Livin large in Beijing

[ah_dut]

I found that the two English words most everyone knew were "hello" and "bye-bye". Just walking around with my American collegue people would constantly say "hello" as you went by - if you smiled and said "hello" back they would often come up and start talking to you. Othertimes they would laugh and wave. Everyone wanted to try out their English. I was told over and over how much they liked Americans and were curious about us. I was there in the spring - just before the tourists start arriving so it may be a little different now - at that time there were a lot of Chinese tourists and students from all over the country visiting Beijing. (When my wife came to visit everyone wanted to take her picture. She has long brown hair and I have a full beard - those seemed to be especially fascinating.)

There is a huge Peking Duck resturant that is quite famous, but I never made it there. Mostly I would just go into some kinda dive looking place and fumble around the menu - everything was always delicious. The only times it was frustrating was when I went to places that would pull out some very abbreviated menu that they used for tourists - often you could avoid those places, though - or just look perplexed and point at someone elses dinner. I met some students that took me through the back alleys of some hutong to resturants - quite an experience! Went by a couple of places with butchered canines out front - made me think of that old song "How much is that doggie in the window?"

I did go to a government store that had some lovely jade, pearl and gold jewelry, but didn't buy any. I did buy a nice jade carved bowl, though. And I bought a lot of silk. Very nice stuff - dresses, scarves, robes - was really a hit with all my female relatives. There were several silk markets just past Tianamen Square.

I was lucky enough to be staying and working on the north side of the city - a very non-tourist spot where you got to interact with regular folks. My sponsor was a Canadian who had been living and working in China for almost 20 years - spoke fluent Mandarin. He and my work collegue were the only two westerners I saw until I went downtown. After my work was over my wife came to visit for another 10 days - we spent some more time in Beijing and also a few days in Xian (to see the terracotta soldiers) and Nanjing (an absolutely lovely city, and no western tourists.)

One thing...The Peking Duck restaurant is totally overrated and really expensive. There's exactly the same thing in Shanghai as well and that's really expensive as well...

Another thing of note, learn mandarin local english is quite bad, despite a lot of effort being put in ( a bit like english francais non?)

And the stuff there is really quite cheap...well it was a few years ago. I go to Shanghai and Hong Kong a lot more...I don't speak Shanghainese though...My mandarin is ok, enough to get along with and it REALLY helps

[Don Corleone]

I know a couple of phrases to be polite, but I'm trying to work on it.

Hun gow shin jian dow ni (I forget the actual pinyon spelling)=Very nice to meet you

Xie xie = thank you

Dui bu chi = Excuse me (first thing I learn in any language)

Ni hao = How's it goin

Piju!!! = Beer!!!