Beijing Excursion

Sure, when in Beijing, do go to the tea market in Malian dao (that's actually a street). It's quite huge, and open 24 hours. Every time I've been to Beijing though, I never had a chance to visit. But basically, for anything tea-related, you will want to do all of your shopping there. You could probably spend 2 days at that place just browsing, and stopping in shops to sample teas. That place is 80 000 square meters, and has nearly 400 shops.

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You should also make a point to visit some teahouses in Beijing. Lao She Teahouse is quite famous, but it's also very expensive. It's a very touristy place, I hear. You might do better at other, less-well known teahouses. Lao She was actually quite famous in the world of tea. Anyway, that's another point.

Then, do go to Wangfujing (???). That's a trendy shopping area. But they also have on smaller, side streets many small restaurants with an old-beijing feel, and you can try typical Beijing fare. At night too, in Wangfujing, they got street stalls selling all kinds of weird fare like slugs, beetles, grasshoppers, scorpions, de-boned snake meat, etc to eat. They fry them in a wok of oil, and serve them right there. It's pretty good. I have eaten in both places. And it's all really good fare.

Even if you don't dare eat that kind of thing, it's still a good photo- shoot (cool tea snacks!!). And, you can take a look at other foreigners and see who's brave enough to eat that stuff. When I was there, I ate that stuff up. Here, in Fujian, we eat rat and snakes a lot anyway, so slugs are no problem. They actually taste like sunflower seeds, but just a little more jucier and meaty.

And of course, you should also visit The Great Wall, the Imperial Palace, the Summer Palace, the hutongs, and other places.

Be sure to try all the Beijng fare you can, but if you get tired of that, there's McDonald's and Starbucks in many places. Even the Badaling Great Wall has a Starbucks. Beijing fare tends to be a little on the salty side, and a lot of things are fried. Ass meat is pretty popular in Beijing too. And it tastes pretty good. I'm kind of fuzzy though, because I downed with with strong Beijing beer. Ass - as in the animal. Not something kinky. Ask about ??, and people will tell you where you can get some ass meat. Boiled dumplings ??are popular in Beijing too - but they're just not that filling - they're made with various fillings - pork, lamb, leek (tastes like garlic). You dip them in vinegar. Sheep is also popular. We had a roasted rack of lamb once that was excellent. Then, there's the ever-famous Beijing roast duck. Some places are expensive to eat this, and others are reasonable.

When in Beijing, always remember to be watchful of your belongings, because people do a grab-and-run on the streets. And don't trust strangers that accost and offer to help you with this and that. But with this in mind, the Olympics are coming soon and Beijing is doing its best to be ready. Beijing is actually a very nice city, very modern. And the police are very friendly. And most Chinese are very warm-hearted and welcoming to foreigners.