The morning after the Great Wall excursion Pearce and I definitely needed some downtime to both organize our next steps and give our aching legs a rest. We had heard about an awesome neighborhood/district of Beijing called 798 described by the Lonely Planet as a "feisty art community" so we decided to check it out. It beat out other tourist attractions such as the Summer Palace and Lake district as we thought we could stroll from building to building to avoid the heat and probably find a coffee shop to book out the next leg of our trip. We were happy we did. The cab dropped us off on the side of the road next to a sign simply reading 798 in big red letters.
We wandered down the street back into another world, one I at least, never expected to see in Beijing. In the first section and to some extent throughout, there was bright, beautiful and sometimes quite terrifying graffiti artwork.
All around were warehouses, some rehabbed, some less. In each there were art galleries with every type of art you can imagine, as well as the ubiquitous tschotske shop. In addition, as you walked down the pass through between the buildings you would see other artwork, mostly big sculptures sprinkled throughout.
After wandering around for a few hours Pearce and I rested a bit in an open aired coffee shop. While researching where we wanted to go when got back from Mongolia we watched a magazine shoot take place with various Chinese models posing in elaborate wedding gowns and other costumes. (i have to mention that this is probably the third time we have seen something like this in our short time here).
That evening we walked down to the Night Market which takes place from 3pm to ? every night. I pictured an old world, back alley market, dark and dingy and chock full of people. I was right on one account, there were a lot of people. But the alley, was more like Times Square, a pedestrian road with huge luxury stores, including Burberry, Louis Vitton, etc. lined up on either side. Frankly, at first I was disappointed. It was interesting to see a whole other bright and shiny side to China, but I had pumped Pearce and myself up for some authentic and (crazy) food.
Luck was on our side though because we wandered to the southern end of the market and saw what looked to be like the old alley way from my imagination. Sure enough it was teeming with all kinds of wonderful treats including food for both the brave (scorpions still wriggling on their sticks) and more discerning (Chinese meatballs, yogurt, and what looked to be like a hotpocket). Pearce had a hankering for noodle soup so after wandering down an offshoot alley we found a series of shops that had tables lined out in from of them. Each shop was assigned a staff member who both lured customers in and was responsible getting them fed. Pearce and I used the tried method of pointing at other customers food we thought looked appealing and then were steered towards another table which we shared with two young Chinese women. Three minutes later, out came out steaming hot bowls of noodle soup, Pearce's were thin noodles and mine fat. No need to bring our our collapsible chopsticks (yes we brought them) as all utensils and condiments were provided, that is except for napkins which cost 10 yuan. Needless to say it was everything we hoped for and more for our last meal in Beijing.
The next morning we rose at 4am to catch our 8:30am flight. The Beijing airport is very nice, clean, comfortable and easy to navigate. We did have some initial problems locating our ticket counter and realized we had to read a sign that matched our flight number to a ticket counter in order to check our bags, etc. We had another small hiccup in the security line, when Pearce was flagged for additional screening. Now as a side note, we were both a little paranoid because we realized on arrival to China that we had both inadvertently smuggled illegal goods in our carry-ons. I had accidentally packed some liquids and Pearce had actually got both our Leatherman and Swiss army knife through TSA. Yay for us, boo for border control - yikes!
So as he was pulled over for a more thorough pat down, we held our breath. The hand scanner indicated that he had something in a side leg pocket. He started pulling out a number of objects headphones-nope; candy wrapper-nope; allergy pills wrapped in tinfoil....maybe....nope. There was still something in there...Pearce went in for one final grab and pulls out a condom. You should have seen the look on the Chinese security woman's face! She went red, Pearce went red and I, of course, couldn't help but burst into laughter. She let him go pretty quickly after that and we headed to the main terminal.
Everything went really smoothly after that, maybe a little too smoothly. We grabbed breakfast, found our gate, chatted with some Aussies. In fact we were just about to board the plan when the line stopped and announcement came on that the flight had been delayed until 8:00pm due to bad weather. Instantly a rumor mill started about the real reason that the flight was delayed was the it was overbooked and that the people who had made it on the plane were actually going to take off. Needless to say there were some very unhappy people. Fears were put to rest when the passengers disembarked the plane to join the rest of us waiting. Air China staff then shared in broken English that instead of waiting at the airport, we were all being sent to a nearby hotel where we were provided a room and lunch while they kept our bags hostage. Most of us made the buses to the hotel (some didn't make it through customs in time) only to realize that the Air China representatives did not board with us. We weren't sure when lunch was, or more importantly, when we needed to be ready to go. The rumor mill seemed to indicate that we would need to be in the lobby around 5pm for an 830pm takeoff.
Luckly, as I was midnap at 2pm we got a mysterious call saying that we needed to checkout.We hurried downstairs to catch buses back, re-check in, go through customs again and then change gate numbers twice. Finally, we got on the plane and were able to land safely here in Mongolia. It has put Pearce and I in somewhat of a bind as we were supposed to pick up our plane tickets for Uvs Aimag yesterday and are unsure if we will be able to secure them before the 10:30am flight this morning. The main issue is that if we miss this one, the next one is Saturday, if its not already booked. So, we may in fact, be exploring other means of travel across country.
WISH US LUCK!
Allyson and Pearce
Pearce, those must be BIG pockets!
ReplyDelete