Wangfujing (王府井）

21 August 2008By Zhu 16 Comments

Beijing, here we are! We arrived Tuesday morning, dirty and exhausted. The trip was much more tiring than I had thought… a six-hours Greyhound ride, a five-hours wait in Toronto, then an eight-hours flight to Beijing, another twelve-hours layover in Finland, the plane was two hours late, another eight hours to Beijing and… that’s it. Phew.

Beijing is hot and humid, as I remember it. The smell, the crowd, the people… that hasn’t changed. However, there are now skyscrapers everywhere and the city is somewhat cleaner. Subway lines were added and new buses were implemented. People are still queuing horizontally though!

My first challenge in Beijing was to find a 传接器插头。 In a word, a plug adapter for my laptop that, of course, I had forgotten (as usual). Now, I hadn’t spoken Chinese in a while (except with my in-laws I guess) and it’s not the easiest thing to find when you are jetlagged and tired. But I finally bought one and here I am.

Wangfujing Street

One of the first place I really wanted to come back to was Wangfujing, a huge street market. I had loved the atmosphere when I was studying in Beijing and I was glad to see it didn’t changed much.

Gate To The The Market

Yes, I Like Baozi

Calling Customers

Water and Coconut

Selling Meat

Cooking

Meat Again

Delicacies

Silk Worms, Scorpions. 好吃极了！

In case you’re wondering, I didn’t have any of the above delicacy. I love Chinese food but I draw the line at silk worm and live insects.

16 Comments »

Graham said:

Zhu, these images are so scrumptious! (Especially that beautiful one of you! You look absolutely gorgeous!!!). I love the photograph of the shopkeeper calling for customers… it kinda reminds me of a scene from an opera…lol! I love chinese food so much. I am lucky that we have recently has an authentic chinese supermarket open up not far from me. So I have been experimenting with lots of different foods recently (I even had steamed chickens feet the other day, but the jury is still out as to whether I actually liked them). I would love to visit China and Japan to learn how to prepare and cook food like they do.

Thank you so much for sharing these moments with us and once again, that photograph of you is sooooooooo beautiful.

Grahams last great read…A little preview of where I live and work

# 14 September 2008 at 4:47 am

Max Coutinho said:

Hey again,

You look great, girl!!

LOL LOL well, I was wondering if you had tasted those delicacies, and now that I know that you haven’t…who will explain me what they taste like? lol

Cheers

Max Coutinhos last great read…Sib Ethics

# 26 August 2008 at 11:07 am

Zhu (author) said:

@Froggywoogie – Of course you would have: you’re a guy!

@Spyder – That’s also what I thought

@durano lawayan – Beijing was a bit crazy during the olympics so I perfectly understand it’s difficult to come, even though you are geographically close. But hey, the world is a small place…

@barbara – I’m not brave enough to taste any of these… especially the star fish. Oh and by the way: the scorpions are alive…! Don’t worry about “right” or “left”, I always get it wrong too

@SilverNeurotic – <The trip is even better than the pictures

@Annie – Fortunately, most if time, food is fairly “normal”

@Chen – I’m curious now: what does it taste like? It is soft? Hard? You’re braver than me!

@RennyBA – I thought of you yesterday, we ended up with a bunch of Norwegian and Finnish at the stadium, cheering at a track and field game. Norway got the javelin’s record!

@Scarlet – Baozi are safer, we both agree on that!

@Yuling – Hi and thanks for visiting! I don’t have much time while in Beijing to visit new blogs (connection isn’t that good) but be sure I’ll stop by when I’m back next week. And yes, the insects are alive… till they get eaten!

@shionge – It’s just crazy, there are people everywhere. More than usual, for sure, but not that many westerners, mostly Chinese.

@kevin – The sea star maybe?

# 25 August 2008 at 1:18 pm