- - Tian’ Anmen Square is big. Bigger than we ever fathomed.
- - Chinese like to hock loogies and spit them on the sidewalks. Cool for me because I’m okay with it, but a nightmare for Tania’s eyes and ears.
- - First food experiment complete! Pork intestines aren’t too shabby, as long as they’re fried and drenched in yummy Chinese brown sauce.
- - Street hagglers are ubiquitous, and like to touch Tania, which Tania doesn’t like. At all.
- - Our hotel is apparently under renovation because they haven’t vacuumed our carpet in our months and there’s a fine scent of paint wafting through our room. At least the beds are as soft as a brick wall.
The Craig-has-too-much-time-on-his-hands version:
Okay, if we last thought that we definitely ain’t in Kansas anymore, now we’re sure we’re not even on Earth anymore. Within walking 5 minutes from our hotel around a few loogie-ridden sidewalks and corners, we were minimized to ants amongst the extreme grandeur of Tian’ Anmen Sqaure. For as far as the eye can see (which isn’t too far since the smog limits how far the eye can take you), there were monstrous government buildings surrounding a square that make a football field look like a foosball table standing inside of a convention center. I knew the commies went big to show how powerful they are, but this redefines what big means in my head. Dear Lord this square was massive. So massive that we were winded by the time we walked from one end to the other.
Here are some pictures that hopefully show some sense of the scale of the area:
Knowing we were going to explore the square again, along with the Imperial Palace (aka Forbidden City) with our tour group on Monday, we picked our jaws off of the cold cement floor, took our pictures with the gigantic painting of Mao on the Imperial Palace’s front gate (below), and continued to ignore the people trying to sell us God knows what as we darted out of the square. By this point we were starving, so we looked for the closest non-touristy yet hopefully-doesn’t-serve-dog restaurant, which we found close by (hopefully we were right about the dog thing).
While Tania ordered some sort of eggplant dish (which looked nothing like the picture in the menu when they brought it out), while I decided to not waste any time in ordering a dish I’d never have in the US, and opted for the lightly fried pork intestines in brown sauce. I want to so badly explore the unique aspects of this culture while we’re here and to escape all of the standard pitfalls, but after eating this dish, I know it’s not going to be a quick or easy transition. The first bite seemed to have a nice crunch as I broke through the outer fried shell, and the (what I’m guessing was the) intestine had a very soft calamari-like chewiness to it, but as soon as I got past that point, something squirted from the middle, and this immediately struck my nervous tourist gag reflex button. I wasn’t close to puking or spitting it up, but it tightened my nerves for the rest of the meal so that I wasn’t relaxed to enjoy this new dish. Hopefully this is temporary and will ease over time as we explore more unique dishes, but like I said, this transition isn’t going to be smooth. (Sorry to let you down Steph, but please know I’m trying.) And Tania will be close behind. She tried a bite of my dish and handled it well, but we’ll see how she does when she gets her own full dish of pigeon liver or whatever it is she has the gall to order.
Now that we were initiated into the local cuisine, it was time to explore the streets. We stumbled upon a market full of small stands selling the obvious trinkets and chotchkies (is that right Sabby?) as well as snacks like grilled cherry or steak kabobs. Very cool little area of town, but it wasn’t what we were looking for. We needed to replenish our reading supplies. I had finished the book “Lost On Planet China” that Bridgett gave me (THANKS B!!! Hope you and your little family are doing great!), and Tania finished a little book named Twilight that Roxy gave her. You may have heard of it. It’s now turned from a book into an addiction for Tania, so she needed the follow-up New Moon like a fat kid needs cake (that’s quoting a song, not an insensitive jab, parents x2). Well, after looking in every bookstore between Kyoto and Beijing, we finally found an international bookstore that had New Moon. And Tania beamed with joy knowing she could continue her affair with Edward again.
I was equally as giddy because this bookstore also had the new Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol. Even though it’s a massive hard back and will be tough to lug around, I felt it was worth it knowing how well it would keep me entertained during our several overnight train rides that we have ahead of us over the next few weeks. And since I read slower than Tania walks, it will last me a good while.
Happy as clams, we skipped over to the mall (video view below) for a quick Starbucks free wifi session then grabbed a bunch of groceries from a big ol’ grocery store (not a street market that will over-charge this laowai) for our room. Knowing I didn’t have to haggle with local vendors filled me with joy.
Now back in our room, we’re going to relax, start our books, and stay warm. And tomorrow, we’ll meet our tour group, which we can’t wait to happen since we’ll be spending the next three weeks with them. So cool!
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