Category: Food

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today our tour took us to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. 30 years ago when I visited, I believe we came to the same section, but we started at the main parking area. This time our tour group took the tram up to the top, and from there we were able to hike along the wall. We first completed the easy section to the end, then turned around and went for a bit on the hard section. It was significantly more difficult because of the steepness of some of the sections, but my brothers and I did well.

It was pretty amazing to be up on the Great Wall even if it is a big tourist destination.

I thought these instructions at the front of the escalator were pretty funny.

And I always enjoy looking at the ice cream freezers when they have a photo of a beautiful woman on it!

After our visit to the Great Wall, we went to the Jade factory/market and received some “education” on the tradition of Chinese jade, the meaning behind it, the types of stone, and the quality differences. After the short lesson, we were provided with a pretty huge lunch with plenty of beer, wine, and a super-potent liquor. I sure this was in order to loosen up everyone’s purse strings before shopping in the jade market. 😆

After that, we checked out the park at the entrance to the Ming Tombs, then drove through the 2008 Olympic area and saw the “Bird’s Nest” stadium, and the “Water Cube” from the bus, before returning back to the hotel.

Since we had a couple hours before dinner I did a little shopping at my favorite two stores: Uniqlo and Muji. I didn’t buy anything, but I always enjoy browsing those two!

And to conclude the day, we went to a restaurant for Peking Duck, where we stuffed ourselves and drank a bit too much! The food was yummy and the company was hilarious. It was a good time, for sure!

I hope you had a great day! Tomorrow there’s a morning tour and then we fly to Xi’an for the next leg of our journey, so I need to rest.

おやすみ

こなばんは。How’s it going?

Well, we finally made it to China! After a 13-hour flight from Los Angeles, we arrived in Beijing at 2:15 pm local time. The weather is beautiful and it doesn’t seem too polluted.

The customs/security at the airport wasn’t too bad although I had a ton of trouble with the fingerprinting machines. They just couldn’t scan my fingers correctly and it took a long time to do. Eventually, one of the officers came by with a wet rag and cleaned the sensor window and it worked fine.

Soon after, we met up with our tour guide coordinator, then hopped into our shuttle (a Buick minivan) and after a short 20-minute drive we were at our hotel.

The rest of our group of 23 arrived at the same time, so after a quick rest, we headed to the attached mall and found a nice restaurant for dinner. Of course, our first meal in China has to be Chinese food, so Tak Yong fit the bill nicely! We ordered spicy minced pork with buns, kung pao chicken (to see how it’s prepared in the motherland), and a spicy fish dish. I chose the fish partly because many other diners ordered it, and also because I wanted to see how it compared to the spicy fish dish that I love back in Austin.

I thought it was delicious! The broth was clear, but there was plenty of red pepper and peppercorns to give it some heat, and the fish filets were tender and flavorful. The other dishes were yummy as well, and the portions were large. Three dishes were perfect for the four of us. My only complaint would be that the service was kind of slow and they brought out our rice after all the other dishes, so we couldn’t enjoy it together. However, our waitress was patient and did her best to translate using her phone and another little electronic display to communicate.

After dinner, it was still early evening so we strolled through the mall, then outside for a bit. The evening air was a nice temperature, but the city air has an unhealthy smell to it. Maybe because we are in the heart of the city and also it was the end of the day, but let’s see if the air is the same tomorrow morning. Will be interesting to find out.

I hope you had a nice day!

またね～