Aside from the fact that there is snow on the ground in places, the
wind is howling and it's very very cold here. However, it seems that
life doesn't change much regardless of the weather. After breakfast
in the hotel restaurant, James and I headed out on our own for a walk
after being cooped up for too long.
Morning observations:
1) there are many bicycles fighting for space on the roads even at 8am
on Saturday morning, and the locals still wear their little slippers
while riding them. That being said, lots of them where masks over
their faces to ward off H1N1, but somehow it doesn't occur to them
that flip flops (and socks) on bicycles on the snow where traffic is
insane (and I won't say anymore about that topic) might just be more
hazardous to their health.
2) there are no children playing the parks but there are seniors
ballroom and line dancing in the cold to blasting music, outdoor gyms
have been built for adults to exercise in the park and hacky sac is a
group game of all ages (except the young). Karaokee Peking Opera sung
in the park is NOT entertainment, and taking ones birds (in their
cages) for a walk is perfectly acceptable.
3) banking is not for the faint of heart. Picture banking in Latin
America (for those of you who have had the pleasure) but not
understanding one word that anyone is saying …not a pretty picture.
People yelling at I'm not sure who and very angry. Add to that the
bank not having been advised that 6 families were all coming in at the
same time and needing $7000 USD exchanged into Yuan and their largest
bill a 100 CYN. You can imagine how long it took by the time they
inspected both front and back of each U.S. bill and counted them 3
times, the crowd was now growing and becoming bolder by the minute.
More than once someone just pushed right through us to the teller to
see what he was doing and why it was taking so long. They proceeded
to scold him and us (I think) after seeing all the cash and then
returning to their seats. By the time we got our bag of money, it fit
into a letter sized envelope (8 x 11), just, we were feeling quite
conspicuous. What easy targets we were all of us with huge bags of
money and walking back to the hotel was as unnerving as trying to
cross the street here.
Surviving lunch wasn't too difficult today (hopefully dinner will be
the same) and then we took a cab about 20 minutes from the hotel to a
mall and the grand total was $2. Now that's an adventure especially
when our time was limited by the size of my bladder as not to even
think about public toilets in a Pacific Mall type plaza. I've
discovered I'm quite good at bartering (I think) and due to the
obvious similarities of James and the locals, I've learned how to say
"He doesn't speak Mandarin, only Cantonese" which prompts everyone to
speak to me in Mandarin.
On a positive note, we had James measured and fitted for two suits and
3 shirts for the grand total of $300.00. Gorgeous fabrics. The little
man who measured James was thinking that something else was pretty
gorgeous and took his time with the measurements.
Shopping is an Olympic sport requiring one to have the agility of a
ninja not to hurt people while pushing them off, and dodging and
weaving from the crowds. But, the prices are so good, it's worth it.
I can't wait to have Grace and know what size she is so that I can go
CRAZY!!!!
Once our bladders told us it was time to leave, we ran into some
trouble. The card that the hotel gave to us with their address on it
was apparently too difficult for any cabbie to read leaving us to
wander the streets until we found a hotel (of sorts….don't ask) and
found someone who spoke enough English to understand that we were lost
and took pity on us.
....... if this sounds a bit disjointed, I apologize, we've been up
since 2 am and it's now 7:30 and I'm getting sloppier than usual .......
Dinner was terrible, again. My advise to anyone who doesn't LOVE
chinese food (and I mean LOVE because James is just barely eating it),
bring your own food, i.e. instant oatmeal, granola bars, dried fruit
and nuts, and that will get you through a lot of the bad
restaurants. Once we're on our own to find better ones, I'm sure
things will start looking up.
One other piece of advise is that it's not necessary to bring gallons
of hand sanitizer (as we've all been told), a few small bottles is
more than enough, I have yet to use any.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions about Beijing and next
week about Nanchang at patriciahung@rogers.com. I can't read comments
on the blog because the entire site is blocked.
We miss you all very much and can't wait to send pictures of Grace
very soon.
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