Two full days spent in Beijing and I feel as if I saw nothing. Probably because I didn't. I arrived on Wednesday night 11ish, peeved at my crappy luck with flights and cabbies. After registering at the hostel I walked into the bar, sat by myself in a corner table and ordered a Tsing Tao.
Before taking my first sip I noticed some local beer on tap and immediately ordered a half-liter of it. After drinking those two beers I was calm enough to strike up a conversation with some people a few tables away. We drank the night away until five or so and then I went to sleep, dead tired. I deserved the drinks and needed the rest.
I awoke on Thursday at about three or four and after going to the ATM, eating some unknown meat in unfamilar broth I felt I needed to "see" Beijing so walked to Tianamen Square.
The hostel kids suggested I take the metro but since the walk was only about 30 minutes I opted for that instead. On my walk to unimpressive Tianamen Square two different people attempted to hustle me but luckily I was prepared (the hostel had a paper describing hte most common scams
perpetrated on tourists) and I knew the shakedown was on, which made both experiences rather enjoyable actually.
The first one was attmepted by a young kid who wanted to practice his English so we walked and talked for about 10 minutes before he mentioned we were walking by a gallery where some of his work was being shown. If I liked it I should purchase some, he suggested. I took the bait, wanting to see how developed this hustle was and how good this kid was at it. Ha!
He was the worst hustler known to man! Now the people at the markets here-- they're hustlers!
The second attempt was by a woman and her nephews who were in town visiting for the New Year. When they apporached me I decided to be from Mexico (hehe I pulled this off in South America quite a bit) just to see them work harder. Yes, I'm a jerk but I've told you before.
Again, we talked for about ten minutes and then the woman suggested we all go "drink some tea." The way this hustle works is you're taken to a place with outrageously high prices which you're not told about until after buying five rounds of tea. Foreigners being bilked out of US$100 or more is not uncommon.
So that was that. I was unimpressed with the sophistication of the Chinese street hustle (though the next day I was sold seven pairs of black socks; I bought them becuse she kept adding one pair and then dropping the price-- she started at three for forty kuai and I ended up with seven pairs for twenty kuai.)
I continued my roam 'round Tianamen (it was closed for some security reason) and snapped a photo of the Mao-saleum and then--as if my divine intervention-- stumbled onto an alley dressed in neon with only Chinese milling about; I had walked into a fabled Beijing night market, though not the main one.
After strolling a few blocks I settled on a woman selling sticks with things, all boiling away in some ethereal broth. I picked ten sticks and I know two were mushrooms; the other eight remain a mystery but they offered a range of textures so intense and new that they
gave my tongue a hard-on!
Eww, that was gross. And that's how I'll end it! SL
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