Out and About

So seeing how I have the week off before I start work, I've been going out and doing some touristy type things. I mean, it's gotta be done at some point. The beautiful thing about being here for a year; I'll get to see the stuff most tourists don't get to see as well.

On Tuesday night, 3 of us decided to go out to Sun Li Tun to check out some bars or something along those lines. It was easy enough to take the subway and get in the general vicinity of the place, but finding it was slightly more difficult. It wasn't too bad, typical stuff really. Ya know, say hi to a few Asians here and there, point at a map or attempt to say Sun Li Tun and hope they point you in the general direction. We ended up finding it without too much searching. We just kind of walked around until we found the place. Sun Li Tun (pronounced more like san-lee-twor) is kind of a big night life scene for Westerners and college kids. There wasn't much going on seeing how it was Tuesday night, but still fun to go out and get a drink. We passed a bunch of lady clubs, and people will  offer you deals and try their best to get you to go in. I used a 'no' gesture and said, "Xia xia" (pronouced sheea sheea, but dont' drag it out too much). It means thank you. As I walked away, he responded "You can't speak Chinese". Haha, this made my night. I wish I had said back to him that he couldn't speak English, but I was still half laughing about his comment. Amusing to say the least.

Anyways, we were sort of looking for this bar called Bar Blue, walked down an alley, payed for this awesome little sandwich type thing, and bam; there was Bar Blue right behind us. We got the sandwich from this little street vendor. It consisted of 2 pieces of dough rolled out like pancakes with oil on them. The vendor then proceeded to open it up a little bit with chopsticks and crack an egg in/on it. These get cooked and then lettuce, bits of pork, relish type stuff, and sauce all get put in between the 2 pieces. Delicious and cheap.

Bar Blue is alright. It's kind of a cool place, but I don't dig the smoking inside. Seems that's the case with most places. The music mostly consists of older hits remixed with an upbeat tempo. It was also 40 yuan for 1 pint, but you get one free. So figure 20 yuan per beer. This is a little steep considering I can buy a large beer in a bottle for 2.5 yuan (if I return the bottle, other wise 3) from a place near my new apartment. I mean you are out at a bar, granted; but still, 10-15 yuan is more reasonable. Whatever, I was out. Most people don't come out though until around 10 PM - 12 AM. We were there at like 7:30 PM, so there was not a lot of people. Again, it was Tuesday also. Oh well, live and learn.

Wednesday was an awesome day. With time and nothing to do this week, I figured seize the day. I wanted to go and do a little sight seeing so this kid Johnny and I decided to make our way out to Houhai Lake. This place was really cool, even in the winter. If you'd like to see some photos of this, check out my flickr site. There's a link on my page. I'll probably put some up on facebook as well. But back to the lake. You'll find that most excursions, when new to Beijing, turn into little adventures just searching for places. It's all part of the experience. This place wasn't too hard to find, but as usual took a little time. We actually ended up finding it by asking the first white person we came across. When walking around, you may come across a white person every two or three hours so they'll stick out and may end up being as misguided as you are. See, you're not necessarily lost - just misguided. Walking towards the lake was cool enough on its own, though. It's just a different part of the city and it's nice to see some variation. We came across these two massive buildings that look like the architecture you think of when thinking of China. Apparently, they're about 700 years old. Pretty neat.

When we got to the lake, one guy on a rickshaw immediately tries to get us to pay for a ride around the place. Johnny was up for it, I wasn't. For one, I didn't feel like paying for it. Two, I don't mind walking. I've got legs. So he went, and I proceeded to walk around the entire lake on my own. The lake is pretty big and there are plenty of cool shops and restaurants around it. Again, lots of cool architecture. I enjoyed the time to myself, got some great pictures, and it was nice to be in one of the regions that encourages people to come to China. For the most part, a city looks like a city, so you've got to get out and see places like that. Johnny enjoyed his rickshaw ride, and I have to admit that the guy was pretty cool. Very friendly. I suppose you have to be when you're trying to sell rides, but nonetheless. I met up with Johnny in about 40 minutes, and we walked around a little more before making our way back to the subway. We even walked out on the lake for a little bit. It was frozen after all, and other people had done it. It's like the old saying goes, 'When in China'.... I'm fairly certain that's not actually a saying. Finding our way back to the subway proved a little difficult and again; we had to play the dumb American card, ask some people, point to the subway map, and smile. It works from time to time. The trick is to ask multiple people because I've been told (and I've witnessed this) that people will point you in a direction and appear very confident. This is done simply to save face and not look dumb. It's all well and good, but just be aware.

Unfortunately, I checked out the zoo today (Thursday). I don't like zoos, and I remember why. I don't know the last time I was at one, and it's going to be quite a while before I'm back in one. I can tell you a little more about that in the next post.

As for tonight, it's Lantern Festival. Should be pretty cool and I'm excited to see some neat things, whatever that consists of. I'll be sure to let you know afterward.

-Jeff