Chinese Food!

Trying different foods was certainly a major highlight of the China trip, so I felt that "food" was worthy of its own blog post! I wasn't really sure what to expect with the food in China based on what I had heard from previous travelers' experiences. Our manager, who has traveled to China many times as a coach, recommended that we buy Travelan, which is taken before every meal in order to prevent stomach issues. We stuck to the routine of taking a pill before each meal, so perhaps that helped to keep us healthy.

Our typical breakfast, served in the basement of the Sports School, consisted of rice, hard boiled eggs, frittata-like pancakes, dumplings, bananas (if we were lucky), bok choy or some other green veggie, and yogurt (once we figured out how to ask for it!). There were other choices as well, but these were the main things we ate for breakfast. Lunch and dinner were typically done on our own, as we were out and about for most of those meals.

On our first full day in China, we were very eager to try some Peking Duck, which is supposed to be a Beijing specialty. Low and behold, there was a Peking Duck restaurant INSIDE the sports school, down a few levels underground and next to to boxing hall. We had asked our guide earlier in the day about where we could get some Peking Duck. He said that he would tell us about that later... needless to say we did not expect the restaurant to be underneath the track and tennis courts of the school!

Our duck being carved. It was delicious!!

Every duck comes with a certificate!

Our first experience with Peking Duck was outstanding, however, the boys thought that a lot of meat might be wasted when the duck gets sliced. Therefore, we decided to have a go at carving our own Peking Duck. Let's just say it was quite messy and there is a reason why the restaurant offers to carve it for you!

Not as easy as we thought...

Street food is served everywhere and one of the most popular items on the street in Shichahai seemed to be traditional Beijing yogurt (suannai in Chinese). Every stall had a stash of little clay pots sealed with thin white and blue paper tops.

One of the things that I loved about dining in China was the round table. Essentially you order several different dishes for your group and and everyone shares by spinning the table around like a big lazy Susan. This concept creates opportunities to taste many different dishes.

Our cheapest meal was at a place I read about in Lonely Planet, where we paid less than $4 each for what was essentially all you can eat dumplings, including drinks!

The most adventurous eating took place at the Donghuamen Night Market. The boys made much more dramatic choices than I did by eating scorpion, spiders (big ones!), sea urchins, and starfish (though I did, in the end, try the starfish). I chose to try snake, which was chewy and did not taste very good!

Seafood

Insects

Fruit! In case you were wondering if there was any "normal" food at the night market.

Scorpion!

One for each of them...

Cheers!

My first bite of snake!

I will let you use your imagination to figure out what these foods are!

The night after our interesting eats at the Night Market, we were really craving Westernized food, so a stop at Maccas (aka McDonald's for the American readers) was in order. That was our only "Western" meal during our time in China.

Cal is shorter than me, so you can see that places are not really built for tall people in China!

Not only did we get to enjoy some of China's finest food, but we also indulged in just a few of their beers. Alcohol was quite cheap compared to Australia, so we took advantage of that when we could. Footy finals were on while we were there, so we found an Aussie pub where we could watch the games. Professional development combined with team bonding made this trip an incredibly enjoyable one!

The Great Wall

I have decided that it is impossible to use one word to describe what it was like to walk along the Great Wall. The experience was certainly the highlight of our 8 day trip to China. We visited the Juyong Pass (traditionally called Juyongguan) section of the Great Wall, closest to Beijing but actually not the most popular section, which turned out to be a blessing, as we occasionally found ourselves alone on the Wall. This section of the Great Wall, like most, has been renovated since being built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644); however it still showed the wear and tear of many years of use. The most shocking thing about the wall was how incredibly steep some of the steps were! Also, there were spots with a really steep step or two followed by some smaller steps and then back to steep steps, which made for more challenging walking than I had expected.

One thing that we found very interesting during our visit to the Great Wall was the number of Chinese people who wanted their pictures taken with us. Not being a traditionally "touristy" spot, there were not many other non-Chinese people around, so we were often targeted for picture taking. Our translator, Dominque, explained that some of these people might be from very small villages in China and they may not have ever seen white people before. We liked to tell ourselves that we bared similar resemblance to famous people and they wanted their pictures taken with us for that reason, ha! ;)

Walking on the Great Wall was such a memorable experience and I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend the day at Juyong Pass. I'll leave you with pictures, which are not entirely my doing, as my co-workers Cal and Nathan shared their fantastic photos of this experience (and the rest of our China trip pictures) with me.

This building is located at the start of Juyong Pass. You can choose to go left or right from there.

Steps showing their age

We are on our way up the left, or more difficult side.

The views get better and better the higher we go!

Looking out onto the right side...I have close up of that red building below.

The section that you see now is the "right" side of the wall that we would climb after descending from our climb of the "left" side. That building in the center is also in photos below.

If you look closely, you can see how steep some of the steps are!

:)

View from the top of the left side. Not many people actually climbed up the entire section.

An example of our popularity for photographs!

This is at the top of the right side...

...and the building that we saw from afar when we climbed the left side.

This sort of shows you how steep the left side was. This was taken from the top of the right side.

A road runs through the two sides. That red building is the one from the first picture.

A Great Wall "selfie"!

Shichahai District

During the week I spent in China for work, we stayed in Shichahai, which happens to be a famous scenic spot in Beijing. Just outside our doorstep were 3 lakes surrounded by shops, food stalls, craft vendors, bars, and restaurants. The lakes provided the perfect area for a morning run and for an evening stroll. There was always something happening and it was a great place to watch the Chinese go about their daily lives, as it was very rare for us to see a non-Chinese person in this area unless it was someone in our traveling group!

This spot was just a minute or so walk from our accommodation!

Sunset on the lake

A "regular" performer on the lake. We saw him several times, working out to music with crowds watching.

The lakes were a popular place to be during the day and at night.

Nighttime iPhone shot!

Surrounding the lake there were scattered pieces of exercise equipment where we would often see Chinese people exercising, and sometimes we would join in ourselves!

Who needs a foam roller?!

The Shichahai District is a popular one for rickshaws. A rickshaw is basically a bicycle with a carriage-type thing on the back that can seat 2 people. Often they are used for tours, but they can also be used as a mode of transport. On the tour, rickshaws will take people around the lakes and also through the hutongs, which are basically alleyways with shops and restaurants. Apparently most hutongs used to be made up of family homes, but many homeowners decided to sell their homes in these prime locations to businesses wanting to earn money.

Lined up and ready to go for the next group of tours...

...and they are off!

Walking through one of the hutongs in Shichahai.

There was an open square-type area next to one of the lakes where there was always something interesting going on, particularly at night. One night we returned to a large group of locals playing hacky sack and they were insisting that we join in on the fun. On the last day we indulged in massages on the square overlooking the lake. Our 15 minute massages cost about $3.

I think we were extremely fortunate to have stayed where we did for this work trip, given all of the cool things to do within walking distance of our accommodation. Mixing in with the locals provided us with a chance to see the "real Beijing", as opposed to the crowds we saw at some other more traditionally touristy places during our time in China.

Enjoying some gelati on our walk back to the sports school!