"It's Another Beijing Miracle"

In my first post on this blog I said that one of my main reasons for wanting to go to a city like Beijing was to get back to the feelings I first encountered while exploring Europe years ago, namely the "What the hell is happening right now?!?!" feeling. Well, mission accomplished.

This weekend has been one of the best and most bizarre yet here in Beijing, and this place seems to reveal another inexplicable, ridiculous layer every day.

After José and Sandy somehow talked me into leaving Shaoyuan #5 at midnight on Thursday night to go wander around Wudoukou (a Chinese McDonald's at 2am is a very interesting place indeed), I was exhausted on Friday afternoon. I took a short nap and then made a quick trip with Elizabeth to Tiananmen Square to take some pictures (I'm still learning how to use my new Nikon SLR camera). I got some cool shots, but didn't stay too long on account of not being able to feel my hands.

At 6:30 we met up with Professor Chapman for another of our 'Friday night socials'; our normal 4 were joined by our friend Andrew from William & Mary. We walked from campus down Chengfu Lu, the major east-bound street in the Haidian district, into the bright lights and wild scene of Wudoukou on a Friday night. In the midst of the craziness, we veered off to the right, down a series of dark alleyways and into the 'hutong,' where all sorts of little huts, street kitchens, and vendors sat clustered around the narrow paths. Chapman stopped in front of a fogged-up sliding glass door, one that looked like what you find in the back of an old walk-out basement in America. He opened the door and poked his head in, said "hello!" and then waved for us to follow. Just inside the door was a steaming cauldron full of noodles, and a shelf full of veggies and nuts. A small Chinese woman, apparently the owner, stood shaving noodles off a large, long loaf that looked like cheese. We walked past and into a small, cold room with bare walls, 2 fluorescent overhead lights, a Chinese war movie playing on an old TV, and a set of about 6 locals, all eating by themselves and staring at us as if we each had three heads. We sat down and the girls elected not to remove their coats, under which they were wearing nice 'going-out' dresses. Chapman, as he always does, was able to talk to the owner and order something without speaking a single word of Chinese, and soon we were eating delicious pork jiaozi, or dumplings, and a sort of chicken stir fry. In this ugly, cold room that was no more than 30x30 feet in size, we ate a good meal and were able to exchange simple Chinese phrases with the husband-and-wife owners afterward. We were grateful that Chapman had taken us to a spot so far off the beaten path, but probably won't be venturing back by ourselves anytime soon... to find the women's restroom, Morgan and Elizabeth had to wander through the dark, bustling hutong to a public 'squatter' (the girls received directions from an old man they now refer to as "Mao"; after emerging from the restroom Morgan inexplicably told Mao that the restroom was hen hao, or very good, which it wasn't).

Our evening with Professor Chapman only got more interesting, as we took the subway across town and followed the Englishman through (what else?) a series of dark, frightening back alleyways. We stepped into an unmarked, unlit hallway, which spilled into a tiny bar. In the back was a small room packed with about 50 Chinese people. Chinese pop music blared from an impressive sound system as we awkwardly stumbled around, trying to find open seats and to order drinks. We eventually got settled, and soon a young Chinese man, probably 25 or so years old, took the stage and began a folk music performance. It was defintely an eccentric show, featuring: a 5-minute solo of rhythmic mouth noises like flicking the side of one's mouth; a traditional flute performance; a series of cameos from American ex-pats; a Chinese-language performance of Bob Dylan's "Blowing In The Wind" (after which the singer kissed a framed 8x10 photo of Dylan that he had kept in his bag); and a wild, exhausting solo on a strange, tubular flute-like instrument (afterwards, Chapman declared the number 'the most phallic musical performance' he'd ever seen). The concert was definitely weird, but was one of the most enjoyable and cultural experiences of our trip so far. So many aspects were so strange, so foreign, so un-American (ie. the entire crowd passed around a plastic shopping bag full of peanuts, and it was perfectly acceptable for anyone in the audience to begin a conversation with the singer in between songs).

Outside the bar, we were amused by a small laser show that was mysteriously emanating from above the door of a dark building, and Chapman sarcastically declared it "another Beijing miracle."

We once again experienced the incredible contrast of old and new Beijing on that Friday night, as our next stop was a huge, upscale club called Banana, where we celebrated our friend Sandy's birthday. It was perhaps the first time that nearly everyone in our program was together on a weekend night, and it was an absolute blast...perhaps my hardest dancing performance since high school. Our group of 30 or so Americans attracted quite the audience, but paled in entertainment value when compared to the black man that descended from the ceiling on a platform and proceeded to dance his way out of a wedding dress. "Only in Asia," we said to each other, and it seemed a fair assessment.

We made it back to Shaoyuan #5 a little after 4am.

Saturday we woke up, predictably, late. We had an American breakfast/lunch at Lush, a popular ex-pat haunt in Wudoukou. From there we took a cab to Beijing's famous Wangfujung shopping district, which turned out to be more window-shopping than anything else; the upscale shops there sadly featured American-style prices. The most unique part of our time in Wangfujing was when we walked down a packed side street full of vendors, many of which offered tempting treats like scorpions and grubs. A quick stop back at the Silk Market allowed the girls to buy some cheap outfits and me and Michael to purchase some new glasses frames.

Saturday night was more low key, as we had pizza and drinks at The Red House, which has quickly become a favorite for the students of Beida. The four of us enjoyed hanging out with José, Omar, and Zach, as well as a small of entourage of Italian girls that they had met earlier. The cab ride home was a hoot, as Elizabeth had a conversation with the cab driver in which she was able to systematically, one by one, ask if each member of the cabbie's family was busy. Ni gege mang ma? Is your older brother busy?

Sunday featured another interesting walk with Professor Chapman and the increasingly likeable Xinyuan. We visited the Liulichang cultural district, whose narrow, winding streets featured traditional Chinese goods and tea. We ate lunch in a beautiful local restaurant, in which Michael and Emma tactfully ordered the resturant's only 8 dishes that looked appetizing (we opted out on the pigeon). Ever the story-teller, Chapman told us his tales of hanging out with the world's preeminent mountaineers, and of having a sabre drawn on him in a Greek restaurant in London.

After splitting off from Chapman and Xinyuan, we stopped at yet another monstrous market, this one called the Pearl Market. Emma proved to be an impressive negotiator, as we talked a variety of fake products down to as little as 1/10 of the vendor's original asking price. We're getting pretty good.