In order to experience the countryside and one of my favorite ways to travel, we decided to take the fast train from Shanghai to Beijing at 7:00 am arriving at 12:30 pm. The fast train goes around 300 kilometers per hour and feels like you are gliding on air. The seats lean back comfortably and the prepackaged egg and noodle breakfast was actually quite tasty...or we were just starved. Either way, it was a pleasant journey.
The scenery was not that exciting, mostly just greenhouses, old or being built apartment buildings, and a few factories. I dozed most of the way periodically being jostled by other travelers as they boarded or deboarded the train.
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| Mike in the Self-Serve Shop |
When we arrived in Beijing we took a taxi to our service apartment. The apartment left much to be desired. Obviously it had seen better days or the receptionist hated us and wanted to destroy our souls. It was a dark and evil place. We were four but the two bedroom apartment only slept three. One room had a queen and the other a twin. Our fellow travelers offered to cuddle closely and gave us the bigger room. One bathroom had one of those floors that doesn't seperate the shower from the rest of the bathroom and after our friend took a shower, the entire bathroom was several inches deep under water. Another amenity was the panoramic view of a prospective shanty town or nuclear waste dump. Cracked ceilings, dirty old carpet, and sparse furnishings intensified our need for the cold Coronas I noticed in the little shop downstairs.
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| The Self-Serve shop |
And this is where I am truly amazed at the honesty and trust placed in people in China. The Coronas, Johnny Walker Black, and other snacks were left out in the open for anyone to take. No one was really watching the store. Apparently you were responsible for scanning your own items and dropping the money into a plastic box. So we dutifully paid and relaxed before setting off for Tianamen Square.
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| Scorpions |
The first person to welcome us was the Great Helmsman himself, Chairman Mao. His piggy face smiles down at you as he overlooks the massive square and his immanent domain. After strolling around taking photos, we attempted to escape the square to go to a shopping street nearby. I say attempted because it was very difficult to get out. We went down some stairs then up, then down some more, then up, then down into the metro station then up to get across the street. Had there just been a crosswalk we easily could have crossed. I thought to myself how this really explains a lot about life in China. The long complicated way is often chosen over the direct and easy.
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| Seahorses, Scorpions, Centipedes...Oh My! |
Our next stop was a shopping street offering Rolex watches, Zara clothing, and Chinese knickknacks. At little kiosks down the side streets you could buy snacks ranging from candied crab apples to stinky tofu. One delicacy was the famous fried or barbecued scorpion shop. You could purchase three of these nasties, yellow or black, on a stick along with centipedes, sea horses, and some sort of black insect pod with who knows what dwelling inside. I had originally convinced myself that my life wouldn't be complete unless I had tried one of these leggy treats but upon seeing them skewered and cooked, all my resolve flew out the window. We decided we had had enough and took off in search of beer.
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| Baijiu...Yum! |
That evening we went to a Uigher restaurant named Afunti. For a mere 160 RMB each we had all we could eat sheesh kabobs, side dishes and beer. A variety show of sorts was offered including belly dancing where I was called up on stage to participate (I won a Uigher hat), dance-off contests where Djorf shook his booty (He won another hat), drums and a sitar players, etc. We laughed, ate until we could have exploded, smoked shisha from a hookah, and did shots of the famous but viciously foul Chinese liquor baijiu. A wild night was had by all.
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| Belly dancer |
Finally we went back to our "hotel room" where luckily we were tipsy enough to sleep on the box spring mattress misery which constitutes a typical Chinese bed.
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