On Friday morning (8-11-00), we (my husband, Steve, our friend, Don, and I) took the 9:45 AM China Eastern flight from Nanjing, China, to Beijing. After the 1.5 hour flight, we got in to the Beijing airport, gathered our luggage, and met the hotel car. In the past, we have always stayed at the Holiday Inn Lido Hotel, but this time we stayed at The Great Wall Sheraton, which is a little closer to downtown. I really like both hotels, and they both have their selling points, but it was good to see what the Sheraton was like. The rooms were clean and spacious, and I must admit that the a/c in the Sheraton kept a more constant temperature than any hotel that we’ve stayed in in Asia. We wanted it cool, and the room stayed cool! Probably the only thing that I didn’t like about our room is the bathtub/shower stall combination. This in itself would be OK, but I really prefer a separate shower and without the shower curtain. They always stick to me! I thought I was really smart this time … I discovered that if I pushed the inside curtain out just a little, and caught a little water in it, it would not blow in and stick to me. But you know what, when you dump it, you’ve GOTTA hold both sides AND the bottom! I pulled both sides in, and the bottom came up and dumped all that water on the bathroom floor. Uh-oh … I made a BIG mess! Luckily, I got it cleaned up before Steve came into the bathroom, but I’m a little surprised he didn’t get up just to see what I was laughing so much about! Anyway, back to the story ….
After arriving in Beijing, we decided to eat lunch. I personally don’t much like airline food, and Chinese airline food is even worse. We’ve taken this particular flight before, and the choices are the same … noodles or snake. I remember the first time I ever heard those choices … we were with another family, and my friend’s eyes grew pretty wide when she heard “snake!” Actually, I now think the girl is saying “snack,” but for a long time, I thought she was trying to say “steak.” I always choose the noodles, and I can assure you that they’ve never gotten any better … equally bad each time. This time they had greens (mustard greens) and pieces of chicken on top. I took a few bites, just to be polite, and returned my tray. But Steve just kills me … He keeps thinking that one day the Chinese desserts are going to get better. He took a bite of his dessert (pie, cake, pudding, whatever? I have NO idea what it is supposed to be), and immediately wished he hadn’t. I always love the look on his face when he does that. We have recently learned something new about eating Chinese food. Danny’s Pub (our hangout in Nanjing) has started carrying Slim Jim meat sticks, and even though I rarely ever ate those in the US, they are wonderful to have on hand in China. If you get something in your mouth that you don’t like, and can’t seem to get rid of the flavor, take a bite of a Slim Jim! You will forget all about the other! Unfortunately, I didn’t have any with me. So (back to the story again) once settled in our hotel, we all walked to the Hard Rock Café next door! (Talk about a good location!) After a great lunch there, we were ready to start shopping!
You know, the Good Lord has blessed me with a lot of things in my life, and this weekend was no exception. Not only were we in Beijing, where there is lots of shopping to be had, but I was with two men that actually like to shop! How lucky can a person be? At Steve’s recommendation, we hit the pearl market (Hongqiao) first. Steve’s reasoning was this … if later in the weekend we thought about something else that we wanted to pick up, we could always come back. I like that way of thinking! After spending a little time there, we headed back to the hotel to drop off our purchases and get a little rest. Even though we were staying at the Sheraton, we still wanted to run over to the Holiday Inn Lido and shop their little shops across the street. They always seem to have some cool stuff at good prices. We were disappointed to see that the Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream and Dunkin’ Donut stores were gone. They have been replaced with some Chinese place (ice cream, I think). I was glad to see that the street massage vendors were still out! So, for 10 RMB (about $1.25 USD) you can get a 10 minute massage. I convinced Steve that he should get one (I already KNEW I wanted one!), so we each sat down and had a quick back/neck/shoulder massage while Don waited on us. Too bad he didn’t sit down and get one too, since I noticed he was getting hit on by the beggars. Ha! Friday evening found us dining at the Paulaner Brauhaus, a nice German food restaurant also within walking distance of the Sheraton. After dinner, we all called it an early night and headed to our respective rooms. Steve had sketched out a potential schedule for our weekend to try and hit the highlights, since Don had never been to Beijing before.
Saturday morning after breakfast, we took a taxi over to Tiananmen Square. I have been to Beijing 3 times, and have yet to ever see Mao’s body (they have him in a big mausoleum … our would that me a Mao-soleum? Ha!). He is entombed in a glass coffin, and looks pretty much like any other dead person you would see in a funeral home. We stood in line about 30 minutes for about a 30 second walk-by look at Mao from about 30 feet away. I know, you all think I’m crazy for doing this, but I wanted to punch this activity off my card. As my friend Donna used to say, “been there, got the t-shirt!” ha! After seeing Mao, we wandered across Tiananmen Square, and across the street to Tiananmen (gate). This is a very famous spot that I know you all would recognize. It’s the gate that has the huge portrait of Mao hanging over the doorway. If you walk inside through the gate, and keep going straight, you will come to the entrance to Forbidden City. I guess we were kinda bad, since we discouraged Don from going inside, but it truly is just more of the same. We went in when Mom was here, but all of the buildings are empty. If it was decorated at all, it would be much more interesting. On Saturday, even though it was over-cast, it was just hot. We all decided that a trip over to Schlotzsky’s to eat lunch would be a lot more interesting! Ha!
After lunch, we wanted to go over into the Embassy District and shop Silk Alley. We have bought some really nice items here. We usually buy coats and things, but have also bought shirts, knit tops, shorts, and other items. My first trip to BJ, I bought a Ralph Lauren short and top set. Later, while in the States, I saw the same identical suit for sell in an upscale department store. Wow. Makes my little $20 suit look a lot better! On the way over to Silk Alley, we passed a market in the Russian part of BJ, and decided to have our driver drop us off there. We wandered in and out of a few of the buildings, all full of Chinese made items, and decided to head on over to Silk Alley. Once back in the taxi, we discovered that they also had a fur area! I have NEVER seen so many fur coats in all my life! I know there was at least two blocks solid of fur stores, one right after another. Nothing else. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen!