swindled

Well the most important thing is that my mom and I survived the day, with my very limited Chinese vocabulary (Hi, 1, 2, 3, Don't want, Don't have, Good, Thank you, and I love you) and my mom's only slightly more extensive one. (We were going it alone because my dad was doing a radio show and then a TV show).

After stopping to get me a latte (I'm becoming more addicted by the day), my mom and I set off to Tian'anmen Square which is--if you are not familiar with Tian'anmen, and I'm not sure whether that is something taught in school or just knowledge known to children of Chinese historians?--the largest public square in the world, the headquarters of the Communist party and the site of a famous Chinese student revolution. The one with the famous picture of the student standing in front of tanks. Anyway, Tian'anmen Square is across from the Forbidden City, which was the palace of the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

As we were on our way to the front gate, two cute young Chinese women started chattering with us about how they were students at a Chinese university and they were artists and they had an art exhibition and they were trying to show foreigners and wouldn't we please just stop by it would only take a few minutes and it was right next to the entrance to the Forbidden City and please? So how could we not?! We went into the little art gallery and the paintings were actually quite beautiful. I love Chinese watercolors, and they were very talented students. They walked with us through all the paintings and tried to convince us to buy something because it would go to a scholarship for one of the students. So how could we not?! We bought one of the girls' paintings--for Y300, or $50, a small price to pay for a nice piece of art and the delight on their faces.

(Seriously, how could we not?!)

Then we went to the Forbidden City, which is quite fantastic and massive and extravagant and ornate...and filled with about a million other people. The crowds were overwhelming.

After fighting our way through the crowds, we took a taxi to the Temple of Heaven, which is another famous Beijing monument. Oh wait, wait...no we didn't take a taxi. I thought we should have, but when the moped pedicab pulled up next to us and the driver tried to convince us to take a ride, my mom said oh come on it'll be fun! And after having been assured, both verbally and by holding up fingers, that it was three--"san, san!"--yuan, my mom pulled me into the seat. It was slightly terrifying; Beijing streets are scary enough when you're in an enclosed automobile, but when you're on the back of a moped!? It was only about a 5 minute ride, and I admit by the end of it I was getting over my fear and almost starting to enjoy myself, but then. The driver stops the moped, we get out, my mom tries to hand him Y3, and he says no no! 3-HUNDRED. Three hundred yuan for a five minute ride?! (for points of reference: taking a taxi would've cost Y10. Y300= $50. fifty dollars) It was an outrage, and I am still fuming. My mom held her own pretty well, and since she wanted to be done with it she gave him Y60. Provided that he didn't have a concealed gun or anything, there was really no way he could enforce his fee, but he could follow us around and harass us.

And that was only the beginning of our transportation woes.

After seeing the Temple of Heaven (in 25 minutes flat because again, it was amazing architecture, but we were pretty burned out) we tried to find a subway station that, according to our map guidebook should have been nearby, but was nowhere to be found. This is one of the problems with having a five year old guidebook. So then we tried to hail a taxi, but when we finally got one and after my mom explained where we wanted to go, he stopped the cab and kicked us out (our guess is that he had been hoping to take us stupid foreigners to the Temple of Heaven, knowing that it was just around the corner and that he would get the minimum Y10 for a short distance). In my haste to get out of the cab--the cab driver was very hostile--I dropped my camera. And cracked my lens...filter. Thank goodness not my lens. At this point, my mom and I are stranded in the middle of the city, nowhere near a subway station, no taxi drivers willing to take us anywhere, and knowing little Chinese. Luckily after about half an hour, we were able to plead with a taxi to just take us to the nearest subway station, and made it back to our apartment.

All in all, it was a real strain on my mom and my faith in our new motto (the journey is the destination). But food is a wonderful remedy to all kinds of woes, and dinner completely made up for the struggles of the day. That dinner ranks in my top five of all time: Beijing duck with crispy skin and tender meat, which comes along with thinner-than-paper pancakes and scallions/cucumbers and a sweet sauce to make into little rolls seemingly dropped from heaven; tofu with ground pork, the sauce like Chinese nectar and tofu so silky it practically melts in your mouth; pan-fried spinach, which was refreshingly simple; deep-fried pork ribs (deep-frying even beats barbecuing when it comes to preparing ribs! Crispy and delicious) with a salt-and-pepper mixture to roll them in; and chicken wings, also fried, with coriander/cumin and hot chili flakes.