Fall in Beijing

Over the last week, the temperature has dropped and the leaves have begun to turn bright reds and yellows. It is a treat to see the fall colors. This weekend, we took a class trip to a rural area north of Beijing. Here are some photos of the countryside and with me picking Fuji apples at a U-pick-it farm (these farms are all around Beijing and you can pick just about any fruit that grows around here).

My mom and I also took a tour down the canal that runs from downtown Beijing to the Summer Palace. We visited several temples and the Purple Bamboo Park. Here are some pictures of persimmons and ginko that are just getting ripe.

The weather is cold and getting colder. Last night, it was about 1 degree C. I've invested in a new coat and heavy pajamas. Buildings are not allowed to be heated until November 1 (regardless of the weather), so we're bundling up at night to keep warm... oh, being the thin blooded person that I am, I also have two space heaters.

Grocery Shopping is a Whole New Experience

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Mark and I had bought bicycles so that we could bring home our groceries. Here's a photo of our bikes all loaded down when my mom and I went grocery shopping last week. I thought that the bucket hanging from the back of the bike rack was a particularly nice touch.

A Slow Boat in China

Yangshuo is described as a "backpacker's paradise" and I can see why. The town is small, clean and quaint and people were incredibly friendly. The real reason though is the amazing countryside. Yangshuo sits on the River Li in the midst of karst limestone peaks (see photo along the river). We stayed in Yangshuo and traveled both up and down river on small boats (see my mom getting off of our boat at the rest stop). We left around sunrise and floated downriver until we reached a very small village. The villagers set up shop along the river bank and sold fresh fried food (crab, river shrimp, taro cakes, etc.) to the tourists for breakfast. It was wonderful.

Down river, we went to Liugong and Fuli. These were charming little riverside villages dating back to the Song dynasty. At Liugong, we spent most of the afternoon with a local woman who was teaching herself English and wanted to practice with us. We learned Chinese from her and helped her with her English (see photo with she and my sister, Debbie). We never quite figured out what "blockage potatos" were meant to be on the local menu...

The Hotel of Modern Art

In mid-October, I met my mother and sister in Guilin which is in Southern China. It is a beautiful place. Our first stop was the Hotel of Modern Art which is half way between Guilin and Yangshuo (more on Yangshuo later). What a find. The HOMA is located in a 550 hectare art park that has outdoor sculpure gardens with pieces by over 100 international artists. they also have a workshop on site in which local artists are creating pottery, wood furniture, glassware, etc. The hotel was luxurious -- a great retreat from the bustle of China. Photos include the hotel exterior, an outdoor scuplture of a cartoon elephant, and the furniture workshop. I really wanted to buy one of those small chairs, but they were pretty pricey!

The Canteen Scene

On Peking University's campus, there are a seemingly infinite number of places to get food. They are divided into canteens and restaurants. The canteens are where most students eat. At canteens, you get your food either by ordering from a counter or by picking plates of food from a line, e.g. cafeteria-style. A meal at a canteen is about 5-8 yuan (approx. $1) and must be paid for with a university meal card (you get issued a card and can add money to it as needed). Restaurants have somewhat better food and there are servers who take your order and bring food to the table. The cost of a meal at a restaurant varies, but generally runs about 30-40 yuan (approx. $5) per person.

The variety of canteens is amazing. One of my favorites is the noodle canteen. At this canteen, you can get a huge variety of noodles... noodles in soup, fried noodles, rice noodles, soybean noodles, flour noodles, fat noodles, thin noodles, noodles with beef, noodles with pork, etc. See photos of the noodle canteen and the menu. The funny thing about the noodle canteen is that the menu has Chinese characters and English, but it doesn't have pinyin (which provides the pronunciation of the Chinese characters for us English speakers). So, I can figure out what kind of noodles I'd like, but I can't order them directly. To make matters more interesting, you can't order any noodle dish from any line. You have to know which lines are serving which noodle dishes, but this is only in Chinese characters. To survive the noodle canteen I've devised a strategy where I stand in any line and listen to what the 2-3 people ahead of me order. I then look at what noodle dish they walk away with and, if it looks good, I order it by saying what they said. So far, I've had some pretty good noodles!

The dumpling canteen next door also looks pretty good. I haven't tried it yet though. Around the corner is a canteen that service regional food from all over China. That's still on my "to do" list too.

Today, I tried the mega-canteen. This is a huge canteen that takes up the bottom floor of one of the buildings on campus (see photo). Food is served cafeteria-style (see photo). I particularly like the baskets with buns, filled and not filled, of various shapes and sizes (see photo). The food? Well, let's just say I won't rush back to this one. I think I had spam for lunch. The sauce was tasty, but even a good sauce can't make spam palatable.

Mom & Debbie Arrive in China

On October 4, my mom and sister arrived in China. We started with a visit to the Great Wall (see photo). For the transition into China, we stayed at a beautiful hotel in the mountains near the Great Wall and were able to visit the wall without the normal crowds. The hotel was luxurious and restful... a great way to get started. I'm back to teaching and they are off on their China tour. I'll meet them in Guilin on Thursday. More to come...