Satisfaction and a belly rub

China and the Chinese are known for many things.

• History
• Language
• Culture

But perhaps the one thing China and the Chinese are most renowned for is the food. This isn't the bastardised version of Chinese that some take away joints sell (eg. mongolian lamb, sweet and sour pork and honey chicken). Rather the authentic Chinese from the down and dirty skewered food that exists on the streets, to the tiny hole in the wall eateries, to the opulent restaurants filled with tanks of gold fish.

The food here is cheap and flavourful. The food can also be expensive, oily, filled with MSG. But the food is always FUN.

I love how the Chinese infuse theatre, comedy and meaning in their food.

Theatre


For theatre, one can't go past the Peking duck experience.
Chefs bring the whole duck out to you...present it with a flourish.

Then they show you how quickly and finely they can carve the duck up into perfect slithers of Peking duck goodness.

This opening scene is followed by your own theatrics. Making your own Peking duck parcels.

We went to Da Dong, purportedly one of China's best Peking duck places. And I have to agree.

At Da Dong, they have gotten into the spirit of food theatrics. Displaying an extensive range of condiments to accompany the main duck act. I have never seen anything like.


Four divided dishes filled with 8 different bits and pieces to add to my duck pancake master piece.
From the front: shallots, plum sauce, sugar, crushed garlic, cucumber, perserved fluorescent red vegetable, pink pickled mystery and black pickled mystery.

All added to my duck masterpiece, except for the perserved fluorescent red vegetable. I was not game enough.

In addition to the many condiments came two forms of wrap.

The pancake or the little round thin buns. Shall one go for traditional theatre or something a little more avant garde. I was adventurous and had the controversial little buns.

Very yummy!!!!!

Slight furrow in the brow

Beijing is full of vagaries and mysteries which have been confusing me for the past week. It has finally dawned on me that these things are what make China and the Chinese so ...... well .... Chinese I suppose.

Security
Security is very visible and everywhere.
And yet they don't make me fill particularly safe, rather I feel .... watched??
Perhaps the use of pre-pubescent boys doesn't necessarily breed a sense of security.

There is also the utterly pointless use of security guards ....
.....at every train station with a baggage x-ray which in theory sounds reasonable. However in practice, it is used haphazardly with some guards asleep in front of the computer display screen. Again two rake thin guards making feeble attempts to get people to place their bags on the x-ray conveyor belt.

There is a certain sense of "what's the point" but then there is also a realisation that this is very Chinese. Thin layers of frustration which the Chinese just BEAR. There seems to be a lot of BEARING in this society. A lot of things which seem to warrant a shake of the head, a grit of the teeth....and then...well you just do it. Because what is the point of complaining.

Even if you complain....what can rake-thin-boy-guard do really? Other than say, it is what I have been asked to do.

It was rather comical to see the number of guards that they posted to the little Newcastle supporters section during the football match we saw last Tuesday...ratio was close to 2:1.


Although we Newcastle supporters (or rather supporters of anything Australian) were a rowdy bunch. Not sure we warranted that much security attention.

But that is the Chinese way.....

Orderliness
There is a certain sense of order to most things here. Which is quite astounding considering the sheer size of the place and population.

But it seems streets are generally straight....
With the compass points having overriding naming rights....the north bits of are street are generally called X street north etc etc

The subway system runs on time and remarkably smoothly considering the volume of people it hurtles around the city. People get sheparded at interchange lines, sometimes by arbitarily placed barriers. But they seem to just be able to bear these small inconveniences if it means the general populace can benefit.

The one place orderliness has forgotten....the roads. The roads are a free-for-all mix of buses, cars, taxis, bicycles, weird boxed three-wheeled motorbike things and pedestrians.

The general road rule seems to be, if you are turning right, you have right of way....even if that means driving through someone.

Even knowing this general rule....pedestrians also seem to run on their own rule of, find a pocket of space in the middle of the road, stand there and make the cars go around you.

The one place you think there should be some order....it seems to be distinctly chaotic.

Wide Eyed

I am walking around China with a constant look of wide-eyed excitement. There is an energy and excitement here that is unlike any city I have ever been too. So far the most dramatic difference is the grand scale of things here.

BIG Beijing!

• Roads are wide, universities are large.

• The whole city is covered with high rise apartments, not being restricted to certain pockets of the city.

• Subway stations are spacious, at some stops it can take a 10 min walk to change lines.

• The economy is big too, a stimulus of package of RMB 4 trillion is currently being debated in the National People's Congress (NCP).

• The NCP itself is enormous, 2500+ representatives.

• They have the bigggest square in the world.

Beijing is a city which is big in every sense of the word.


The Chinese
Chinese people too are larger than life, they eat and drink big, they are loud, they talk fast. Unlike the sedate, reserved version of the Chinese that is represented in many movies.

Chinese people in Beijing are far from the retiring type.

But they see beauty and meaning in everything. From the mundane (superstition surrounding numbers 8=very good, 4=very bad) to the truly elegant (Written Chinese is absolutely fascinating. It is incredibly complex but at the same time beautifully infused with meaning and reason).

Bureacracy
There is level upon level upon level of bureacracy in China. Inefficiency, double handling, differing systems with differing rules are all rife here. From the little I have been able to pick up so far, China seems to be a very divided country. With the 26 provinces (I think) having very different systems for the administration of welfare. For example, the Migrant Welfare Pension is restricted by province. If a migrant worker working in Beijing wanted to move to Shenzhen, he would not be able to transfer the company contributed pension with him. That stays in Beijing.

Yet despite the many levels of bureacracy and the intricacies of government here. Everyday things are incredibly efficient.

Within a week of being in the country, most of the AYADs who are based in Beijing have been able to find suitable accomodation.

But so far I am loving it!
And there other AYADs here are awesome!