Duck for Dinner

  Beijing, China
Monday, July 20, 2009

 Our train rolled into Beijing Central Train Station around 2:30 in the afternoon, having descended from the pretty scenery and countless tunnels in the mountains to passing mile after mile of huge new apartment blocks on the plains leading up to the Chinese capital. The hustle and bustle of China is quite a shock coming from Mongolia - Beijing is a massive place with huge 6-lane arteries lined with great government buildings, shopping centres and apartment blocks - with the exception is the low-rise maze of the ancient Forbidden City and the surrounding hutong.  


The wonderful Emperor Guesthouse is located in the 'Hutong' in central Beijing. Hutong is just the name for the traditional mazy, single storey neighbourhoods that used to dominate non-Imperial Beijing (i.e. where normal Chinese lived). Many of the Hutongs have been destroyed in Beijing's regeneration but this one remains and it is very close to the heart of the city and Tian 'An Men Square. You have to be careful with 'traditional' and 'original' Chinese attractions because often they are often neither, but this Hutong seemed to genuinely be a local Chinese neighbourhood with local people, shops, and restaurants all over. It was a fascinating place to walk around - you feel as if you are living right in and amongst the locals, taking little back-alley shortcuts (actually the whole place is little back-alleys) that pass right up close to (and through) Chinese homes. Margat (who was also staying in a Hutong) commented later that the area was really tourist friendly, what with all the public toilets around but these are actually community toilets as many homes were built without them. The Emperor itself is the impressive former residence of a noted civil servant, with an indoor courtyard, its own little restaurant and great staff. We highly recommend it.


We met up with some of our fellow trans-Siberian-ers that evening for a farewell dinner - Ritchie's instruction to meet 'at the big flag on Tian 'An Men square' at 6pm proved ill-judged as it coincided with the lowering of said flag and the area was swamped with Chinese tourists. We eventually met up and made our way to Qian Ju De on Wang Fu Jing Lu which is a famous Peking Duck restaurant and devoured a duck and a half, as well as our first bottle of baijiu for the trip. Before our farewells we all went for supper and shopping along the night market across from the restaurant, scorpions, snakes, crickets all available but everyone was suddenly very full... A mention must go to the Chinese sales people in the tourist markets - they exchange some good banter with customers and their sales acumen is pretty impressive; we are resigned to the fact that with our bags already fully packed and another 9 months to go we cannot buy anything more, and yet we somehow walked out of the first shop with a new pair of binoculars and a large Chinese fan! 


Our second and final day in Beijing we headed over to the Olympic Park to see Beijing's newest famous buildings. The park is beautifully laid out and the Birds Nest stadium facing the water sports 'Cube' are its impressive centrepiece. We decided in the baking heat (nearing 40 degrees) not to bother with what would certainly have been a tortuous Chinese-style guided tour of the interiors, so with our pictures taken we headed back to get our stuff together and get to the train station for our overnight express to Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, home of Jie's dad. This train turned out to be by far and away the newest and slickest of any we have been on (ever), with space age looks, tv's at the foot of every bed and swarms of smartly dressed and helpful staff. It just wasn't the same.