On Friday
night the five of us ex-pats went out for dinner at a place called The
Slow Boat, an American owned and operated craft brewery. From the outside, it
looked to be a total dive, but when I opened the door, the beer gods shined
down upon me, gave me wings, and I floated onto a bar stool. The place sat
about 30 people, served five different food items, two side items, and there
were about 20 beers on rotation. It was the first time I actually felt somewhat
at home in China.
Abbe and I ordered the pickle plate then I went with my usual "go big or go home" mentality and ordered a Fryburger, an all-beef burger with American cheese, french fries and an aioli sauce. It was glorious. For those of you that have had the pleasure of eating a meal with me, you know that when I'm eating something glorious, I pretty much inhale and don't come up for air. This burger was no exception. Good burgers, good beers and kickass bartenders, this place was a hidden gem. One of the bartenders was from Peru and she and I talked about all the different places we've traveled to while the other bartender from the UK let me sample a bunch of beers. For a moment, I had this flashback to New Zealand and the situation reminded me of my time spent there, how I organically met people, befriended them, then traveled with them to different towns and cities. Meeting and connecting with people like that in the US is so hard to do.
Saturday I ventured to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Ok, wait, I'm lying. So I had full intentions of visiting Tiananmen Square, and was making my way there when these Chinese soldiers/policemen started to usher people into a line. I end up getting sandwiched between a ton of people, a gate and a wall and I can't go anywhere. I didn't even know what the hell I was in line for! There were about 600 people in front of me (not an exaggeration) and then the line starts moving towards a security check point. There is this woman at the check point shouting out commands in Chinese to all of the people and she's pointing left and pointing right and I'm like, oh Christ, she's going to freak out because I can't understand her. For fear that she will kill me, I go to my only defense, I look at her and smile. She looks back and me and in perfect English, she goes "hi, you have a bag, you can go in that line right there." I laughed to myself and thanked her. Who knew. So guess what? I just put my bag through a security check and I still have no idea WTF I am in line for. Finally I turn a corner and BOOM, there he is. Chairman Mao is hanging on the wall staring right back at me and this massive crowd of people. So at this point I realize that I didn't have to go through Tiananmen Square to get to the Forbidden City, which is what I thought I had to do, and why I was so confused. I apparently completely bypassed Tiananmen and went right to the good stuff.
I walk under the Mao portrait then into a very large courtyard, Then I stand in line for about 20 minutes to get my ticket to get into the actual Forbidden City. As usual I bypass the educational headset option because I have the attention span of a gerbil and I just want to take photos anyway. Let me describe this place in two words...fucking huge. You just keep walking further and further and there's building upon building. The third Ming emperor had this place built in 14 years and somehow managed to find 200,000 OCD laborers to build this place. Everything is meticulously handcrafted, from the painted details on the buildings, to the tiled stone designs in the ground in the garden. It is really breathtaking. After about 2.5 hours of walking through this city and a cheesecake popsicle break, I finally made my way through to the end. I am taking a quick break outside the city walls when I watch a little girl, all of six years old, hike up her dress and pop a squat on the sidewalk like she was tailgating at a Kenny Chesney concert. I stopped dead in my tracks. My body was frozen in sheer horror and my mouth hanging down to the ground. I managed to grab my camera around my neck and snap a quick photo. When looking back and admiring all the photos that I was extremely lucky to have gotten to take on that Saturday, nothing seems to compare to the photo of this little girl and that moment...1. Her bare ass hanging out from under her dress for all to see 2. While she peed on the sidewalk 3. At a major Chinese tourist attraction4. While her dad watched over in approval
Abbe and I ordered the pickle plate then I went with my usual "go big or go home" mentality and ordered a Fryburger, an all-beef burger with American cheese, french fries and an aioli sauce. It was glorious. For those of you that have had the pleasure of eating a meal with me, you know that when I'm eating something glorious, I pretty much inhale and don't come up for air. This burger was no exception. Good burgers, good beers and kickass bartenders, this place was a hidden gem. One of the bartenders was from Peru and she and I talked about all the different places we've traveled to while the other bartender from the UK let me sample a bunch of beers. For a moment, I had this flashback to New Zealand and the situation reminded me of my time spent there, how I organically met people, befriended them, then traveled with them to different towns and cities. Meeting and connecting with people like that in the US is so hard to do.
Saturday I ventured to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Ok, wait, I'm lying. So I had full intentions of visiting Tiananmen Square, and was making my way there when these Chinese soldiers/policemen started to usher people into a line. I end up getting sandwiched between a ton of people, a gate and a wall and I can't go anywhere. I didn't even know what the hell I was in line for! There were about 600 people in front of me (not an exaggeration) and then the line starts moving towards a security check point. There is this woman at the check point shouting out commands in Chinese to all of the people and she's pointing left and pointing right and I'm like, oh Christ, she's going to freak out because I can't understand her. For fear that she will kill me, I go to my only defense, I look at her and smile. She looks back and me and in perfect English, she goes "hi, you have a bag, you can go in that line right there." I laughed to myself and thanked her. Who knew. So guess what? I just put my bag through a security check and I still have no idea WTF I am in line for. Finally I turn a corner and BOOM, there he is. Chairman Mao is hanging on the wall staring right back at me and this massive crowd of people. So at this point I realize that I didn't have to go through Tiananmen Square to get to the Forbidden City, which is what I thought I had to do, and why I was so confused. I apparently completely bypassed Tiananmen and went right to the good stuff.
I walk under the Mao portrait then into a very large courtyard, Then I stand in line for about 20 minutes to get my ticket to get into the actual Forbidden City. As usual I bypass the educational headset option because I have the attention span of a gerbil and I just want to take photos anyway. Let me describe this place in two words...fucking huge. You just keep walking further and further and there's building upon building. The third Ming emperor had this place built in 14 years and somehow managed to find 200,000 OCD laborers to build this place. Everything is meticulously handcrafted, from the painted details on the buildings, to the tiled stone designs in the ground in the garden. It is really breathtaking. After about 2.5 hours of walking through this city and a cheesecake popsicle break, I finally made my way through to the end. I am taking a quick break outside the city walls when I watch a little girl, all of six years old, hike up her dress and pop a squat on the sidewalk like she was tailgating at a Kenny Chesney concert. I stopped dead in my tracks. My body was frozen in sheer horror and my mouth hanging down to the ground. I managed to grab my camera around my neck and snap a quick photo. When looking back and admiring all the photos that I was extremely lucky to have gotten to take on that Saturday, nothing seems to compare to the photo of this little girl and that moment...1. Her bare ass hanging out from under her dress for all to see 2. While she peed on the sidewalk 3. At a major Chinese tourist attraction4. While her dad watched over in approval
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