This is the two week mark for how much time I have left in Beijing. It's insane, but I'm almost done with my sightseeing, so I can leave satisfied. It's a strange sort of countdown because I'm so happy and privileged to be here, but when the end is nigh, I can't help but look forward to seeing my family again.
Today I got to check three major things off my tourist list: Jingshan Park, Beihai Park, and Peking Duck. I left campus with my friend Caleb around 11:15 to head over to the parks. We took the subway and then walked, and it was kind of a long walk from the subway, but it was well worth it. We started with Jingshan Park, which is the hill that is the highest point in all of Beijing. When we got to the north gate, which was closed, I asked a police officer where the entrance was in Chinese (景山公园人口在哪儿). I'd give my success a 7/10, with my Xiangshan inquiry as a 10/10. They have an exhibit of dinosaurs at the lowest level near the gates, so that was kind of funny, but the views from the hill were amazing. We got to look out over the lake at Beihai and the Forbidden City from the most beautiful perspective. I should also mention that today's weather was amazing. The sky was blue and visible and the sun was shining bright and hot. It was very hot. If last Sunday's weather was a 10/10 for Beijing, today was an 8.7.
After Jingshan, we backtracked to Beihai. At that point we were starting to fade a bit, so we did not rent a boat to go out on the lake, which is the thing to do there. Instead, we sat on a bench in the shade facing the lake and ate our dried fruit while talking about Dance Marathon. We then walked around the park, took some pictures of the pretty things, and then headed back to the subway after an exhausting day of walking around in the hot sun. We were both pretty affected by the heat, and I was certainly dehydrated.
On the subway ride home, there was a baby sitting on his mom's lap next to me. I would estimate his age at 8-10 months, and I don't think he'd seen any white foreigners before. He smiled and pointed with an amazed look in his eyes and kept reaching out to touch me. I did let him, and he was just the most adorable baby. It's interesting to be such a spectacle here when I look very ordinary at home. It's not a bad thing, but I just look different and it's really obvious. I try to smile and wave when people stare both to seem friendly and to call them out for it.
After a relaxing break in the dorm, I headed back to the subway to go to dinner at Da Dong for Peking Duck as two friends' birthday dinner. While I rode line 4, I was standing next to a Spanish couple. I was reading their tour book over their shoulder, and I said to them "me gusta tu libro," and struck up a conversation with the woman. She asked where I was from and what I was doing in Beijing, and I asked her the same. It was their first day, and they tried to see the Summer Palace but it was closed. I recommended that they check out the parks at night because the lighting there is supposed to be gorgeous (and I had just been there, so I knew they were cool, and it would be much nicer in the evening without such extreme heat). They were really nice, and it was kind of fun to speak a little Spanish in China, even though we ended up speaking mostly English.
The restaurant was frustratingly difficult to find. It turns out that I walked past the building about four times without realizing it because it was marked as "Business Tower" instead of "International Tower." I walked up and down the street for 20 minutes before calling my friend who was already there, and when I found it I was very happy. It was decorated with gauzy tulle curtains and table cloths. The key color was pink and there was also a lot of white. I was really surprised to see pixel pars on the ground casting magenta light onto the curtains, which was a really interesting design choice because they could change their color palette whenever they want just by changing the color of the light.
The food itself was quite good. We had tofu and scallions, broccoli, and eggplant in addition to the duck. The duck was carved tableside, and we had a condiment plate with sugar for the skin and garlic, cantaloupe, cucumber, mushroom, onion, and hoisin sauce for the duck pancake. I had never eaten duck before, and I really enjoyed it. I liked putting all the flavors together but also trying them separately. In addition to the things we ordered, included with the duck were soup, grapes over dry ice (the prettiest plating ever), and a persimmon slush-goop thing (eloquent, I know). I didn't really like the soup or persimmon, but the grapes were fun to eat simply because there was a cloud in the plate. We all freaked out a little at the plating. It was a fun night.
Today is awesome because I got to go to beautiful parks and eat delicious food with friends.
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