Thoughts on China

So much has been written about Beijing, especially about the tourist spots, that this should be a fairly short post. I’ll try to concentrate on the things I’ve run across that have not been beaten to death…

Shopping

I got this picture of Wangfujing from Ian and Wendy’s travelogue site .

tour-beijing.com has a good section about 2/3 of the way down the page about Shopping Streets in Beijing. Wangfujing is probably the most famous shopping street in Beijing. Here are a couple of pages from BeijingTravelTips.com that give a good idea of what it’s like on the tourist trail and as a shopping street. Maps of China, a great site for, well, maps of China….has a map of Wangfujing Street.

While Wangfujing may be the most famous shopping district in Beijing, I think the coolest will be Qianmen shopping street. Here is what tour-beijing.com says about it:

Qianmen Shopping Street:
This is an ancient shopping street outside Qianmen Gate.It is the market with the most history. Merchants have been hawking their wares in these alleys for hundreds of years, and some hoary relics still stand – like the Ruifuxiang Silk and Cotton Fabric Store (on Dazhalan Jie), and the Tongrentang Traditional Medicine Shop (just west of Ruifuxiang). It is sided by shops and restaurants. It has many other old shops such as Neiliansheng Shoe Shop, Cotton Fabrics Shop, Quanyechang, Zhang Yiyuan Tea Store and Majuyuan Hat Store.

I saw a documentary that had the Neiliansheng Shoe Shop in it. The shoes you get there are handmade and are very comfortable. Most of the famous Chinese leaders, as well as a President or two of the US has gotten a pair of their shoes. The best part is, they are only about $10-$20. I understand the Tongrentang Medicine Shop there is one of the biggest and oldest Chinese medicine shops around (it was established in 1669). For me, there’s nothing better than hand crafted merchandise made by artisans for generations.

Maps of China also has a map of the Qianmen Shopping street.

So, after the tourist attractions and shopping, what to do? Of course, the evenings will be filled with going to kung fu and acrobat shows, etc. Again, these are all over the web and I can’t add anything (at least until I’ve been there!). Have you noticed the big omission yet??? Food….

Where to eat?

Despite all the recent brouhaha over food in China, I’m excited about trying all I can. Dumplings for breakfast, noodles for lunch and at least one dinner of Peking Duck (why do we still call it that, by the way, instead of “Beijing Duck”? The official romanization of the Mandarin Chinese (official language of the PR of China) has been Pinyin for decades (before 1960), but we insist on calling the most famous dish of their capital city “Peking Duck”, which is following the long discarded Wade-Giles system. This isn’t the only instance where we hold on way too long, of course, as the province we still call “Canton” has been Guangdong just as long. We never changed over with “Peking Man”, either….

OK, so where should I go for “Beijing Duck”? (I know, don’t tell me…Beijing, of course!) I understand the most famous restaurant for this is a chain called Quanjude that has been around since 1864. I hear that it’s so good, I may have to have it twice!

I have to confess, the food I’m really waiting to try in China is south and west of Beijing, in Sichuan! They say “some like it hot”, and I’m “some”…

OK, well, that about wraps up Beijing, without ever once mentioning the Great Wall (??, or Chángchéng), Tianamen Square (?????, or Ti?n’?nmén Gu?ngch?ng), the Forbidden City (??, or Gùg?ng), the Temple of Heaven (??, or Ti?ntán), the Summer Palace (???, or Yíhé Yuán) or even the Bell and Drum towers (?? ? ?? or zh?nglóu hé g?lóu), Beihai Park (???? or B?ih?i G?ngyuán) or (being a former navigator, I’ll have to go here) the Beijing Ancient Observatory (??????, B?ij?ng g? gu?n xiàng tái), or…….OK, you get the point, there’s so much to see in Beijing that I’m tired just from thinking about it!

Next time, I’ll discuss the Great Wall (I still haven’t figured out what section I want to visit)…