Day 1 Beijing - Getting the feel for it - Oct 13, 2009

Dear all

Today we began our adventure in China. We are staying in a hutong area north of the Forbiddent Place and Tiananmen Square. It is a very old district built I believe in the 1200s and is one one of a disappearing breed, as they are being ripped up in the great rush to develop. This area is, however, heritage listed so with luck it might last. Itis human in scale, quiet,has treelined lanes with the odd car, lots of bicycles and small shops. One end of it is quite touristy but the other is more normal. These houses have the curved up roofs with the half moon tiles and are built around court yards which you get an occassional glimpse of. We are staying in a hostel which is cheap, friendly and we have our own bathroom. There is internet and laundry and all mod cons so we are happy chappies.

Today we just decided to get a feel for the place and wandered around the area up to an old bell tower and drum tower both built to keep people informed of the time. The technology around time keeping was quite amazing with time pieces that used water and steel balls to accurately tell the time. I won't go into detail here but quite amazing.

Food looks incredible. We followed our noses that picked up wafts of star annise and headed into a run down looking place that had the locals spilling out the doors and thought that looks interesting. Soup with a wonderful aromatic broth full of beadcurd, pork/pork fat? and other stuff??? - theee most divine pork buns like i've never had. Everything in Chinese and no one spoke any English so we got by with saying 'one of those' (forgotten what it is again!)

Our Chinese books are getting a fair work out though we are very bad. A lot of people speak English - especially young people. So far it has been a wonderful day.

Now off to deal with some practical matters of laundry and working out what to do tomorrow - ah life is so tough.

I hope you are all well - it is strange writing the same blog for family and friends - i feel as if i should introduce you all or something.

Any way to love all

Joan

John is sending emails to people but to keep a record all together we will post the email here too. Some of you may get this twice!

Hello everyone.

Well the Holts have arrived in Beijing and like absolutely everywhere they go they love the place after one day. They are so predictable. They tried to think of a place they've been they didn't like - hey, didn't LOVE, but couldn't think of it. Suckers for anywhere different. We are staying in an alley in old Beijing - in the Doncheng district for those in the know - north of the Forbidden City and Tienanmen. Built around 1200 it is lined with hutongs - old courtyard buildings - and plenty of trees. Staying in a backpackers hostel - clean cheap and the people are exceptionally helpful. Unbelieveably quiet, but surrounded by trendy bars and cafe's so I suppose it will get noisy sometime.

We just walked all day today- to the old bell tower and the old drum tower both from around 1200. Saw some lovely porcelain, practiced our appalling chinese and laughed. Lots of fantastic food places all over the place. A lot of Chonqing hotpot places, Szechuan places and Kunming bridge noodle places. But of course we wanted the local food. Saw a tiny place that was packed to the rafters and more crowding to get in so we made mental note and returned after the drum tower. Had to stand in a queue (practising 'this one please' and 'that one please' and 'how much?') until we got to the end where there was a comedy routine happening - lots of shouting and laughter. They looked surprised when I ordered the pork skin and pork fat with funny little solid lumps of solid wheat dumpling type of stuff with shredded bean curd and a thick broth dominated by star anise. They all laughed, I laughed. They laughed again when I said I'd have the unidentifiable glug that everyone else was having, so I laughed too. Then the woman doing most of the pouring out who was the lead part in the comedy act offered some pork buns. I laughed and said no but she laughed and insisted so I laughed and agreed. I'd said no because we'd had these appalling ones at Shanghai airport last night- they'd tasted like spongy dry dough infused with tissue. These were superb. The pork skin and pork fat with bean curd dish was the best I've ever had, but you know my experience is limited. Very. The gluggy one turned out to have slices of nameless offal with about eight kilos of raw garlic per cubic millimetre. Joan didn't like that one, I'm not sure why, given that I'd already eaten most of the offal (by mistake I swear). It was also the best example of that dish I've ever had. All together it cost about 2.50AUD - half the price of one cup of tea at Shanghai airport.

The people we've come across have been very friendly - amused and amusing. You get the impression of constant jokes. They seem surprised at you trying chinese and a lot of people have tried to teach a little bit, including a workman on a building we walked past.

Only one day, I know, but we love the joint.

Joan is doing some blog thing on the net that I don't understand so you may also get a report from her. It'll be interesting to note the differences.

Best wishes to youse all

John