So we were off, on the road again. This time it was another short trip to Beijing from Tianjin. We arrived at the train station, ready to try to buy our own train tickets. We approached the station amidst a barrage of, "Taxi, taxi, Beijing, Beijing", from a myriad of shirtless taxi drivers and their touts that make up a third of the people loitering outside the Tianjin Main Train Station. We settle on one line, just hoping it is the right line. One man is very persistent, probably because we are the only westerners in the vicinty, and we present the most likely target. He is so persistent (a nice way of putting it), that Greg is forced to look up the Mandarin phrase for, "Leave me alone". The woman in front of us got a pretty big kick out of that, and she spoke a bit of English. She helped us get tickets, and we were set. We were quite happy to have our tickets, when we turned the corner to find 25+ ticket windows with enormous lines, with no English signs to speak of. The train was incredibly nice, comfortable, and fast; and we were in Beijing before we knew it.
After arrival and finding our bearings, we checked in at the Saga International Youth Hostel. Huge room, TV, AC, and smiling faces is all I have to say about that. We were happy to be settled, and in Beijing. We did not have much in us, but we left for an afternoon stroll and a food search. We found ourselves in a market area that had a vast array of food choices. We could choose from scorpion skewers, snake skewers, mystery meat skewers, and many other not-so-scary delicacies. We opted to continue our search, vowing to return in a more brave mood. The next stop was an avenue lined with food stalls selling many recognizable food choices. Now this looked good, our kind of environment. We had our hearts set on traditional Chinese food, so we ended up at restaurant just behind all of the stalls. We had a fabulous meal, but in retrospect we were really paying the tourist premium. With enourmously full bellies, we strolled back to the hostel for the night.
The following day was an incredible one. We accomplished so much, and we did not even venture out of the hostel until past 5pm. We probably had the most relaxing day we have had in a year and a half. We wrote in our journals, wrote emails, talked, read, and decompressed. It was incredible! We only left to find food, which we did with a girl we had met that afternoon; Shelly. We went to the avenue of street stalls and sampled many different kinds of fare. After that, we called it a day.
Sunday found us ready to take on Beijing, full force. We headed for an antique market, Panjiayuan. The market was very fun to stroll around, but the actual purchasing was a bit stressful. The asking prices are often 10 times the normal selling price, due to the throngs of unwitting tourists. We, on the other hand, experienced market shoppers, had our wits about us. Knowing the blatant over-charging made us reluctant to even ask how much some items were, not wanting to negotiate unless were were really interested. The effect of this strategy left us with only a few items to show for at the end of the day, but boy, were they a good deal! Sunday evening was when we really found our "diamond" in the rough.
This "diamond" deserves its own paragraph, as it was a great find. We found "Me Nu", a chinese restaurant to put others to shame. We have eaten there five or six times, being careful to sample a variety of the dishes; just trying to prove that it can't be that good, but it always was. In any event, Sunday ended on a great note that found us getting quite comfortable in China.
