Beijing, Breifly

As anyone who checks this blog with any frequency whatsoever may be aware, my trip to Beijing was well over a month ago, and still I haven’t updated. First, in my defense I have been busy in some sense of the word, and second, these days, knowing that I need to do something is sadly not the impetus that one would hope it might be.

So long overdue as this is, I want to briefly summarize my not-quite-a-week in Beijing (and still the best times I’ve had in the recent past).

Christmas Eve

I escaped Seoul and its subzero temperatures and headed for relatively warmer climates. Not without the well-intentioned farewells of my co-workers who seemed to think Beijing would be colder than the already impossibly cold week it was here, where despite wearing the warmest and ugliest of coats along with countless layers of clothing one could probably only survive being outdoors for mere seconds. I bought some hot tea which promptly turned cold while waiting for the bus to the airport.

Blurry shot of the Korean coast from the bus to Incheon International Airport

Thankfully once at the airport, well in advance there was enough time to buy some kimchi to take to Beijing and some strawberry juice to enjoy while waiting.When I arrived in Beijing, Katherine met me and thankfully without any trouble we headed to her place and then for pizza with a few others.Overall it was a somewhat chaotic, very un-Christmas-like Christmas eve.

A Snowbound Christmas in Beijing….Except Without the Snow

While the entire continental United States was snowed under there wasn’t the least bit of snow in Beijing (and unlike Korea, which was also sans-snow, it was not experiencing the  temperatures of a second ice age).  Yet, rather than be reminded of just how un-Christmas-like Beijing might be, Katherine, myself, and her two roommates, Jessica and Jinny, stayed indoors, and we cooked our way to a state of appropriate Christmas Day gluttony.  Breakfast was granola, with walnuts, unsweetened French yogurt, honey and bananas with English breakfast tea, this was simply the fortification necessary to cook our second breakfast. Brunch was whipped up quite literally by yours truly and consisted of omelets with sharp cheddar cheese, spinach, and mushrooms along with pumpkin pancakes made from a Trader Joe’s mix.  These were served with samosas and Jessica’s grandmother’s delicious, homemade banana bread with butter.In keeping with our tacit commitment to imagining the perfect white Christmas back home, we made no attempts to change out of our pajamas or go out of doors where that illusion might be shattered. While enjoying our finely prepared brunch Jinny put on Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, which was then followed by Pinocchio, which I would still maintain as one of the creepiest Disney movies of all time. I protested somewhat and with general agreement the movie was changed to the equally creepy, though far more Christmas-y movie, The Polar Express. While some people defended the choice, the fact that everyone soon vacated the living room save me really validates my point, and at the very least no one had a real intention of watching it. I took advantage of  their departure to turn the TV off and watch A Christmas Story online. Not long after I started to watch on Katherine’s laptop, and the rest of the group gravitated back into the room to watch. Nothing says Christmas in the US quite like that movie; nothing says Christmas in China quite like the nostalgia it produces.  

Sunday

The following day I finally ventured out of doors with Katherine to breakfast at Element Fresh. We had a scrumptious American-style brunch of egg-white omelets and toast, fresh yogurt with apples, and freshly squeezed orange juice. There was a short wait before we were seated, so we had a brief snack of egg tarts and Hong Kong style milk tea. Then we took the subway to Tiananmen.

Monday

On Monday we visited the neighborhood with the traditional chinese houses, hutong(胡同). We also had some fresh yogurt with sweet red bean paste, churros (a surprisingly delicious find), and relaxed at a coffee shop that looked and felt like a converted opium den (granted these days everyone has replaced opium with cigarettes).

For dinner, it was Din Tai Fung,  the most famous restaurant for Shanghainese dumplings (called xiăo lóng bāo 小笼包 [小籠包] ), a restaurant which originated in Taiwan and has locations all over Asia including Seoul, and there’s even one in L.A., too. We ordered beef noodle soup and two kinds of dumplings.

Tuesday

 

On Tuesday I made a solo trip to the Forbidden City and then met  Katie at her office for lunch. We ate Indidan food at a place nearby.

Wednesday and Back to Korea

Wednesday I flew back to Korea and didn’t get back until late due to some delays at the Beijing airport.

I know the second half of this is much, much shorter than the first and it’s also missing lots of details and pictures, but in the interest of posting something for everyone’s sake I’m going to just put it up as is and hope I get back to editing it. There are also pictures from my trip on my photobucket account which can be viewed here. Actually, this post was actually half-way to being really awesome and then photobucket deleted half of my pictures and what I had written before I got a chance to save.

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