Last meal in China

For lunch we returned to the small restaurant next to our hotel. We get both good food and good service there. Since Lauren hasn't been feeling that well, we got a chicken stew. Last time we had a black chicken stew, which was very tasty but came with only a few very bony pieces of chicken with very little meat. This time, we opted for the "yellow" chicken and got lots of meaty chopped pieces of chicken, including bond fragments. And they didn't leave out any of the best parts, you can see below.

Lauren did not like having the chicken stare at us from the pot, so we put the head in a small bowl (above) and covered it with a napking.

We also found at least one foot. This soon joined the head hidden under the napkin. Normally, I like eating the foot, but this time there was too much other food to eat.

We also had lamb stir fried with leeks and stir-fred snow pea greens.

Last dinner in China

We decided to have Peking duck yet one more time. Chuanming Zong recommended one called Jiu Hua Shang, and a math department secretary thought she knew where it was, so she wrote something in Chinese for me to give to the taxi driver. But the directions turned out to be rather vague and when we went to the designated location, we were unable to find the restaurant anywhere.

So I asked the taxi driver if he knew of a nice Peking duck restaurant. I told him we had already been to Quanjude and wanted to try another one that was good but not as expensive. He responded that he knew one near Qinghua University (so also near Peking University). He drove us to a complex of big office buildings, pointed to one and said, "do you see it? It's right there!" I couldn't see anything but trusting him, we paid and got out. Walking up the steps to the plaza in front of the building, we discovered we had been tricked. Yes, there was a Peking duck restaurant but it was another Quanjude!

Walking inside, we discovered an elegant fancy restaurant, much nicer and quieter than the crowded and noisy downtown one. So we knew we weren't going to save any money but we figured we might as well enjoy it. We ordered a deluxe version of the duck (no idea why it is deluxe but we figured we might as well have the best), duck hearts, Chinese broccoli (jie lan), and another green vegetable (darn, I forget the Chinese name). They told us the duck would take an hour and brought the other food first. Nick ordered an orange mango drink which turned out to be freshly squeezed orange juice mixed with mango juice without any sugar or other sweetening. He liked it very much. We decided to indulge in a 288 yuan 10 year old bottle of "yellow wine", warmed up. It was wonderful. All of the food was delicious. The duck was sublime. As a bonus, they brought both wheat and corn flour wrappers (Lauren is allergic to wheat). The restaurant was near closing time, so it was fairly empty and quiet. We had a nice long relaxing dinner. We got a certificate; the restaurant claims that every duck served is assigned a serial number (since the mid 1800's!).

So despite being deceived, we ended up enjoying ourselves completely. And, as a bonus, it was a very short ride back to the hotel.

Math in Chinese

I had to find the math department on my own today. With the help of an American I found, I found the building. But the building is quite large and has many departments.

As I was looking around for the school of math, I realized to my embarrassment that I do not know the first character for the word "math" in Chinese (su xue). When I saw the character, I could see why it is hard to remember but I still should know it.

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A quiet day at Bei Da

Yesterday we saw Stephen off to shanghai. Since Lauren wasn't feeling well, we stayed on campus. As usual, we had a late breakfast. I carefully checked the hours of the hotel restaurant. The sign said it served lunch until 2 so I figured lunch at 1 would be a safe bet. Foiled again! At 1 the waitresses explained the due to the new year holiday (??), the cooks had left early.

Now I was really pissed. I went to the hotel front desk and asked where I was supposed to eat lunch. The clerk explained that within 2 minutes walk of the hotel were 3 other restaurants! Since all are in nondescript buildings with no obvious signs outside, we had never noticed.

We had snow pea greens which were great, ma puo tofu which was too sweet and tasted ketchupy, and a lamb stew with vegetables, which I missed but Lauren said was good.

I had to rush off to meet zong chuanming. More about this day later.

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Sophia

After we arrived in Beijing, I started looking around for tips on how to get to the Great Wall. I went to the www.tripadvisor.com forums and found that some tour guides came highly recommended. Sophia (above right) was available, so we retained her for two days, one for the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven and one for the Great Wall. She has lived up to the recommendations I read. We're going to use her again on our last full day.

It's really nice to visit places and have an English-speaking guide be able to explain things and answer questions. Sophia also helps you bargain with the vendors, order food at restaurants, and facilitate all other interactions. Having your own private guide also means you get to set the schedule. This is helpful for us because we like to start later and see *less* things than what is on a scheduled group tour.

A bonus is that her husband turns out to be a very good Chinese artist. She took us to his gallery, and we bought lots of paintings, some for ourselves and others as gifts.

Weapons of mass destruction

Hot pot photos