Hong Kong post # 2 - Beijing Food

A few shots of the streetsin Beijing doesn't really give an idea of how smoggy it is and how much traffic there is. Even though bicycles are used by a lot of the citizens and the even have their own lanes sometimes, there are more and more cars and the city is often gridlocked at rush hour and choked with fumes all the time. God help the tourist who tries to cross on a green man thinking that they have the right of way. Cars rule and if they are turning into a wave of pedestrians they will honk the horn and speed up.
Ah, hairdressers ... here was me thinking that the chinese girls must be mad into getting there hair done because there was so many barbers poles advertising business in the capital. I even felt sorry for the female employees of some such establishments when I glanced in during the day because they looked totally bored with business so slack. Agnes noticed that there was a distinct lack of hair care products and equipment and later we read in the Rough Guide that the real clients are men, shall we say demanding more comprehensive services!

Well, the two photos with the bright lights are Beijing Zhan (main train station) where we lodged opposite from our time in the capital, in the City Centre Hostel (quite upmarket with hotel standard doubles for about 30 euros a night) and the other blurry shot taken from a bus is Tian'anmen square all lit up like a christmas tree at night.

Jaysus, copying what ... aren't the chinese only brilliant at it .... so much so that pure old exploited corporate giant Budweiser has to change it's appearance here to distinguish it from it's oriental cousin Blue Diamond! There's Agnes looking focused in the supermarket - cheese, dairy products, ordinary bread were not available; no problem with pot noodle, hen's feet or Great Wall wine.

Well, since we were in Beijing we had to try Peking Duck and the RG recommended the cheapest and best to be Li Qun, in the heart of a huytong in the Qiamen district. Indeed it proved to be absolutely delicious and all for 16 euros, but the standards of hygiene left a lot to be desired in this back alley restaurant. We wondered was it cleaned up a bit before the likes of Al Gore, the Swedish ambassador, the president of Thailand etc... dined here and had their photographs taken.
The night market in Dong'anmen offering snacks of an exotic variety is popular with tourists. Probably because this exotic fare consists of such delicacies as shark, snake, eel, star fish, and scorpions - three of which I gobbled down myself. They were crunchy and salty, but I wouldn't go mad for them. Normally, they skewer three of them on a stick and throw them into the boiling oil alive!!! A german connaisseur of such delicacies informed us, as he munched on a starfish, that when there aren't many tourists you can bargain the sellers down to 20 yuan for a big scorpion which normally sell for 50 yuan. Unfortunately for us, it was busy that night. Other yummies include pineapple rice, fruit candy, bbq chicken, pork, and such.







Some tourists prefer traditional food outlets to satisfy their cravings. (Side note: A simple normal ice cream is very appreciated when you're travelling around. Plus Stephen ate some too.)