Last night in Beijing, I ended up going out to a Xinjiang Restaurant in a hutong just two blocks from the Super 8 and it was a good little hike through winding alleys and bunches of old people playing majhong. I got several of my favorite Western Chinese specialties: spicy pulled noodles and goat skewers. The noodles were phenomenal and I could literally have just eaten bowl after bowl of that for all I cared. I also decided to order a skewer of lamb chops and sheep kidneys. The chops were fine but the kidney made me nauseous beyond belief. The taste was so-so, but the texture and appearance was foul. One of the kidneys still had intestine attached to it and that about put me off. The best part of the meal, other than the atmosphere, beautiful Islamic decor and music, was the Sinkiang Heipi. Sinkiang is an older way of Romanizing Xinjiang and Heipi means dark beer. It was the first dark beer I have had of Chinese origin, and being partial to dark beers, this has become my new favorite in the country. Today was a good ole time going on a tour of the Palace Museum aka. The Forbidden City by myself with a headset that told me about the history. I thought it would kind of suck doing the tour by myself since I had no one to talk to, but I was surprisingly happy with the whole thing. I was able to do a full tour, which I usually can't do because someone gets tired, loses interest, or just complains the entire way--not my idea of fun on a tour. I look forward to going on more of these alone because I got to do the entire 4 hour tour in 5 hours! Yes, 5 hours. Most people would probably go insane but I took the opportunity to look at every little artifact and piece of artwork I could find. Before I got in, I took the subway from the hotel to Tian'anmen Square and got off to get another view of the majesty of the tall walls of the city, the government buildings and the amazingly brilliant Sovietesque wide streets with 25 lanes of traffic. I really do love the sight here. After going under the square to the Forbidden City side and pushing through the mobs of people, I queued for almost an hour to get a ticket and then another 10 for an audio tour. I toured the museum all day and loved every minute. Even though it was hotter than you know what, the sheer size and grandeur of the entire complex kept me looking for more. The Imperial Garden and the Hall of Military Glory were my favorite parts and the latter was amazing because it was set apart from the main part of the complex and therefore had nearly no one unlike the 50,000 other people that thought Friday was just the best day ever to go to see where the emperors used to live. In all, I took over 350 pictures and many were of signs so I could read them later when I had time to look up all the unknown Hanzi. Tomorrow I would visit the Summer Palace, the royal summer resort garden in ancient China.
2010年8月4日星期三
Resplendent and Magnificent Forbidden City
Last night in Beijing, I ended up going out to a Xinjiang Restaurant in a hutong just two blocks from the Super 8 and it was a good little hike through winding alleys and bunches of old people playing majhong. I got several of my favorite Western Chinese specialties: spicy pulled noodles and goat skewers. The noodles were phenomenal and I could literally have just eaten bowl after bowl of that for all I cared. I also decided to order a skewer of lamb chops and sheep kidneys. The chops were fine but the kidney made me nauseous beyond belief. The taste was so-so, but the texture and appearance was foul. One of the kidneys still had intestine attached to it and that about put me off. The best part of the meal, other than the atmosphere, beautiful Islamic decor and music, was the Sinkiang Heipi. Sinkiang is an older way of Romanizing Xinjiang and Heipi means dark beer. It was the first dark beer I have had of Chinese origin, and being partial to dark beers, this has become my new favorite in the country. Today was a good ole time going on a tour of the Palace Museum aka. The Forbidden City by myself with a headset that told me about the history. I thought it would kind of suck doing the tour by myself since I had no one to talk to, but I was surprisingly happy with the whole thing. I was able to do a full tour, which I usually can't do because someone gets tired, loses interest, or just complains the entire way--not my idea of fun on a tour. I look forward to going on more of these alone because I got to do the entire 4 hour tour in 5 hours! Yes, 5 hours. Most people would probably go insane but I took the opportunity to look at every little artifact and piece of artwork I could find. Before I got in, I took the subway from the hotel to Tian'anmen Square and got off to get another view of the majesty of the tall walls of the city, the government buildings and the amazingly brilliant Sovietesque wide streets with 25 lanes of traffic. I really do love the sight here. After going under the square to the Forbidden City side and pushing through the mobs of people, I queued for almost an hour to get a ticket and then another 10 for an audio tour. I toured the museum all day and loved every minute. Even though it was hotter than you know what, the sheer size and grandeur of the entire complex kept me looking for more. The Imperial Garden and the Hall of Military Glory were my favorite parts and the latter was amazing because it was set apart from the main part of the complex and therefore had nearly no one unlike the 50,000 other people that thought Friday was just the best day ever to go to see where the emperors used to live. In all, I took over 350 pictures and many were of signs so I could read them later when I had time to look up all the unknown Hanzi. Tomorrow I would visit the Summer Palace, the royal summer resort garden in ancient China.
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