KennethT

As is typical, we start getting really tired pretty early on the first day (especially with all the walking we did!) so we wanted to go for dinner somewhere close to our hotel. Unfortunately, there are not very many good local food options in that neighborhood, but there are quite a few malls. As I've said before, food in malls in the US should usually be avoided at all costs, but not so in Asia... there is actually some very good food to be had in malls there. In a mall a few blocks from our hotel were 2 floors of dining - tons of restaurants. Everything from Taiwanese chain Din Tai Fung (known for their soup dumplings and fried rice), to Thai food, sushi, you name it... I didn't see any western options though. We went to a local jiaozi (dumpling) restaurant - since jiaozi are a very popular Beijing thing. None of the staff spoke English, but they did have a copy of their menu translated into English, but there were no pictures. Boiled... these were pork and coriander Fried: I thought I had ordered mutton and scallion, but they turned out to be mutton and carrot. Gailan (chinese broccoli) sauteed with garlic A decent oolong tea Prices here were moderately inexpensive. The boiled jiaozi were 20 Yuan and the fried ones were 35.

After breakfast, we visited the Forbidden City, which looks small on the map of Beijing... but the map of Beijing is very deceptive... Beijing is HUGE. What looks like 1 NYC block on the Beijing map is really like 10 NYC blocks. The FC is really a city - it takes hours to walk around (and you walk miles doing it) and is virtually impossible to photograph well to really get the scale of it. It is also crazy crowded with mostly Chinese tourists from all over China. We saw very few western tourists the whole time we were there. This is just the front entrance, after going through the security line: Here's a panoramic shot of a courtyard area taken after going through the first couple of gates - this is the beginning of the FC: We finished with the FC around lunch time, so we made our way here: The locals affectionately call this place Fatty Wang's... it's a small chain of donkey meat restaurants. Practically everything here is donkey meat - sandwiches, hotpot, casseroles, they have a pretty large menu - but the good thing is that the menu has some pictures. But, I am very glad I downloaded the Waygo translation app - it did a very good job translating menus and signs. It's free to translate 10 phrases per day, or you can pay like $7 to get the unlimited version. I'm glad I did because they had 2 types of sandwiches - one with donkey meat, and one with intestines which I'd prefer not to get. The meat has been seemingly braised in a liquid with star anise and other stuff (maybe 5 spice?) and was very tender and flavorful. It was not nearly as gamey as I thought it would be. It was actually really tasty - if we had it in NY, I would get it on a pretty regular basis. The bread was awesome - crispy and flaky. This was some kind of raw greens (I have no idea what they were, but it didn't seem to be lettuce that I recognized) with a very garlicky dressing with chiles and something else I couldn't describe... it was awesome.

Breakfast was included with our hotel room... usually, I'm not a fan of hotel breakfasts as they usually have a decent selection of western options, but the local options are limited... This hotel's breakfast buffet was excellent by comparison - sure, there were lots of western options, but they also had a made to order noodle soup and fried noodle/fried rice station, and a dim sum station, as well as lots of good fresh fruit. Really good fruit. These were probably the best dragon fruit (white and pink) that I've ever had, and the pineapple was sweet, juicy and very ripe - a huge difference from the pineapple we typically get at home. It reminded me of some of the fantastic pineapple I've had in Thailand and Hawaii. Fried yi fun noodles with chicken Fried rice noodles with beef Dim sum assortment (clockwise from top): some sort of pork and mushroom siu mai, baozi with pork (savory), steamed black sesame in glutinous rice, baozi with mushroom filling

And we're back!!!! So, I'm going to start over from the beginning to give a more comprehensive story and more photos! As I said before, we took Air Canada from NY's LaGuardia to Beijing, connecting in Toronto... There were pluses and minuses doing this, rather than our standard way of connecting through Taipei. The good part is that since the flight left at 11:30AM, we were able to get a good night's sleep at home before leaving - as opposed to leaving at around 1AM and sleeping (as best you can in Economy) on the plane enroute to Taipei. Also, the total flight time was about 14 hours as opposed to 20, and the layover was short (we had to walk fast to make the connection). The bad news is that since the main flight left Toronto around 3PM, there is almost no chance of getting some sleep on that flight (except for maybe a nap for a few hours just prior to landing at 4AM NY time), so by the time you land, you have been up for at least 24 hours straight - so we felt worse when we landed on this trip than we have on more recent trips connecting through Taipei. Also, the flight lands around 4:30-5PM, so you get stuck in rush hour traffic getting from the airport to the city center, so we didn't wind up checking in until around 7PM, as opposed to the other way where we'd land around noon or so... The final part of this rant is a criticism of Air Canada - well, not the airline specifically, but flying in and out of Toronto. The Air Canada check-in area that morning was a mad-house. The reason for this is that there were some storms the night before which delayed some flights - the biggest problem is that, evidently, Toronto has some kind of curfew as to how late planes can take off and land - so if your flight gets delayed enough, they wind up cancelling it completely since they aren't allowed to land in Toronto after a certain time. There were storms in the NY area around 8PM, and a few of the flights were delayed enough so that they were cancelled - so there were several plane-worths of people waiting to get on flights from the night before. We got to LaGuardia 3 hours early, and were barely able to get to the counter to check our bags in on time to make the flight. What a pita. Plus, because of scheduling issues, when we got to Toronto, our departing flight was delayed for about an hour and a half, so we landed later than expected. BTW, I gather a similar thing happened yesterday when we were coming home - we heard over the loudspeaker at Toronto that several flights were being cancelled because some minor weather delays would have put them past the curfew time.... so long story short, even though AC itself was a decent experience, I wouldn't want to risk getting stuck in Toronto because of some minor delays... OK, end of rant... now, onto the trip! Since we got in so late, it was impossible to walk around a bit to get a lay of the land around the hotel and start eating some good local food... so we opted for eating at the Chinese restaurant in our hotel. I have to say, for hotel food, it was pretty good... albeit expensive. But the restaurant was beautiful and the service was just fine - especially since we were basically the only ones in the restaurant. But we had our first language snafu when I was ordering, and asked for Gailan (or Kailan)... they had no idea what I wanted, because, as it turns out, Gailan is the Cantonese pronunciation, and the Mandarin way is Jie-lan (jee-eh lan)... in any case, it took a bit of effor but we finally got a good result. Intro snack... some kind of nuts that were soaked and sugared/oiled and a fruit leather. Crispy pigeon - very tasty - tasted like it was rubbed/marinated with 5 spice and soy. Hot stone chicken - dark meat chicken on the bone, seasoned, fried, then served in the hot stone bowl with big chunks of ginger and garlic chives. Aforementioned gailan Beautiful (if rather empty) ambiance.

It's always nice to come home from vacation to find your plants are doing well.... and I always find it funny to see how much things grow in a little over a week - usually, I continually watch it grow - it see it every day in my living room, but when you're away and come back, you really see the difference. Here's a new pic of the corianders: Notice on the sawtooth that a stalk has come up from the middle of the plant where there are tons of smaller leaves - I don't know if that's a bolting situation or if it's supposed to do that? I gather the sawtooth doesn't bolt as easily as the standard coriander, which, as you can see, looks just fine. Maybe I'll trim it anyway just to see what happens. Yu choi: The rau ram... I trimmed this down heavily about a week ago... this stuff grows like a weed.

Thanks @Deryn, this is just the preview. I'm going to do a write-up similar to what I've done for past trip. Once I get home... It was just too hard to do any sort of commentary using my cell phone. I'll be a lot happier doing it on a computer with a real keyboard.

We just got back from another duck experience ( ) and finished checking in to tomorrow's flight home ( ) @Fengyi Here's a preview! My pics weren't so good as the windows caused exposure issues. But C's came out better so I'll put up good ones once I get home.

Back in Beijing - hotpot #2, but thus was a different kind that is very popular here.

The funny thing was that we DID bring plenty (or so we thought) of water with us. Plus some sections are really steep and carrying tons of water can be a bit of a hindrance. We could have used a scherpa.

Yes, I couldn't believe it either. But when coming upon an oasis after wandering in the desert, one's resolve is softened.

We got back to the hotel after walking (climbing some sections!) the Great Wall... No food pics here but I figured people would appreciate a shot or two of the scenery. We went all the way to the portion on the top right. Then all the way back and even further the other way. I wonder how many miles we walked and stairs we climbed? We probably walked a few miles... All this in 90F and not a cloud in the sky. Those sun umbrellas paid fir themselves today. The most welcome sight was a drink vendor near the end. I was so happy to see Gatorade! Talk about gouging the tourists - 2 waters + 2 Gatorade = 180 Yuan ($27)!! But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Our hotel near the Great Wall site of Mutianyu is located in Bei Gou village, which is apparently a fishing village, for trout. The village is tiny (we walked through it in sbout 5-10 min) and there appears to be only one restaurant thst evidently closes around 5 or 6 or whenever they feel like it. So we had dinner at the hotel whose menu consisted largely of western dishes, save for a couple varieties of fried rice and a plate of jiaozi... But they also had this trout: And I'm very happy to report that it was perfectly cooked! But unhappy to report that it cost 110 Yuan (about $17).. Talk about hotel prices! ETA Sorry the price is incorrect.. It was 163 Yuan or about $25 - even worse!

@DiggingDogFarmGood call! That looks like a winner.

@WayneInteresting, but it looks more like a vine than a tree... Unless it's a tree you can espalier. But it gets really cold here during winter, so I don't think it could be tamarind.

Our hotel near the Great Wall (near Mutianyu) has an organic herb garden... Most stuff is standard and marked, but I saw these growing on a trellis and wondered what they were... I figured I could ask someone here, but maybe it's more fun to ask you guys instead??

Driving to the great wall now, well I'm sitting not driving... We needed to have lunch close to the hotel as we had limited time between checkout and when our car was picking us up. We were originally going to go to The Grandma's, which is evidently a very popular Shanhainese chain of restaurants. Their Beijing branch is in a mall a couple minutes walk from our hotel. Well, the queue was probably about 2 hours long so instead we went to an old friend Din Tai Fung...

Here's a teaser for dinner tonight.... I've had a lot of Peking duck over the years. But this was THE.BEST.DUCK.EVER You 'll have to wait till I get home for the rest of the pics and descriptions. Tomorrow we're off to see the Great Wall for a couple of days, so I dont know what kind of food we'll have there or how good the internet will be. Right now, when not on the hotel's wifi, I'm rocking 2G...

@liuzhouwhat type of mint is #2?

Hotpot Yep, it's charcoal powered, not that that translated into flavor.

We had Xinjiang food for lunch... Awesome. Seemingly a marriage of Asia, Middle East and Russia. Mutton stew with potatoes and carrots (and a little bok choi) Mutton skewers - super tender with very interesting spices. The fat was slightly gamey in a good way. Xinjiang Nan Cucumbrr salad.. Nice and garlicky Rose tea

I wonder if 'ferv' is fluff? Also I am amazed at the clarity and uniformity of the handwriting. Makes my chicken scratch look illiterate.

Jaozi....

Yep, donkey meat... I wouldn't call it a burger- but the bread was awesome, flaky and crispy. The donkey meat was not as gamey as I thought it would be. It was mild and tender... And I think it was braised in some kind of 5spice liquid. Thre were some chopped mild chilis inside too.

Lunch:

Typing prose us a real pita on a cell phone. So I'm going to limit post to just a few photos here and there. When I get home, I'll collate the photos from different sources (main camera, my cell and my wife's cell) and make a more comprehensive story.