The first day we hiked the Great Wall! It was pretty touristy, but the trip into the mountains felt worth it to me. I miss my American off-the-beaten-path hikes…
The next day we went to the Forbidden City, which was a bit of a panic-inducing headache on my part because I got us timed tickets and the lines to even get into Tian An Men Square were almost two hours long, so by the time we were inside we were running to ticket check. I also didn’t predict that there would be no food vendors around the Tian An Men station exit (or that it would be so VAST and car-dependent), so we went about most of this with no breakfast…Chengdu would NEVER!!
2 girls kissing at tiananmen square
Afterwards, we just explored around the area via bike. The Hutongs were definitely my favorite (and the most walkable) part! They are historic suburban alleyways that twist all around downtown. It felt like every street in the city was either soviet-style domineeringly architectured government buildings, or a dense maze of ancient Chinese single-story houses with people still living in them.
some alley cats!!
I found a place on social media that sold 茶面 (technically, ‘tea noodle’, but it was more like a millet-y paste topped with soft peanut butter and sesame) while we were wandering around a Hutong, and it turned out to be someone just selling it out of their kitchen. There were a bunch of old people playing mahjong around where the GPS told me to go. They told me to send 6rmb to the QR code on the alleyway wall and the lady would just bring it out to me from her home.
茶面
Afterwards, we went to a more trendy Japanese style tea shop in the same Hutong and enjoyed it with a Maine coon kitten named FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition). I don’t think he was very fucked up at all, but the teahouse seemed owned by hype-beast type Zoomer guys so I think that’s why he was called that.
I got tickets to a rave later that night, so to pass time we rented a private movie screening room in a mall for around 170rmb and watched American Beauty lol. Then we went to a Hong-Kong style bar just down the street.
really liked the intentional graphic design of the menus!! the simple green and red text and plain design evoke the style of a typical
hongkong noodle shop...id love to try something like ths out on one of my web pages
Eventually we got to the rave. I didn’t check the music too much beforehand, and turns out ‘HARDCORE TECHNO HIPHOP’ was not hyper-pop mixes of Nicki Minaj and actually just a Swedish guy doing dubstep. Outside the venue I got a sausage on the stick, and overheard the vendor saying Beijing music scene has gone downhill, and has been getting ‘less and less free’.
Anyways!! We’re back now! I have a big deadline soon, and Halloween next weekend, so I’m a little swamped! I also feel like I have a bad habit of making plans with people for “when I get back!” without consideration that I also won’t be working while I’m gone ORZ...till next time!!!
