China

Last week we went to Beijing to sightsee and visit my wife's sister. We stayed at my sister-in-law's place and made day trips around Beijing, which worked out great for us. Our trip was the perfect mix of sightseeing and relaxation.

Bathroom Attendants
One of the first things I noticed in China was the presence of bathroom attendants in some washrooms. At the airport I washed my hands and didn't see any hand dryers handy (they were around the corner, out of sight) but there was a uniformed man lingering around the washroom who offered me some tissue. I took it, thanked him, dryed my hands...and then he held his hand out for money. I was a bit shocked and tried to give him money but all I had were 100 RMB notes which are worth around $15. I apologized and walked out on him. I wasn't sure how to feel about this, whether guilty for not giving him money or manipulated because I he waited until after I used the tissue before holding his hand out. Then of course it would not be able to refuse since it had already been used.

Food
Every meal we ate surprised me because the food was so cheap but so good. The first meal was a bit more surprising as I didn't really know what I was pointing out to on the menu. My sister-in-law said it was fish but none of us really expected what was to come: fish gut soup. The only thing we tried was the fish egss while the rest looked pretty inedible (my sister-in-law later told me that it's not so bad). After this meal we were a little more careful in making our choices. The food wasn't as different from Chinese food in Canada as I'd expected. We ate sweet and sour pork several times, roast duck, shabu shabu (Mongolian barbecue...which is more like a soup than barbecue), noodles, dumplings and many other tasty dishes.

The roast duck was the only expensive meal we had (about $50 for 3 of us) but it was great and we ate it at one of the most famous duck restaurants in Beijing. They give you a card when you finish your meal telling you how many ducks they've served since 1864 which, if I understand correctly is over 1.15 billion ducks, which both amazed me and made me feel like I'd just taken part in some form of genocide by eating at this restaraunt.

Before coming to China I was aware that there are some strange things considered food there (such as wild cats and dogs) but I didn't realize there was even food there disgusting enough to gross my wife out. We walked through a "traditional snack market" in Beijing and saw sparrows on sticks, sheep testicles on sticks, snakes on sticks, rotten tofu on sticks, cicadas on sticks, cicada larvae on sticks, grasshoppers on sticks and scorpions on sticks.

Sightseeing
In and around Beijing we were able to see The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, Tiannemen Square, The Temple of Heaven, The Underground Palace (actually one of 13 king's tombs), some wax museum and Empress's Summer Palace. All were impressive except for the wax museum. The most impressive by far was the great wall. The sheer enormity of the wall seems impossible. We climbed up to the top of a nearby mountain on the great wall 3 days ago and my legs are still sore. The stairs are very steep in places, hard to climb and it's hard to believe that someone could even build on such an incline. One thing that surprised me was that the first section we visited wasn't connected to another section we could see in the distance. I thought it was one long wall but where we visited it was a big circle around a valley.

Fireworks
We were in China during Chinese New Years so a lot of fireworks were being set off the whole time we were there. On New Years Eve we didn't think much about it and were going to bed as we were going to get up early to go sightseeing. About 10 minutes to midnight there was a rumbling in the distance that was slowly getting louder and louder. After a few minutes we saw fireworks outside so we all got up and watched out the window. That's when I realized that this rumbling was fireworks being set off all over the city, reaching its crescendo about 2 minutes to midnight and lasting until 12:30. People were setting off fireworks all over the city which we could see going on in all four directions. It sounded like a war zone all around us. There were a few guys setting off fireworks in the parking lot outside the apartment so we went out for a few minutes to watch them but it was too cold to stay long.

Weather
I wore long underwear, a scarf, gloves and a toque every day. It was quite a bit colder than Korea and we were never able to stay outside for more than a couple hours at a time. We spent most of our time in the evenings under electric blankets.

Family
This was only the second time I've been able to meet my sister-in-law and the first time since she became my sister-in-law. Although she speaks Korean and Chinese, while I speak English and a bit of Korean, we got along and communicated fairly well. My wife translated for us when needed. We had a lot of fun all together and wished that our time could have been longer.