Anything on a Stick

One of the stops we made in Beijing was to the Night Market that opens around 6:00 each night. This is the place to be if you're an adventurous eater.

Basically, anything you can imagine is put onto a stick and cooked for you. They have your every day meats like beef, chicken, or lamb. But they branch out a lot further too.... a lot further.

Among the many skewers we saw were snake, squid, eel, whole birds (head included), beetles, scorpions, and sea horses.

I decided that my experience of the Night Market would not extend beyond taking pictures, but Gary was up for trying some of it. He went with a grasshopper-ish insect. They fried it up and drizzled a spicy sauce on it.

His verdict... "Doesn't really take like much of anything. Just crispy."

Beijing Sites

Last weekend, Gary and I took the bullet train from Tianjin to Beijing. It's just under 100 miles away, but the train got us there in only 30 minutes. There's so much to see in Beijing, so we decided to just stick to one area this time and see the major tourist attractions.

First up, the Forbidden City. The "City" is a huge expanse of various royal buildings where the emperor and empress would have stayed... some structures were for housing, some for political meetings, some for resting and entertainment. And while the buildings are beautiful and the intricate decorations are impressive, the actual sites to see are underwhelming. What we actually toured was just a series of large open plazas, surrounded by the newly-renovated ancient buildings, none of which we could actually enter.

Highlights included the huge red doors with golden knobs you are meant to rub for good luck, and finding out that even though the palace walls stretch only half a mile from North to South, the emperor had a "resting" room in the middle. The lazy old man...

So after a few hours of making our way around the palace grounds, we headed to Tiananmen Square. Let me start by saying any and all references to Tiananmen Square's moment in history are completely blocked from the Chinese internet. Most Chinese people know it as nothing other the location of several gigantic political buildings and museums. There are security cameras and guards everywhere, and you get the overwhelming sense that you shouldn't talk about anything too scandalous while you're nearby.

So, we just quickly saw some of the enormous shrines to Chairman Mao Zedong and moved on. Everything we would have seen, heard, or read would have been carefully constructed anyway.

Tianjin Eye

I really didn't expect Tianjin to have a tourist attraction like The Eye. They've shamelessly ripped off the London Eye, but I think it's safe to say Tianjin takes in far fewer visitors. Most of the foreigners I've talked to here have never been on it... but I thought it might be worth a try.

Gary and I went around 6pm and had to wait out dusk. It was yet another foggy, smoggy Tianjin day, so the only way to get any good views would be after sundown when we could at least see the city lights.

The Eye is built over a bridge, so as we entered the cable car, we were just underneath the traffic. As the Eye turned, we came up to street level, and eventually all the way above it and back down under the street.

There wasn't much to see out one side of the car, but the other side had a decent view of the Hai River that snakes through the city. But what you see here is about the extent of the "breathtaking" views that these tourist attractions promise.

I think the location could have been better and maybe offered more to see from the top of the wheel... but all in all, not a bad excursion for a Tianjin visitor.

Calligraphy

Being a good writer is a difficult skill to perfect. Starting from the very beginning, you have to first learn the shapes and letters... then comes spelling and grammar, and later you're expected to have well-constructed thoughts that deliver poignant messages to the reader.

In English, I think I can hold my own if I really try. As a newbie to Chinese calligraphy class, I'm back in my kindergarten days, making barely-legible letters on lined paper.

But, writing the Chinese characters with a brush and ink is much more fun. It's much harder than it looks, getting the paint strokes to look just right and sizing everything out. Today was Day 1 of the weekly class for Gary and me, so hopefully in a few more weeks/months, we'll be dazzling the masses with our Chinese writing.

Good Luck Charm

In a taxi the other day... I saw this huge cricket-type insect on the dashboard. For the first 5 minutes of the 20 minute ride, I thought it must be a mechanical toy. It was making a really repetitive chirping sound, and only seemed to be moving one leg over and over. It gave me the creeps, nonetheless.

After a few minutes, it started walking from one side of the dashboard to the other. I nearly jumped out of the moving taxi. I swear it was watching me, and getting closer and closer. It started to crawl up the edge of the window, and I could barely keep it together.

The taxi driver laughed, and told me it was for good luck. The incessant chirping didn't seem to bother him at all.

At one point, the insect fell from the dashboard onto the floor of the passenger seat. I was in the back and just kept praying it didn't crawl under the seat and into my personal, non-cricket space. Eventually, the driver just picked it up in his hand and plopped it back on the dash. And it just kept on chirping... and being kind of gross in general.

I really hope this isn't a common thing among taxi drivers.

Grocery Store Fun.... Part 1

The best part of living in a new country is finding treasures in the grocery stores. Especially Asian countries.... you never know what you'll come across. There's a lot of things to make you stop and question. This is just one post of many to come showing random bits and pieces of the supermarkets around here.

For example.... the Pick Your Own Turtle For Dinner tank. There are tanks for all different kinds of live fish and crabs. You pick one out, take it home, cook it up... fair enough, I guess. But these poor little turtles? For dinner? I can say with certainty that won't be for dinner in my apartment anytime soon. Or, let's be honest.... ever.

For the most discerning palates, fresh sea cucumber is kept under lock and key in most grocery stores. They look slimy and quite unappetizing, but cost about $500 a pound. I guess it's something to be sure you like before you buy it. Again... probably not making it to my dinner table.

Some things are

not as shocking... just a little quirky. We can find Lay's brand potato chips, but in some interesting flavors. Seaweed flavor is a popular one and they're pretty good. Kind of plain and salty. But Numb & Spicy Hot Pot... Lemon Tea?

I wonder what else we'll find.

Ancient Culture Street

One of Tianjin's tourist spots is Ancient Culture Street... an outdoor market area selling lots of crafts and souvenirs. Some of these things are semi-genuine, and some just cheap knick-knacks. Either way... it's a nice way to spend the afternoon when the weather cooperates. And today, it did.

Gary and I stepped out of the cab and saw a big arched entrance to the market. A few people were crowded around to take pictures, so we stood to the side to stay out of their way. When the Chinese people saw us, we got a couple of stares which we're pretty used to. Then one girl came up to us with a big smile, and asked to take a picture with us. We were more of a tourist attraction than the market. After she got her photo, 5 other people did the same. So we stood, smiled, gave our best peace signs, and were thanked profusely by the Chinese people. We made their day.

As for shopping... it's always fun to check out local markets. We didn't end up with any big purchases today... but now we know where to go to get "ancient" cultural knick-knacks. And Chinese paparazzi.