VICTOR

Ladies & Gentlemen, Victor loves his job, he is passionate about the preservation of the Houtongs of which he was a part of when he grew up. His parTICular Houtong was torn down during the Cultural Revolution, and it's obvious it affected him deeply. He had this way of delivering his passion through his speech that was like a machine gun followed by a granade launcher. He'd say things like 'today we are going to visit a place that is like no other in Bejing--------the HOUTONG!!! When he got to the part he would most like to emphasize he would lean in to which ever person was closest to his machine gun sway and deliver the bomb! HOUTONG! It was pure genuine passion and I could have listened to him all day.

Baijia Dayuan

Wow, girls greet you in full Mongolian garb. Beautiful silk dresses, elaborate hats with tassels like roaming billboards, peddeling flowers, butterflies and happiness.

Highlight was light tepura like battered pork spare rib. The rib was short braised in a heavy garlic broth, battered ind fried, simple and delish.

Drinking Tea with JMC

JMC is a god of design he can turn an outdoor craphouse into a Shangri-La. He's impeccably dressed, well-spoken, has a beautiful wife of 30 years. He can tell you what year Cakebread was the best ever. But put him in a room with some tea afficionados and he doesen't kow his eyeball from his pie hole. He is so smooth though that he still comes out looking like a king. I salute you JMC.

Great Wall

Not the best of weather for today. Damp, cool foggy. I guess it is better to look at it as surreal,,, and really that is how this trip has felt. Did I ever think that I would visit China? Could I have ever believed I would stand on the majestic Wall? Did God cloak it's full beauty so I wouldn't weep?

The Chinese have a saying "You are not a hero until you have climbed the Great Wall". I didn't feel heroic at all. I was insignificant...and that felt great.

I went to China and all I got was Tuberculosis

Listen, I'm no doctor but taking a bunch of foreigners to a packed local hospital, standing them in a petri shaped lobby for 15 minutes while you wait to go into a beaker shaped elevator to see a 70 year old woman drop her gown and get acupuncture seem unwise. I may be wrong but isn't that how we lost the Mayans? The cold I thought I had gotten rid of has come back with a vengance. Am I a delicate flower? Maybe, or perhaps I just need a brewed concoction of rhino horn, monkey bone licorice broth. Mmmm monkey bone.

Forbidden City

Now one would think that having a 3 hour long line to view Mao, the Forbidden City would be relatively empty - well you would be wrong. You couldn't throw a piece of popcorn up in the air without it hitting 12 people before landing on the cobblestone. Once you get over the fact that you are not in a theme park, you can't help but fall in love with the culture. I mean thinking you have a sense of history touring your hometown city hall that was built in 1880 really pales in comparison.

Briefly, the Forbidden City was just that - a city filled with nobles that people like me or you weren't allowed to view, unless you were cleaning, building and or painting the place. Oh yeah, they had unics and concubines as well. A side note, contrary to popular belief a unic is not a unicorn with a soft horn.

I know you'd think I haven't eaten yet, not true, and I will devote the next post to food we've eaten thus far...but it's 4 in the morning now, and all we've been doing since we've arrived is try and fit 10lbs of day into a 5 pound bag.

T-Square

Had my post half done last night and it somehow got deleted, so I have to do it agian. Anyone who has seen me type knows that this sentance just took me 18 minutes. So I will try agian, but boy the first post was Pulitzer material.

Tiananmen Square is impressive in it's size alone. Our guide told us that it holds up to 500,000 of the peoples and I have no real reason to doubt her. However grand that may be I found the line waiting to see Chairman Maos glass encased tomb to be even more spectacular. The line of the peoples waiting to get a ten second glimpse was said to be over 3 hours long - now a quick check of my math reveals that 60,000 of the peoples were there this day to do just that. Ok, I made that up. But I'd bet dollar to doughnuts that it was at least 3,000 of the peoples.

First Day

Well lets get to it shall we? After a glitch in the system (everything at blogspot here in China is in Chinese) I am finally logged on. So, from the beginning. Flew out of Chicago at 12:30 PM. and landed in Beijing after 13 meals 8 Canada Dry's and 6 movies. Long flight. The food on the plane is not worth mentioning, except for the fact that a person should not take in 3800 calories and remain stagnent for 14 hours, but hey I'm an American so what the hell.

Flying in to Beijing was smooth. smoother, Korbel. Best landing ever. Had a cute local girl waiting to help us get through customs and baggage. She really only knew "pointing" english, but I know "following" Chinese so it worked out swimmingly. Once you get outside you expect to fall into an acid rain, global dimming ozone hole , but in all honesty I don't think it's any worse than Florida, I mean with its heat and humidity & geriatric perfume festival, it's like living in an armpit.

After meeting our group and guide Rebecca, it was off to our hotel, The Peninsula. Nice place? Ahh no, more like glorious. We have executive club privileges, which meant three Campari and seltzers, and some snacks. After we settled in five of us met for dinner in the hotels Chinese restaurant, had the obligatory fried rice(really good, made with white soy), Shrimp w/ hairy crab sauce (exceptional), dumplings, beef short ribs, and a damn good steamed cabbage in thick broth. All in all a solid meal and a good start to what is proving to be an interesting adventure.

That night after tucking everyone in, I roamed the streets around the hotel. A small shopping district really only led to 20 or so offers of "massages", and since I was a little sore from the flight...just kidding mom. I did find a little bar around the corner from the hotel, that, thanks to one American chef is now serving Canadian car bombs. Got home at 3;30 a little hagard but no worse for wear.

OK. yesterday was a trip to the Forbidden City, some awsome and some not so tasty food, and for Shawn some pictures. But for now I am off to the Chinese Doctor and the Great Wall, so I will catch up on everthing I missed tonite.