Saturday
I know I’m slacking on these entries, so I’m making up today.
Saturday morning I was planning on doing something with John, but he was out during the morning so I took the subway up to the Yonghegong, Beijing’s official, still functioning Tibetan lama temple. The neighborhood is full of incense shops, I wonder how they all survive. Margins must be high, and costs low. I had a bean-paste shao bing while I waited 10 minutes to make yet another call to John’s place. The temple was nothing much to see (hence the lack of pictures), the only item worth mentioning is the giant statue of the Maitreya Buddha, which is three stories tall and carved out of a single tree. I’m sure the fact that it has a narrow building built around it makes it look more impressive as you can only see it by looking straight up.
The subway whisked me away to Xidan to purchase the Chinese guidebook for five bucks USD, and as it was lunchtime I stopped into the Korean place in the Times Square food court for an iron bowl of Korean bibimbap goodness (no picture, I was feeling very “watched” and a little self-conscious). As I left, I walked past the line of people waiting to go into the cinema to catch Zhang Yimou’s latest. I wonder how soon it will be available under the Jianguomen underpass.
Back at the hotel for an afternoon nap, I picked up some toilet paper at the corner store, got my clothes back from the cleaners down the street, and met Catherine, our new roommate from Canada. I finally got a hold of John, and so invited Catherine to go along with us to a concert that night. First, we met at the Wudaokou subway station for a Korean dinner which was absolutely fantastic. It’s great to dine with John, he’s a great conversationalist and ultra-polite. The ghostly hand in that last picture was our waitress, who did us the kindness of grilling and cutting up all of our meat.
We caught a taxi to the western gate of Tsinghua and walked about 200 meters straight south to a little alleyway where the Loup Chante cafe was hosting Jimo Xiari in concert. Kaizer Kuo had recommended them, so I wasn’t disappointed, and John really liked them too. But mostly, we were pretty happy to discover this little cafe right next to the Tsinghua campus. The staff were excited about the music, and had plans for the cafe (live music, Tarantino films), and the atmosphere was very homey (used furniture, low couches, local art). A few of John’s friends ended up swinging by near the end, they had been at the Zhang Yimou film showing.
I stepped out for some fresh air at one point, and realized that the fresh air was inside the bar. It was pretty humid outside.
Conversations
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Heard on the bus a conversation between an old Western-Chinese man who had joined the People’s Army decades ago, and a few recent immigrants from Western China. The conversation was half in Mandarin Chinese, half in the Uighur dialect. They all agreed that the reason to be in Beijing was that the money is here.
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In the Yonghegong temple museum, a conversation between two girls:
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“Who is that person?”
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“That is lama so-and-so.”
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“What about that American…?”
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“That’s the Dalai lama.”
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“Oh, right.”
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Food
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Breakfast (small shop outside Yonghegong)
bean-paste shao bing (fried cake, donut sized).
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Lunch
Don’t remember?
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Dinner (Korean barbacue in Haidian)
Pork chop, lamb, beef; Korean pancake with dipping sauce, random sides, melty milk pops for dessert.
permalink | Micah/Beijing | 2004.07.18-16:33.00
