China, Beijing - Walking Around the City

We’d been in the city for 2 days and decided to spend the next 2 days cruising the streets, which is exactly what we did

This is the street our hostel was on. It’s a pedestrian-only area, and among the countless people strolling about are innumerable cyclists, scooters and tuktuk drivers. Crossing the street is a dire affair that made me vow to write my living will as soon as possible.

Well, what do you expect? They have an exhausting job!

We went on a quest to exchange some Korean currency, which led us here. We were unsuccessful on the exchange front, though we did manage to find a much needed Starbucks.

We had it on good authority that there was a must-see food market near the posh street Wangfujing, and we were on the hunt! In addition to great bargains, there was quite an array of unusual foods. Amid these novelties were scorpions.

You can see each shish-kabob held a number of little brown scorpions, but what may not be evident is that they are, in fact, still alive. They’re creepy little bodies would squirm and wiggle, and every time I went in for a close up, this guy would put them on my arm. All I wanted was a shot or two, but he was rather persistent, and forced me to use my teacher voice to say, ‘no!’

Before you ask, yes, we did try one. I know everyone says this about unknown meat, but really, it did taste like chicken... well, chicken skin. They were deep fried while still alive. Now I’m not necessarily a fan of scorpions, but come on, skewer them alive and them deep fry ‘em? Well, cruelty aside, it was quite the novelty!

Like I said, there was an assortment of critters with every kind of seasoning, including seahorses, star-fish, sea-urchins, snakes, tarantulas, millipedes, cocoons, lizards and geckos.

But probably the most disturbing of all were the sparrows and pigeons on a stick.

Val and Anne got a few mementos for themselves in this shopping area. I got a number of magnets and was pestered beyond reason by vendors. They can seriously be overwhelming! At one point Val was being pulled in 2 different directions while patiently asking them to stop. She was heaps more tolerant than I would have been.

These t-shirts were pretty cool, they lit up and flashed a rhythm, and being a sucker for t-shirts, it was hard to turn them down. Ah, maybe next time...

While we were walking home, we were approached by 2 tuktuk drivers. Generally I’m wary of anyone trying to render me a service while in a foreign country, but Anne and Val clarified over and over how much it would cost to get to the Forbidden City. 3 Yuan. We were told 3 Yuan. In an effort to stay within my budget, I only brought a certain amount of money with me each day, and by this time that money was long gone. But being the pal she is, Val offered to pay for my ride once we got there, so I got on one carriage and they on another. Within moments it became clear we had made a grave error.

Since there was only one of me on this carriage, my tuktuk driver peddled faster, and we soon delved into the unlit and abandoned alleys, screwing up my precious sense of direction and leaving my friends far behind. I was getting increasingly agitated and insisted he stopped while we waited for the others. It was clear he had no intention of stopping so I prepared to jump off his little scam on wheels. Finally he relented and told me his English was not so good, and he meant 300Y. 300Y! That’s like $50! Our room didn’t even cost that a night and we literally rode less than 3 blocks! So I told him we have to wait for the others and they’ll pay him, though I didn’t specify how much.

Sooner than later I hear Anne’s voice yelling, ‘you’re a liar! You said 3Y!’ and Val wholeheartedly agreeing. Once we met up, they paid my guy and the other guy a 5Y each, which was met by loud protests. They pulled out a card that literally said, “Around the Corner ... 300Y.” Val just laughed and Anne continued stomping away from them. I, however, was getting overwhelmed by all the confrontation and put my hands over my ears while singing ‘These are a Few of my Favorite Things.’ And we made it safely to a well-lit area only to continue bad-mouthing our scammers.

The next day we went on a random walk in the neighborhood that surrounded our hostel. We found a market where we were the only Westerns in the area. It was a nice deviation from the tourist-riddled regions we’d frequented so far.

On our way back to the hostel bar, we picked up a few Peking ducks to sample. Peking duck is something of a Beijing specialty, which we were all eager to try. It was delicious, though a bit salty, which made beer taste that much better!

Originally I had planned on taking the train to Xi’an, but didn’t realize I had to go to the train station 5 days in advance in order to buy my tickets. And since it was the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, I was told it would be impossible to get a seat. So I bought a plane ticket at the last second. As it turned out, Val, Anne and I were heading to airport around the same time. In the meantime, we spent the evening getting to know other travellers and another teacher from Korea.

So there you go, Beijing in a nutshell!