Day 11 (continued)

After regaining my strength, I set off through Tianamen Square to find the acrobatics hall. I stopped to buy orange sodas often during the day (usually 40 fen, with a 10-20 return on the bottle). The street to the south of the Square was interesting enough, really just a lot of shops selling various things, but because I wasn't really used to navigating the hutongs with the map, I overshot my destination considerably. I walked back through one of the hutongs parallel to the main street -- much more interesting -- narrow, dirty, very real. I finally found the acrobatics hall, purchased a ticket, and then debated how to spend the intervening two hours. When I realized that I was extremely close to one of the recommended Peking Duck restaurants ("Is that No. 41 on the [Lonely Planet] map?" I was asked later in the evening -- a popular guide book and destination), I decided to try my luck.

The place was crowded but not too crowded. Mostly Chinese with a few westerners. The way to get a seat was to stand behind someone until they were done. You then had about two seconds to site down before someone else did. I got lucky and rather quickly a table opened up with just one vacant seat. Even better, one of the diners was a Chinese man (there with his wife and daughter) who had just returned from two years at Brandeis in Boston! So we talked about traveling, the difference in cultures, etc. The duck was excellent. Served with pancakes, hoisin sauce and onions, it is to be eaten like mooshu pork, i.e. rolled into a burrito-like pouch.

After dinner I headed back to the acrobatics hall. There were very few Chinese in attendance -- mostly westerners and Japanese tour groups. (In fact, I had met several of the westerners earlier in the day in the hutongs, duck restaurant, etc.) The show was great. Mistakes were made, but all in all quite interesting. There were several different acts ranging from magic to juggling to balancing. Quite a spectacle lasting about two hours.

Following the show I took a bicycle rickshaw back to the Beijing Hotel where a drunk Texan kept trying to get me to dance with him. His friend was a lawyer and we had a fairly interesting conversation, but the drunk one kept interfering. I finally got up, walked around a bit and then sat down with a group of Austrians who had come to China as part of a Youth Council delegation. They were nice enough but somewhat boring. I got back to my hotel at about 10:30 (very late Chinese time) and tried in vain to arrange for a taxi the following morning to take me to the Beijing -Toronto Hotel where the Great Wall tour met. I finally gave up and went to bed.

written by

shoshtrvls on August 11, 1987 from Beijing, China

from the travel blog: Around the World (1987)

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