Beijing Day 1: Jingshan Park and Night Market Food Tour

Hutong by our hotel

Part Two of the trip was about to begin, from Mongolia to China.  I was looking forward to Beijing after spending a week sleeping in tents or gers, at least we'd have a hotel room, bed, linens, and a shower.  Our hotel was tucked away in a hutong in a traditional Chinese courtyard-style setting by Jingshan Park.  After meeting Danielle and Carrie at the airport in Bejing, we rode together to the hotel and formulated a plan for the next day.  They would likely still be acclimating to the time change so we figured we'd go easy, get a feel for the neighborhood and take it easy before our night market food tour.
 

Jingshan Park pagoda

First stop was Jingshan Park since it was just across the street and only 2Y entry.  We initially had thought the day was overcast or that our contacts were dirty, but we soon discovered that it was smog.  It was a lovely warm day and a bit nice not to have the hot sun beating down on us, but a bit disconcerting to know that we were staring through smog and not fog, since the atmosphere lacked humidity yet was still hazy.

Jingshan Park

What was immediately noticeable was that it seemed Everyone in Beijing was out for the day.  It was Saturday, and the park was packed with revelers.  People dancing tango in one corner, others playing instruments while women danced.  Hackey sack, table tennis, singing, and other activities were taking place.  I've never seen a park so full of people just enjoying themselves and each other.  Even parks in Chicago people just walk around, lie in the sun, or picnic.  In Beijing, people were busy DOING things, active things.  No children running about yelling, but mostly adults recreating.  It was lovely.

We mounted steps to the top hill in the park that overlooked the Forbidden City and the whole of Beijing.  Again the smog was a presence, but it did give us our bearings on direction and distance.  Danielle and I would be the main wayfinders so we were glad to be up high to get a lay of the land.  As we left the park and walked north to explore more, we passed what appeared to be a playground, but was full of middle-aged and elder adults exercising on various machines, and every table tennis station was occupied.  This was a week-long trend, to see adults exercising every day.

Forbidden City view from Jingshan Park... and the smog.

Next on the list was lunch at Mr Shi's Dumplings, nestled in a hutong up north.  We finally found it, but the majority of patrons inside were Westerners.  The walls were drawn upon by other visitors from around the world.  I would like to think that in a city as large as Beijing we could find a perfectly fine dumpling shop that wasn't full of tourists, but the dumplings were good just the same.  I was a big fan of the fried mutton dumplings.  The smoked tofu salad I could do without.  As a matter of fact, I could do without any kind of tofu salad.  I don't mind it in miso soup or hot pot, but I have limits (foreshadowing: apparently sheep testicles are perfectly fine, but I had my fill of tofu).

The roads to and from the dumpling shop was full of small shops we so stopped in a few of them to see what piqued our interest... the silk shop was a hit, but as an American size 8, a Chinese 2XL was still too small for me.  I practically laughed myself out of the dressing room.  I had to come to the conclusion that shopping for clothes in Beijing was going to be a challenge, but I easily settled on a few pairs of shoes.  Also distracting us from our hunt for dumplings was my curiosity of street food, so we also made a stop at a shop front selling cheese-stuffed fried chicken (under-cooked, but I survived), and Danielle ordered fried squid balls.  These were delish.

Hutong shopping

We quickly passed by the Drum and Bell Towers but learned they were closed for renovation through October, so a peek through the gates sufficed.  We still had plenty of time before our evening food tour, so more shopping was at hand!  We didn't have a mapped plan of where we'd go, just in the direction of our hotel, when an archway into a very crowded hutong attracted our attention.  It was a pedestrian street full of shops of all sorts.  I was in haggling heaven.  As we roamed about, I remembered on the map that perhaps we were in the area of a lake and nightclub district.  An obligatory Starbucks stop was made when one was spotted, and we enjoyed a walk around Qianhai Lake, noting all the restaurants, bars, and nightclubs that lined the neighborhood with rooftop seating, karaoke, and hookah bars.  We made a mental note that we should come back one evening to enjoy a few cocktails... spoiler: it rained every other night and we never made it back.

Sure enough, down another side alley, a large lake made its presence known.  Throngs of people walked along the lakeside, took pictures, paddled boats, rode bikes, and snacked on food on sticks, enjoying the lovely Saturday afternoon.  Street food curiosity struck again when I ordered something from a stall, which turned out to be balls of chopped octopus in an egg batter, topped with eel sauce and fish flakes.  It wasn't half bad.  Better than the cheesy chicken.

Qianhai Lake

After a bit of rest at our hotel, our night market food tour was to begin.  One lesson we learned from Istanbul was to schedule a food tour at the start of vacation instead of at the end.  This way we can identify what we like immediately and have the rest of the trip to enjoy what we learn.  And this is exactly how it turned out, perfectly.  We were to meet in the Wangfujing shopping section of the city, which was less than an hour walk from Jingshan and pretty easy to find.  Tiny alleyway shops of the hutongs were replaced with the glittering neon signs of Chanel, Prada, and Hermes, with Zara and H&M thrown in.  Knock-off shops these were not, it was Times Square-esque in its flashiness.  And it felt a little bit like home.

I love me a good night market.  The Food!  Oh, the glorious food.  Such an adventure.  We met Mao, our guide, and he walked us through the Wangfujing Night Market and the Donghuamen Night Market.  The former was tucked away in some small alleys off to the side of the pedestrian Wangfujing stopping street.  We hadn't met a single Chinese person all week who had ever tried a scorpion on a stick; I'm convinced they're only there for the photo op and novelty.  First, to drink, which I loved, was a sort of plum juice in a short, stout bottle.  Then we moved on to the food: lamb skewers with red chilis, (a staple of the Muslim Uighur community from northwest China, now a popular street food item), grilled squid on a stick (yum!), dumplings, triple spicy meatballs (and fish balls, loved the spiciness but it wasn't overwhelming), stinky tofu (not as stinky and foul as I'd heard about on TV), cold spicy Sichuan noodles (my favorite), candied fruit, pineapple rice (reminded me of mango sticky rice), jackfruit, vodka made from sorghum, and sheep testicles.  Now, Carrie and I are adventurous eaters.  When Mao suggested these, she and I were completely on board, and he had to ask a couple times because he thought we were joking.  But really, they were good.  Not my favorite of the night, but perfectly acceptable.  They were a bit heavy on the iron flavor of other organ meats, but just fine.  

Scorpions on a stick

Lamb skewers

Wangfujing Night Market

Calling for patrons

Bubbly drink with dry ice

Soup with a tentacled creature that seemed a favorite

Donghuamen Night Market

Shrimp

More lovely food on a stick

Sheep testicles. A bit irony, but good.

Dumplings

Even the locals enjoying the night market

Extra spicy foodstuffs on a stick.  Delish.

Centipedes, snakes, silkworms, and other delicacies.

Pineapple rice

Carrie wrote more detail about our foods on her blog, so for more info...
The tour came to an end, and it was still a pleasant night, until we felt a drizzle.  Should we take a taxi home?  It wasn't a far walk.  But I was uncertain how taxis worked here and if we were easy marks for a scam (see also: Bangkok and Buenos Aires).  Eh, we'd walk.  I had a rain jacket, Fay had a poncho, and Danielle and Carrie shared an umbrella.

Until...

Until we needed an ark.  Oh how the skies opened up.  Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, it did.  I was starting to get concerned for the camera in my bag, which was water resistant, but not waterproof.  Every shop we passed, I glanced into for umbrellas.  I finally found one and ducked inside to inquire.  45Y for an umbrella??  Phooey, we were already soaked.  I'd take 2 for 30Y and call it a night.  The lady agreed and I handed one over to Danielle.  We were already halfway back to the hotel.  But did we get washed.  Bathed.  Soaked.  There is no drainage in central Beijing, so the streets were flooded with at least 6" of water.  Down the water gushed out of the alleyways into the main streets.  Puddles with nowhere to flow to.  Fay and I had Crocs and flip-flops so walking through small seas wasn't an issue, but poor Carrie and Danielle were wearing legit shoes that I'm pretty sure took 3 days to dry out.  Fay struck gold with her Maid of the Mist poncho that I toted along from last year's visit to Niagara.  She was dry.  On the bright side (?), it was a warm night, the rain wasn't cold, there was no traffic and no people in our way, and we were safe.  Mao had said that Beijing was safe to walk around at night: the penalty for owning a gun was death, only police carried guns, and women should feel perfectly safe.  And in a practical monsoon, taking a dive off a curb into a makeshift river would be the most of our worries.

We can laugh about it now.  Little did we know that it would rain every night for the next 3 nights... but the rain always held off until we were done with our daily activities.  So, y'know, there's that.  A good first day in Beijing overall.  We'd need our beauty rest, for the next day we were headed for a long day of sightseeing at The Forbidden City and Tienamen Square.