We checked into out hostel where the front desk was more than hospitable.
This hostel was lovely: they gave us a subway map, directions, recommended a restaurant, showed us where the supermarket was, helped us book a Great Wall Trip, helped us translate webpages so we could book flights to Cambodia (more on that later) and helped us with anything else we asked.
We threw our stuff in our room and chilled for a wee bit. Then we set out to explore locally. Teresa needed a bank machine and I wanted to see the neighbourhood. We started by looking for the restaurant that Sarah at the restaurant recommended. Now, what makes this story extra-interesting is that there is ZERO English in China, at least where we are. The map we have from the hostel has English and Chinese characters, but we needed to walk down the street that is full of restaurants looking for a restaurant with specific Chinese characters. Not sure how well you know us but Chinese character recognition is not our forte. Actually, we have pretty much zero experience. It was quite the challenge, and we failed. There were zero restaurants with the same characters. We decided to take our chances and enter a restaurant at random.
When travelling I find it wise to enter a restaurant where other people have chosen to eat. There's something reassuring about other folks going before you. We saw a restaurant that looked like it ha nice seats and there were people. We entered and the girl seemed to wave us in. As we entered there was a weird presence. Other than that first girl no one acknowledged us. The people in the restaurant were all facing a tv from different tables and, upon further observation, all seemed to be employees. We chose a table as far away from the door as possible, because that's wise. We enjoyed the extra-long walk chock full of awkwardness. We sat down and played it cool by looking out the window. Then looked at each other as we had a sneaky sense that we weren't being acknowledged. We waited, window peered, looked at each other and repeated the process. Then laughed. We were still thinking we would get served. Repeated the process. Again. Nothing changed. We decided we should leave but dreaded the long walk to the door. Finally we pulled up our socks and did it. Even more awkward. No one even looked at us. I think being laughed at would have been less awkward. Finally we escaped. Then laughed on the street. What the heck just happened? No idea but hopefully that won't be repeated. We got to thinking that maybe that initial girl was shooing us away, not welcoming us in.
After some hesitation we entered a new restaurant and were told in Chinese to sit down. Let me rephrase. We think we were told to sit down. We sat down and were given lovely succinct, detailed, organized menus bursting in Chinese characters. Not a lick of English. No pictures. Only Chinese characters. Ordering should be a party. The server came and we asked for water, obnoxiously thinking 'water' is a universal word. It isn't. We got a blank stare. And he fidgeted awkwardly. And found who we guess to be the English waitress. Not so much. Water was a hard one for her too. But she was like a Baywatch lifeguard and saved us from drowning by getting us English menus, WITH pictures! Lord love a duck. This was just lovely.
We were served tea and we each opened our group of dishes that were covered in plastic. We had dumplings, broccoli and meat. And used chopsticks. Lets rephrase that. Teresa used chopsticks: she's a pro. She says she's Italian but it seems like this Italian grew up with chopsticks instead if a fork and spoon. A colleague, Richard Peters, tried to teach me the art of chopsticks once but I don't remember being successful. I likely quickly opted for a fork. Well, sweetie, you're in forkless China now. This is the real deal. I tried and was decent (no comments, Teresa). I was more than thrilled that we didn't order rice. Dumplings were easy as there was, what I believe was, a dumpling scooping spoon thing. It got them to my mouth. I was okay with the broccoli and meat but eventually got frustrated and resorted to God's gift to me: my fingers. We finished. It was very, very good. At least the art of drinking is universal ;)
Post dinner we wandered the streets and observed. We went to the supermarket and found only dry goods. There were a plethora of fruit stores/shops. Fruit and vegetables even were quite limited in India and when we saw these stands we were reminded of how much we missed such loveliness. We stumbled upon a McDonalds and were forced to have a McFlurry because as we saw the Golden Arches we decided we had to have a McFlurry in each country we visited. Over ice cream we had a lengthy and grand chat about life, love and the future. The love section was quite brief ;)
You may be judging our decision to eat ice cream. Bring it. Beijing was humid: I'd think easily over 30 degrees before humidity and it was after six. Add to that an incredibly thick and legitimately visible haze in the air. We noticed it as we drive from the airport and it was extra prominent as we walked the streets: a thick, heavy, grey haze. And we slept on an airport floor therefore we deserved it ;)
We were heading back to the hostel when we stumbled upon a cultural beauty. In the parking lot if the supermarket there were over 60 people (I counted. This is not an estimate) doing what appeared at first glance to be line dancing. They were moving quickly in sync to music being played from somewhere else in the parking lot. One of my former jobs was for York Region Transit where I drove all around York Region. When I would visit Markham in the early mornings I would often see 'Asians' (sorry for my ignorance but I honestly don't know what specific heritage they were) doing Tai Chi (I think) in public spaces. Now I'm in china and there is a group of folks sweating and exercising publicly. We watched for a good 20 minutes as people joined whenever and most knew exactly what steps/moves to do for each song. And they exercised to a lot of songs. Finally someone who was unfamiliar with it entered and was watching and learning off to the side.
Teresa was mastering the moves in her head and could have fit right in. I just watched with zero interest in learning or participating. This is similar to when Teresa and I went to line dancing lessons. She got right in there and learned. I 'learned by observing' from the safety of a barstool.
Here's my phone video to help explain:
I know it's short but it encapsulates the moment. My favourite is the person on the right. It was an incredibly rich, impromptu, cultural experience. Travel is about authentic exploration.
What a day! Sleeping in an airport. Getting on a standby flight. Interacting with zero English, not even familiar letters. Entering a restaurant and being completely ignored. Chopsticks and Chinese menus. Public exercising. Booking three flights for an upcoming whirlwind trip to Cambodia. Great Wall tomorrow. Good day.
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