The sun rises extremely early in Beijing, and since my new, upgraded hostel room had *gasp* a window, I woke up before my cell phone alarm went off. Chris and I would be meeting the girls from the night before for the hutong tour at 10 AM, and I had lots of time to kill. I went over to the lounge, and since I heard from other foreigners that their breakfasts were good, I gave it a shot. Their menu was funny, in that it was clearly geared for foreigners, not Chinese people. The breakfast menu was listed as such:
American Breakfast:
Eggs, Sausage, Bacon, Toast
British Breakfast:
(Whatever foods the British tend to eat)
French Breakfast:
(Same idea, but France-oriented)
etc...
None of it was remotely Chinese, which made me overjoyed, since as I've lamented before, Chinese breakfast sucks. It's heavy, it's greasy, and it feels like you've just eaten a rag soaked in motor oil when you're done. Even more exciting, as I waited for my food, I cautiously eyed the coffee machine they had. I saw unground, full coffee beans! The machine would grind the coffee beans, then brew the coffee fresh, exactly enough for one cup. I finally had access, for the first time in the two-plus months I'd been in China, to fresh, delicious coffee. It was so good, and I wanted to make amends for losing my temper the day before, so I approached them with the friendliest face I could make, and told them how good the coffee was.
Once Ve-Ve (the Chinese girl giving the tour) showed up, I went downstairs to wake Chris. She was quite early (9:30), and I knew Chris probably had another rough night, so I wasn't surprised he wasn't upstairs yet. I knocked on his door, and it took him quite a while to answer. Finally, he opened the door, and told me to go without him. Apparently, he had seduced a 16 year old Thai girl also staying at the hostel. Chris is older than me. I wasn't impressed. I went upstairs and broke the news to Ve-Ve, trying to be subtle, since I knew the Chinese are more conservative than us. One night stands would not be a subject I was going to approach with this girl I didn't know very well. I simply informed her that Chris was out drinking very late the night before, and that he wouldn't be joining us.
She was fairly upset, and I think it was clear she either didn't want, or wasn't supposed to be doing tours for only one person. Fortunately, I had been talking to a nice American couple who hadn't seen the hutong yet, and they took a liking to Ve-Ve, so they joined me. The three of us took the hutong tour, and I was quite happy I spent the extra money to have someone come and explain the history. Looking around the hutong myself would have been quite boring. Riding a rickshaw, and having someone explain it all was much better.
Ve-Ve also helped me out a bit after the tour was over, going beyond what she was supposed to be doing, by explaining the history of the drum and bell tower (which was supposed to be an additional charge). Rather than pay the extra 50 yuan to see it with the rickshaw and tour guide, I had her point me in the right direction, and she explained why they were there, and some interesting facts. Beijing was slowly getting a bit better.
By the time the tour was over, Chris still hadn't gotten out of bed, so I moved on to the next thing I wanted to see. I had covered all the major sights, so I decided to try something different. I went to an art museum. The Chinese art was quite beautiful, and I enjoyed it quite a bit (no pictures allowed though), but my favourite part was their take on Western art. I am by no means a great art conoisseur, but apparently, neither are the Chinese. Each floor of the museum had a different style, and the Western styles typically were made up of the centre section, with real Western art from some artist or another, and the wings, which were mostly made up of the Chinese sad attempts at copying the style. My favourite was the French Surrealist floor. The centre was fascinating, and the art was amazing, but the wings were a joke. The Chinese are good at many things, but thinking outside the box is not one of them. They're normally very conservative thinkers, so surrealism was clearly a bit beyond them. I laughed out loud more than once at their surrealist "art".
The last stop of the day was the silk market. It wasn't only a market for silk, it was just a large building, with 5 floors, on Silk Street, clearly geared towards foreigners. The majority of the shoppers were foreigners, and the prices reflected it. These were some of the most outrageous prices I had seen yet, with some real bold liars selling the crap. Most of the stuff there wasn't worth more than 20 yuan, and this is where I developed my Law of Chinese Shopping:
Everything in China falls in two categories. Category A is made up of goods that are not worth more than 20 yuan (30 yuan for clothing). These items should not be purchased in a store. They should be purchased at a market, where the vendor does not need to pay extra expenses like rent for the shop, or electricity, etc. By doing this, you've lowered the bottom line, and therefore can buy the item for cheaper.
Category B is made up of goods that are worth more than 100 yuan. These are items that should be bought in a store, to decrease the chances you get a fake, or poor quality item. These items shouldn't have a large markup on them, and will generally have prices marked on them which are fair enough.
If you are shopping for Category B a lot, you are probably in China for the wrong reason. Going to China is not something you do to spend a lot of money. If you think the item is worth anywhere from 0 to 100 yuan, it's a Category A, and won't be worth more than 20 (30) yuan. If you're paying 80 or 90 yuan for something, you're probably paying the foreigner discount. Do not be amazed when you discover that something you bought for 80 yuan is later priced at 20 or 30 yuan.
The Silk Market part got quite long, so I separated the post here. It continues in the next post (Beijing: The Silk Market)
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