotel, by the way, is not all that far from Tian'anmen Square, but you have to be heading in the right direction in order for it to be within reasonable walking distance. (I happened to be heading north when I should've been heading west). After running into a metro stop I didn't recognize (which, actually, could've been almost any of them at this point), I decided to hop on the metro and let the trains do my navigating for me. Next trip I'm bringing a compass! I was interested to see that they have security checkpoints all over the place--before entering the metro, before entering Tian'anmen Square, before going into the Forbidden City's Wall. Checkpoints, but still hardly a word of English. I have a hard time believing it was this way during the Olympics, but what do I know?

I have found the Chinese people in Beijing to be much gruffer than those in Hong Kong. They push a lot here, which is totally weird for me. I "get" pushing when you're on a crowded metro--fine. But in a gift shop? People will half knock you over without casting a single caring glance in your direction. Weird.

Many people wear face masks. I wondered about that in Hong Kong...there were plenty of them there, too, and plenty of warnings about symptoms and signs of avian flu. There seem to be more of them here, and I wondered about that this morning as I looked out on the "perfectly blue" sky. It appeared surprisingly clean for all the attention it has received about being a terribly polluted city. However, by lunchtime I discovered I had developed a cough and it didn't go away for the rest of the day. I don't know whether that's pollution in disguise, cold weather, or my subconscious just wanting to "fit in" but it made me wonder where I could get a face mask, too. :) (You would get a kick out of the face mask vendors--you can get face masks in all a WIDE variety of fabrics.)

Some pictures from today:

Pretty cool, eh?

But my most favorite experience today was with food--surprise! I determined last night that even though I found peanut butter, that find was good for only one story, so I needed another Chinese culinary experience. I took the advice of a guidebook and headed to a restaurant down by Tian'anmen Square for Peking Duck, Bejing's "specialty". It's a good thing I attempted to find this restaurant in mid-afternoon because there is NO WAY I would've made it after sundown. Not only is every map I've collected difficult to read, but this particular restaurant was, in fact, down an alley that I'm sure looks daunting and dangerous at night. During the day, however, it is quite charming. Check it out:

It's literally a hole in the wall and once you enter you snake through a series of hallways and end up somewhere in the middle of someone's home, pretty much, except there are 8 or so tables that indicate it's at least an eating establishment. Good time to go as there were only two other people eating...they happened to be Russian...and I happened to be seated in the same small room as they were. They carried on their conversation in Russian completely unaware that I could understand most of what they were saying...ha..ha.. it wasn't very interesting chatter, but I chuckled inside at the fact that I was experiencing the ultimate of cultural experiences... waiting to place my order for Peking Duck in a dive restaurant in Beijing while eavesdropping on a Russian conversation. Total bliss!

I was given a menu in English with about 500 choices. All I wanted to try was the duck. That's what people come here for. When the woman came to take my order, she immediately flipped to the first page where the "duck dinner" was listed and asked me if I wanted an order for 1. I nodded yes.

While I was waiting for my duck, they brought the traditional accompaniments... julienned leeks, cucumbers, rice pancakes (crepes) and hoisin sauce. Then came the duck. I was expecting duck for one, but what I actually got was ONE DUCK!!! This picture is not of my actual duck, because I was in too much shock at the time to actually snap a photo in the whole 3 seconds the waiter was in front of me, but this is pretty much what it looked like:They brought the whole thing to my table, head and all, to show me it was done, and then proceeded to slice it up nicely and display it on two platters. I was laughing SO HARD inside becuase they win the gold star for creative presentation, plus there was no way I was eating an entire duck! (Small though they may be, my tolerance for super fatty meat is not high.) You eat the duck much like you eat fajitas, wrapping everything inside the crepe. This picture is of my actual meal:I ate my fill (I'm sure they rolled their eyes when they saw my plate because I had peeled off the meat from the skin, which is supposed to be the delicacy part... but it's just too fatty for me... if you've had duck or goose, you know exactly what I mean), paid an outrageous amount of money for one meal and left out through the maze I entered, only to see this upon exiting the building:How can you not laugh at that and love lunch--greasy, hard-to-hold chopsticks and all?

I had hoped that lunch would be a place where I could thaw, but the room I was in was not much warmer than the outside. My duck was cold within about two bites. Anyhow, the duck constituted the highlight of my day and my most memorable culinary experience thus far on my trip. Duck, anyone?

I have since returned to my hotel, thawed in the bathtub, and am ready to hike the Wall tomorrow. I'm totally excited!!!