Travelogue 4

[July 26, 2009.]Tuesday: Went to Tianyi Market. It was...wow. I mean, it was like a marketplace and the front entrance and the front sides of the buildings facing the street were all rigged up like Walt Disney went partially blind and then went on crack. I mean, there were these gaudy plaster animals or animal heads stuck all over the place and a line of little dwarf figures stuck on a stair landing and nutcrackers and all sorts of stuff. And the store we went in had like five stories to it and each story was for one thing; like the first story was for gifts and jewelry and jade and ceramics, etc. and the second was all purses and bags, and the third was supposed to be for socks, but the entire floor was underclothes; and we didn't go on the fourth or fifth floor. And it wasn't like in American malls where there are different stores - it was entirely these little cubicle-like things stuck next to each other in long lines and each little cubicle was managed by a person, so they were like miniature, extremely specialized stores. Ugh, and so crowded too. But then again, pretty much everywhere is crowded.

Bargaining is pretty common in places like that, but not in richer, more Americanized shopping places. I wore my mom down to get me a Fifi Lapin bag, and I think in American dollars it cost about $11, which was ridiculously good, because I looked at the American price tag later and it said $350. Yikes. The bag is so absurdly cute, though.

Wednesday: Went shopping again, this time at another mall I don't know the pinyin for. It was more Americanized than Tianyi, the cubicles were considerably larger or not there at all, and it was a lot less crowded. Bought 2 pairs of pants and a pair of flats.

Thursday: Went to Beihai Park, which was a lot like the Summer Palace in that it had a lake with boats and lots of trails and pretty green-ness. It had a white tower overlooking the lake, which is the highlight of the Park. The temples were really interesting. Usually temples in places like that are just houses for gift shops (so many gift shops, sometimes even in bathrooms) but there was one there with three ginormous (like, floor to ceiling) bronze Buddha statues and nine other statues of religious figures on each side of the room. In front of the Buddha statues were these embroidered cloth things that people knelt on to make wishes to Buddha, and someone there actually did that and it was so interesting to see. (There was a gift shop in the room too. Guess Buddha doesn't mind consumerism.)

In front of the building were two bronze cauldron-like things filled with water and with ornate grates covering the tops. Inside were coins that people had thrown in for good luck. In the center of the bottoms of the cauldrons were these bowls and if your coin fell in the bowl it was especially fortuitous. (I hope I used that word right. I didn't want to say 'good'.) Overall it was really interesting and pretty (like there were these huge ponds of lotuses, they were almost like lakes of lotuses), although I didn't enjoy it as much as I would've liked because we forgot to pack lunch. There were food stalls practically everywhere, but my mom was perpetually convinced that all the food was tainted in some way or another.

Friday: Exceptionally clear day. Beautiful. You could actually really see things in the distance. All the buildings were really nice. I couldn't believe I never realized before, but Beijing's architecture is really interesting. We went to the Capital Museum in the morning. There was a special exhibit on the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, which I would have liked to see more of, except my mom thought it was boring and way too crowded and dragged me out prematurely. Everything else was historical and cultural artifacts, some of which was really interesting. (I should stop saying 'interesting' so much.)

After that we went to a third mall, which was seven stories high. It was the most American yet, in that it sold actual brand name items and not imitations. And I finally, finally wore my mom down into buying me a pair of red Converse, which I've been wanting for, well, a while. When we came out, though, it was raining and we had no idea where the bus stop was. I think we walked around for ten minutes in the rain asking a bunch of people, and when we finally found it we had to wait for another fifteen minutes, which is actually a long time to wait for a bus in Beijing. The bus ride home was really nice, because I could actually sit down for a change and watch the apartments and skyscrapers and hotels and stores slide by the window, all rain-soaked. Buildings in rain are pretty.

The twilight was beautiful too, the sky actually turned pink and lavender with little clouds and I couldn't help but take pictures. Oh, and there's this big radio tower near where we're staying that looks like a minaret off an Arabian mosque or something and it was all lit up, it was beautiful.

Yesterday: Tianyi again. We went in another building that was a lot less crowded than the first, though I still didn't like the atmosphere, something about it seemed very sad and desperate and cheap. I wound up with a pair of purple pants, though, so that was something. My mom and grandma went there again in the afternoon, but I opted out and stayed at my grandpa's apartment. It was then that my other aunt and uncle and cousin came to visit. They'd arrived earlier that day from Holland, and none of them can speak English beyond a few broken sentences. My grandpa forced me to stay in the living room and talk to them, and my Chinese mostly really sucks, so it was really awkward. Plus, they kept making comments on how much my Chinese sucks, and I really needed to go to the bathroom but leaving the room would look rude, so none of that really helped the situation.

Eventually my mom and grandma came home, which was a relief. My aunt and uncle passed around gifts they brought from Holland, and my aunt has an iPhone, which she let me fool around with for like an hour while everyone was busy reuniting; which was cool of her. Later, everybody in the family, including my other aunt, uncle, and cousin went out to eat. So yep, it was a family reunion. I've never had the experience of a family reunion before.

Later that night, my younger aunt took me up to the 11th floor of her apartment, which had a really long walkway in the front with windows and we looked at all the city lights and the ground and the streetlit road with sparse cars and motorbikes and the trees and less tall apartment buildings from above, and I really think it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. The night was clear enough to see a few stars, and I wished on one (I've taken to wishing on things almost religiously) to not be afraid of what I want.

Today: Went to a fancy place for lunch. Even more extended family, so we had a room all to ourselves. It was kind of awkward because only two of them could speak English at all, but it wasn't really an issue. I was mostly nervous because there were so many people and being in large groups of people makes me nervous. I couldn't believe it was all my family. I'd never imagined I had that many relatives.
September 17th, 2009 at 05:23am