Adam and Steve, Peking Duck and Dancing

This Sunday Zoe and I went to Xidan (an area of town) to take a look at store selling wedding stuff. One place we went to was a huge building with about 3 or 4 floors of wedding related stuff. It was all actually quite expensive, but it was interesting to look through. Definitely a place for newly rich people.

We found a couple stores that make wedding qipaos (cheongsams) and the people there said they charge 800 rmb to make a tailored one. At the current exchange rate that's about $160 Canadian....so not too cheap. I hope that it would be possible to bargain them down, but I'm not really sure. Some of the qipao stores we looked at in the complex above cost more like 10,000 rmb, which is insane!!! Anyway, I tried a couple on and I thought that they looked pretty nice (especially if they fit perfectly....they fit better here than the ones I tried in Vancouver, which was a kind of humiliating experience due to my body shape not being quite right for the dresses they had in stock). I will definitely be getting at least one made....it'd be nice to get one in a non-wedding colour as well, but I'm not sure I can splurge that much. We'll see.

After looking at all the wedding stuff, and successfully finding a bank for Zoe to withdraw money from her Canadian account (I had no idea that was possible), we went for dinner. Here I am eating "Across the Bridge Noodles" a dish that originated in Yunnan province. So delicious! To get into this restaurant you even have to walk across a bridge....clever.
Next to us was a family...the little boy was eating KFC, but the parents were eating the Yunnan noodles. The boy had run off somewhere when Zoe was surreptitiously taking this picture. You can sorta see the KFC cup and burger box on the table.
Tonight (Tuesday night), I went with Zoe to meet Adam and Steve, her friends from Vancouver. Adam has been working and living in Shanghai for almost a year now. We met them in Wangfujing and then decided to go and have Peking duck at a restaurant called Quanjude, which is apparently famous for its duck. It has been around since the mid-1800s. Here are some of the ducks and the ovens they are about to be cooked in. The little tubes sticking out of their bottoms are for blowing air in, in order to separate the skin from the flesh, so that it cooks up nice and crispy.
Here are Adam and Steve with their beer in wine glasses. Steve is wearing a hat with a fake queue attached.
The place was packed:
We ordered one veggie dish, a fried rice and a whole duck to share. The veggie dish was a gai lan-like veggie with mushrooms:
They bring the duck to your table and prepare it in front of you:

Posing with the duck and the chef. Steve is like the emperor or like the elderly relative who gets to sit in the family portrait.
The sliced duck, all ready for us to eat. It was delicious and sooooo fatty. Yummy.
After dinner we went to the Jishuitan subway station and walked from there to Houhai. One of my favorite things we happened upon was a huge crowd of people dancing. I was so happy to see this and I really wish Vancouver had activities like this at night! I took some videos and I hope they work. Let me know if you can't see them.

In the first one everyone was dancing to a song with english lyrics telling them which foot to put out (left, right, left, left, right) and so on. Not everyone had the right foot out all the time, but it looked so fun I really wanted to join in.

I couldn't get the other videos to work on blogger, so i put them on Youtube. Here are the links:

After the dancing finished, everyone started jumping rope. It was so wonderful and made me so happy for some reason:

Coffee Shop

Since I was at the coffee shop again last night doing some homework, I took a couple pictures to show you where I've been hanging out a lot lately. The laptop in the photo below is Zoe's. The big blue bowl sitting next to the laptop was her gigantic "large" latte. I felt like I was in "So I Married an Axe Murderer" when I first saw it.
The place definitely has a nice atmosphere, although sometimes it can get a bit smoky as people are free to light up inside.

Friday Night Shopping, Exploring and Eating

Hello, this is Marie here. I changed the comment options on here, so it's now possibly to write something even if you don't have any kind of blog account. Just select 'Anonymous' and go ahead and write your comment. Let me know if you have any troubles!

Nothing much exciting has happened over the past week. I've been going to a coffee shop nearby which has a really nice atmosphere, free wireless internet, and good coffee and other drinks. For some reason going there really improved my mood and made me feel better about being here. 

The weather has cooled down considerably. I've pulled out my winter stuff (gloves, hat, scarves) and used it all for the first time this week. 

School is still rather busy for me and I have to prepare a presentation for my newspaper reading class. I really hate that class as I am the only westerner and therefore about the slowest at reading characters among all my classmates. It is really challenging....so challenging that it is actually a bit discouraging. The other classes I'm taking all feel like they are the right level for me, but in this one I just constantly feel like the slow kid in class. We have to do two assignments each week in which we write very short essays. For one, we have to pick a newspaper article, write out all the unfamiliar vocabulary in the article (for me that's just about every word), write an article summary and then write out our opinion on the article. Finally, we have to think up two questions for the class. I am so slow at writing that it's a bit of a nightmare for me. Anyway, that's what I'll be working on for the rest of the weekend. 

Here's a picture of a lunch Zoe and I shared earlier this week. One is a bamboo shoot dish, another is bok choy and mushrooms and the last one is eggplant, potatoes, green peppers and meat. It was delicious and it cost us about $4 canadian each.

Now for what I did Friday night: Zoe and I went to a shopping area in Wudaokou (the area where her old university is located). I spent way too much, but I had fun doing so. I got some new shirts, a pencil case, DVDs and other things. I also noticed a ton of yarn stores there, so at some point I'll probably go back to pick some up.

After all the shopping (plus Zoe got a haircut), we went for dinner at a really delicious Korean place. Zoe had been there in the past with her boyfriend and really enjoyed it. It was the perfect thing for a cold evening. We ordered a hotpot and a korean pancake.

Here I am with the hotpot just as it was starting to cook (the korean hotpot comes with everything already in it.
Here's the view of it all from above:
The delicious Korean pancake:
A nice picture of Zoe and an awful picture of me. Photo smile + awkward hunched posture = looking much larger than usual.
Here's the hotpot once it was all cooked and ready to eat. So delicious!
After eating, Zoe took me to the area "where the locals hang out." On the way we saw huge bundles of stuff for recycling. Zoe said people bring stuff they have collected (such as bottles, styrofoam, etc.) and drop it off here. They get paid based on the weight. 

At one point in the evening we saw an old lady with a gigantic, heavy-looking pile of recyclables. It was sad seeing such an old woman having to do that kind of work. She was pedaling so slowly and really seemed to be struggling. It looked like so much work for probably a very small amount of money.
The area where the locals hang out was really interesting...based on some of the stares I got, it was obvious that not too many foreigners go there. I took a few pictures to give you an idea of what it looked like. Here's a street of shops selling everything from food (butchershops, groceries, restaurants) to clothing:
Here's me looking like a dorky tourist:
Another view of the street:
Mantou (steamed bread) for sale:
Sorry for the blur, but here's a butcher shop:

And that's it for my Friday night! It was fun and nice to get off campus to explore. I am so sick of homework!

Tanzhe Temple Part II

Greetings to all! I am Zoe, Marie's friend and cohort at BNU. I've made a few appearances on this blog, most recently wearing sock-hats. First, Thank You, Marie for adding me as a contributor. Creating my own blog was a task that never went beyond, "I should." And it just makes good sense, on my part anyway, for me to piggyback Marie's efforts, as we are often together, and I am a lazy sort.


I just wanted to add a few more pictures from the trip to Tanzhe Temple:


东观音洞 East Guanyin Cave:

Main East Guanyin Temple from the exterior

Guanyin statue inside

Ribbons with the names of people wishing for sons

Entrance to the East Guanyin cave

Marie getting ready to go inside

As previously mentioned by Marie, we snuck down a path to see another Guanyin statue that was set in the middle of a pond.

Marie about to sneak down the path

Here is Marie skipping down the path, swinging her arms and all.

Marie posing with our gal pal, Guanny

Here is Guanny, being slightly amused, I think.

And here is an aside on the hike up to the Dragon well:


Along the hike there were a couple of caves such as the one shown above. It looks interesting doesn't it? However this one was filled with:

Trash

Marie making the most of the view at the top of Dragon Well

Other kinds of seemingly interesting routes that end in disappointment include a path near Tiger Cave.


The narrow, windy path set among boulders catches your eye. Beckoning, it promises to lead to something spellbinding...


You want to explore! You want to see what the other tourists are too tired to see. Your heart skips a beat as you approach the rustic archway...


A painted stone tiger, tosses his head back, rolls his eyes and laughs in your face.

Although it was disappointing at first to see a simple stone carving, it is precisely the awkward execution and common stone material (instead of say, marble) that is of interest, as these indicate a greater likelihood that this statue has been around for some time.

A random picture of people posing their son on a tree branch. There was some instruction for this kid to lie down, put his face on the branch, etc. This was an attempt to take a memorable and adorable picture. I admit, it did cross my mind to have a turn on the branch and ask Marie to take my picture, but I was too tired.

A wishing pond. People toss coins into the mouth of the fish.


A wishing stand. People attempt to toss coins to hit bells hanging in the holes of the coins. Each coin repres


And finally, when I think of Tanzhe temple -- I get the impression of persimmons...

Tanzhe Temple

Went to a temple about an hour out of the city today (Saturday) called Tanzhe temple. I was happy to be going somewhere after a week of pretty much constant homework and just short walks to explore the area around Beishida. This was another school-organized trip, so it was free and I didn't have to do anything. I'm actually very glad because I'm not sure I would have made the trip to this temple otherwise...it would've been a bit of a hassle. 

Anyway, the temple has apparently been in existence in some form since the 3rd century, although everything presently there was constructed much more recently.  

Demonstrating what a stereotypical tourist I am one of the first things I noticed was the funny translation of "non-recyclable waste" as "Organism." One of the ladies working there was really confused when I took this picture and even though Zoe and I explained that I thought the English translation was cute, she didn't seem to understand or perhaps she just didn't approve. Hard to tell.


Another great translation:
Some guys working to fix up the roof tiles I think:
I've now forgotten what this neat water stream carving was...but I think Emperor Qianlong wrote a poem praising it? haha I'm not really sure though.

Incense:
Zoe entering the East Guanyin Cave. Inside were three Guanyin statues, but I didn't take any pictures (well I did until we saw the no photos sign). Each was labeled with the specific things the Guanyins could help you with. For example, one was for people wanting children. Another was for studying and business. People can come in and pray to the one best suited to their particular situation/problem. People can also purchase red ribbons/banners to hang on the cave walls. They just write their names and their specific wish on the ribbons. One of the Guanyins we saw was surrounded by little dolls, apparently symbolizing children. It was actually quite interesting and sweet.
After the cave we went down a path that was apparently off-limits, just to have a closer look at what was at the bottom. It was a pond and in the center there was a statue of Guanyin standing on top of a fish. She was holding a jug in one hand and a sprig of some kind of plant in the other. Unfortunately she was totally white, so the pictures didn't turn out. 

We then started up a path to see the "Dragon Pool" which sounded very cool. About 15-20 minutes in we were exhausted, as it was mainly uphill. We asked some people coming down how much longer it would take. They said it was still pretty far away but well worth the trip, so we kept on going. Once we finally got there and saw the dragon pool we were a little disappointed....it had no water in it...and that was about all there was to see. I'm still kind of wondering if we missed something because the guy was so adamant that it was fabulous. Anyway, without further ado, here's the dragon pool:
After the pool hike we were both kind of hungry, so we bought a boiled egg each from the people at the stand in the picture below. I have never eaten such a delicious boiled egg! The deliciousness was enhanced by the fact that I was hungry, but it was still really good. I guess they boiled them, then cracked the shells a bit and boiled them again in salty tea water. So the entire egg was perfectly flavored and salty. And they only cost 1rmb each! I want another one as I write this.

People were throwing coins at these giant sized coins. There was a bell hanging inside each coin and it you hit it you apparently would get some good luck.
The view from one of the temple pavilions. The weather turned out to be quite nice. We saw lots of persimmon trees....man that is an odd looking fruit.


On the way out I stopped at some food stands to buy a few snacks. Unfortunately I hadn't seen Gary's blog stating that raw Haw tastes rather sour, so I bought some to try. They only cost 2rmb, but now I have to figure out a better way to eat them so I don't waste them. Note the tiny bite I took out of one of them...
I also bought some almonds (the white things in the picture are pistachios I bought in the past) for 6 kuai for half a jin (a chinese measurement... 1 jin = about 600g), as well as some dried, middle-eastern style dates that cost 15 rmb for one jin. The guy selling them told me that the dates are very good for your hair...I've never heard that before and I wonder if it's true.
In other non-temple news I have been knitting off and on when I have time (which has generally been rather limited recently). Here's the beginning of the toe of a sock....it's sitting on my rather hairy-looking fleece blanket, but oh well.
And I finally finished my alpaca shawl/scarf. It naturally rolls into a tube and I'm quite happy with it.
I've come down with a flu/cold and so I'm super tired and just planning to rest as much as possible for the next little while. I also have homework to keep on top of...I consistently feel like the slowest kid in school, but I'm trying not to stress since my grades here don't really matter at all. I have to prepare an oral presentation (with powerpoint slides if possible) about a Canadian holiday....anyone have any interesting ideas? I mean I know all our holidays, but they all seem a bit boring to me.