Some Pommies and Beijing Acrobatics

Friday I met up with Christo’s Hannah and Neil from the UK on a 5 month round the world trip. They caught the train from Shanghai on Thursday night and Friday morning I met them at their Hostel at Sunlitun. I took them to Hou Hai via the Drum and Bell towers for a walk around the lake before lunch at the Hutong Pizza, the cute little alleyway restaurant ACIC took us the first week in Beijing. It was on and off raining so after Pizza we caught a cab to the Silk market at Yonganli. They needed a bank so I took them to an ATM across the road and it ate their card!!! Haha I felt terrible because they were only in Beijing till Wednesday. We realised the number pad was round the wrong way so she entered the pin in wrong too many times. There was a number that it told us to call and she rang but couldn’t understand her….I could understand the Chinese lady fine which is a bit scary, hope I’m not turning into one…! Friday was the massive May Day holiday so after explaining what had happened she said there was nothing to be done for at least two working days! I didn’t want to hang up until I got some sort of confirmation so lied and said I was leaving the country in two days so I couldn’t wait that long. She took all my details (or Hannah’s) and said she would pass the information on as an emergency. So not knowing when we were going to see the card again, if ever, we went to the silk market. I love bargaining know especially once the shop owners know I live here they stop giving the absolutely ridiculous prices which cuts out a good 15 minutes of wasted time. I got a silk Chinese shirt for Neil and a skirt for Han from this one young girl who wanted around 1080Y for both down to 115 Yuan. The young girl was hilarious and it was fun speaking Chinese with her. She kept telling me I was crazy and feeling my head saying I had a fever to say such a low price. Because we were there for so long and it was really cheap she wanted 120 so Han and Neil paid 115 and I gave her 5Yuan for herself if she didn’t tell her boss, she finally admitted to me she was Gaoxing (happy) my very good friend even though I was a tough bargainer.
At around 3 a got a call from someone saying be at the ATM at 3:30 and I could have the card back! We were amazed for once something in China went smoothly and happened so fast. We waited around for a while and out of no where a lady dressed to the nines with a handbag and all appeared with the card in her hand...we had no idea where she came from she just smiled gave it to us without even asking to see a passport or identification and just wandered off into the crowd…
We shopped for far longer then we’d planned and were met by Vikki who stayed at my place that night. Han, Vik, and I bought fakey Diesel jeans but the only way you can try them on is behind a tiny sheet they hold up in one corner of the booth which after about half an hour of trying tons of pairs on had attracted a crowd of Chinese peeping toms.
Vik and I had missed being home in time for dinner so we took Han and Neil to the Rickshaw for dinner with some yum cheese stick things and potato nacho’s.



Saturday Vik and I spent the morning exploring my local area and discovered a massive market selling everything possible as well as fruit and veggies in a big undercover walkway. Its great walking through the shops because you don’t get attacked by sellers as they can’t speak any English.
At around four we left to have dinner with Rosie and her mum who’s visiting at Qianmen Dajie which is a tram street south of Tiananmen square. We were going to eat at the apparently most famous Roast Duck place in Beijing but the line was massive being the public holiday and we were going to see a show at 7:15 so we just got some take away duck on a stick and bread stuff which was pretty tasty. The street is lined with facades of olden day buildings but everyone of them is empty…we’re not sure why I’m guessing they’ll have something in them soon but was very ghost townish apart from the million Asians…





The things they could do with their bodies looked like they were missing a few ribs and hipbones and for the guys a lot more! Also they were soooo young some of the boys looked younger then my kinder students and apparently they very well could have been.
This one was recommended as being less packed as it’s not so touristy and less well known. It was a tiny theatre and only cost $20 AUS and definitely worth it.
After the show it was a beautiful warm night so we walked up to Tiananmen square which looks great in the dark.