Thursday, November 17, 2011

Beijing, next stop

 We arrived in Beijing with no hotel reservations, just some names of hotels from an old guide book. We quickly realised that some of the hotels have gone out of business and the one we wanted was fully booked. So we walked and found this great hostel, new, clean, cheap and close to everything just a little off the main street. What a find. I don't remember the name but I can find it again. It wasn't mentioned in any guide book and that's probably why they still have rooms. It's now my secret in case I should return to Beijing. Right off I'm going to say, I don't like Beijing, it's too modern. But surprisingly in spite of its sheer size, it's pretty easy to navigate.
There is a suburban rail system that takes you from the airport to Central Beijing where you can connect with the rest of the subway system. After taking care of housekeeping we dawdle around and found this night market in full swing. This is where they sell all kinds of weird food.
 Strange looking crabs...
 The famous crickets and scorpions on skewers, some are still alive..... ughhhh..
Smelly tofu with chili sauce...
Fried crabs...
They tell us these are cooked silk worms....ughhhh.....
Intestines of all sorts....mmmmmmm?
Cuttle fish on skewers... phew... what a selection. The Chinese do eat everything. It's just great that we didn't have to go far to see authentic Beijing life. The whole country operates on Beijing time, even far off Xinjiang province. It takes a little getting use to. I know its the same in Turkey, the whole country operates on Istanbul time. China is much bigger than Turkey.

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