Monday, August 28, 2006
Back in Beijing
Just finished morning Chinese classes at UIR...
What's there to do in Beijing when you're bored?
You could try one of the many fine foreign restaurants...
Russian food at "White Nights"...bread, borscht, layered eggplant...delicious...
And Russian dancers for your entertainment at "Traktir"!
Thai food at "Serve the People"...
OK, so it's Chinese food, but it's a very impressively sized plate. And Rebecca is very cute.
Xinjiang Muslim food at a place on the BLCU campus...
Overpriced but tasty Greek food at "Athena"...
Not to mention the great Korean and Japanese restaurants I've already posted pics of. Plus this great Indian restaurant we tried on my birthday, "Taj Pavillion"...
Visit the military history museum(which deserves an entire day if you want to see everything)...
If I may be excused but a moment to express myself: WHOA COOL!!!!!
Made in China, baby!
Play xiangqi(Chinese chess)...
Visit the botanical gardens...
The zoo...
Stars of the show.
Giraffes!
Swimming and sunbathing at Houhai...
The summer palace(for the second time)...
Train for the 2008 Olympics at a public exercise yard...
Visit restricted military sites...
Romantic pedal-boat rides...
Better than being bored in Las Cruces, I'd say.
Labels: beijing, museums, restaurants
Monday, August 21, 2006
Tianjin
I haven't been in Dalian this entire time, although it may seem so. I haven't had time to blog ever since that last post, but I might as well catch everyone up on the rest of the trip now.
The boat to Tianjin had fairly comfy cabins, with two bunk beds on each side. There was a place to eat with edible food, although the main onboard entertainment seemed to be feeding birds that would follow the ship and fly very low over our heads.
Tianjin ancient culture street, a tourist area reconstructed to look like a traditional Chinese street. Inside: Chinese tourist junk and Russian gymnastics teams on holiday.
California Beef Noodle King U.S.A. All the rage in California.
As for Tianjin itself, the city isn't very interesting. There's the "Ancient Culture Street", as well as the area around the Drum Tower, which are both touristy places where you can buy all sorts of Chinese tourist junk. There's also some European colonial architecture which is kind of interesting to see, but not that interesting, and a pedestrian-only shopping street which leads up to the Catholic church.
After having my card captured yet again by an Industrial and Commercial Bank of China ATM, we went to the "eating street" we'd read about in the Lonely Planet guide, but it turned out to be quite disappointing and lacking of diners. However, nearby we found an awesome little restaurant serving Xinjiang food. The place was really cheap and gave us tons of great food. Xinjiang food, by the way, is Muslim food from China's northwest. Meat skewers, flatbread, and thick noodles in tomato sauce are all pretty typical Xinjiang food.
We took one of the many trains back to Beijing in the evening. Not a bad trip.
The boat to Tianjin had fairly comfy cabins, with two bunk beds on each side. There was a place to eat with edible food, although the main onboard entertainment seemed to be feeding birds that would follow the ship and fly very low over our heads.
Tianjin ancient culture street, a tourist area reconstructed to look like a traditional Chinese street. Inside: Chinese tourist junk and Russian gymnastics teams on holiday.
California Beef Noodle King U.S.A. All the rage in California.
As for Tianjin itself, the city isn't very interesting. There's the "Ancient Culture Street", as well as the area around the Drum Tower, which are both touristy places where you can buy all sorts of Chinese tourist junk. There's also some European colonial architecture which is kind of interesting to see, but not that interesting, and a pedestrian-only shopping street which leads up to the Catholic church.
After having my card captured yet again by an Industrial and Commercial Bank of China ATM, we went to the "eating street" we'd read about in the Lonely Planet guide, but it turned out to be quite disappointing and lacking of diners. However, nearby we found an awesome little restaurant serving Xinjiang food. The place was really cheap and gave us tons of great food. Xinjiang food, by the way, is Muslim food from China's northwest. Meat skewers, flatbread, and thick noodles in tomato sauce are all pretty typical Xinjiang food.
We took one of the many trains back to Beijing in the evening. Not a bad trip.
Labels: Tianjin