Peking Duck, Duck........Goose

This weekend we ventured to the Red State capital to brush up on our Chinese dynasty history. After hearing negative things about Beijing in general (pollution, traffic, etc), we viewed the trip more as an obligatory thing to check off our China list. Boy were we pleasantly surprised though!
Saisai is living in Beijing for summer and greeted us at the airport with her driver- which she graciously loaned us for the duration of the weekend. For our first meal, she whisked us off to a restaurant called “Da Dong” for a taste of the famous Peking duck. It was a trendy establishment where you have to reserve “the duck” in advance and it’s ceremoniously carved tableside. We unfortunately forgot to tell her that we had also reserved “the duck” for dinner that night as well…..so we decided to loosen our belts and dig in to the ten course lunch. When in Rome……

SaiSai is taking a GRE class in the afternoons and evenings, so she set us up with a tour guide for the weekend- a pint-sized ball of energy named Vivian. Her English teacher gave her the American name, Vivian, because she had trouble in class pronouncing the letter “V” and he thought she needed to overcome the obstacle. Well, that turned out to be a cruel joke because she has yet to master the “V” and now calls herself Rivian. But what she lacked in English skills she made up for in enthusiasm and love of country.

Our first stop was Tian’anmen Square (in the rain). On the way we decided to breach the controversial topic of the massacre in 1989. Rivian, who had clearly been sipping on the Communist kool-aid since birth, explained that the majority of Chinese students had no idea that anything controversial happened. When we pressed further, she explained that the “protestors were not smart” because they had been warned repeatedly to leave and refused to listen. I guess that’s one way of looking at it….errrrrr……

Chairman Mao’s portrait looks ominously over the Square and every light pole is flanked with no less than 15 security cameras in order to “keep the peace”. Rivian provided us with a good summary of the Ming and Ching dynasties as we wandered through the Forbidden City.

That night we serendipitously had the chance to dine and swap stories with our friends (Amanda and John) from DC who were in town for a business school trip. We enjoyed great food (more delicious duck) and convo!

We took off early Saturday morning for the main event- The Great Wall. There are several different sections of the wall to visit nearby Beijing, but we opted to drive a little further to a place called Mutianyu to avoid the crowds and take in a more dramatic, mountainous landscape. While it rained throughout the night, we were fortunate to have clear, sunny skies and a cool breeze for our visit. Our experience from start to finish far exceeded our expectations and is something we will always remember. Walking along the wall is no joke and definitely not for the faint of heart.

We elected to take an open air chair lift to reach the top of the mountain, despite Saisai’s warning about the questionable safety standards (perhaps that’s why we were the only people on the extremely steep lift without a guardrail). The views during the ride were breathtaking, even if we were scared about mechanical malfunctions. We hiked along the wall for about an hour without running into too many other people- a shocking experience for anywhere in China. All I can say is “Wow”! Mutianyu also offers the rare opportunity to take an individual toboggan ride down the mountain- also not so safe, but quite the thrill as we snaked down the track.

Next we hit up the Summer Palace that was entirely too crowded to be enjoyable. We took a Dragon Boat across the lake and then head back to our hotel for some much-needed American food. In the afternoon we hit up a few markets where Harrison proved to be the master bargainer. After I ruined his negotiation strategy twice by getting annoyed and throwing a couple of RMB at the salesgirl just so she would stop talking, we finally devised a plan where I waited around the corner while he worked his magic.

That night we dined at a posh American/ French style restaurant that overlooked The Forbidden City- which was beautiful to see lit up at night.

On our last day Harrison toured a few hospitals (with me in tow) to get a grasp on the private healthcare market and we had a traditional Cantonese dim sum breakfast with Saisai and her uncle- Chairman of one of China’s successful State Owned Enterprises. We were sad to leave such a great town with fabulous restaurants, shopping and history – hopefully we will get a chance to return again someday.