Days 5 & 6 – Liulichang, Dashilar, Qianmen, and the Day After

Monday and Tuesday, June 4th & 5th 2012

Mom and I got dressed for a long day out starting with breakfast at Hùguósì. We left a little bit before 7am to avoid the early morning rush and took Bus #116 to Shíèrtiáo (12th street). Once we got there, we squeezed into some seats at a messy green table. We ate niuroubing (basically, ground beef on flatbread – tastier than it sounds), babaozhou (“eight treasure congee”), doufunao, and naiyouzhagao (a fried cream puff type pastry). This place’s specialty is the doufunao and naiyouzhagao, but I think I enjoyed the niuroubing the best. Everything was very oily – especially the last thing we got, called youbing (literally, “oil flatbread”) – but absolutely delicious.

After eating, we took a subway to Liulichang, where there’s a whole street of stores that sell parchment, ink, and brushes for calligraphy. The subway was extremely crowded and at a particularly awkward transfer point, we could barely move. Eventually we got to the stores said to house the wénfángsìbǎo (four treasures of ancient study), the “treasures” being máobǐ (pen), xuān zhǐ (paper), mò (ink), yàn (ink palate/stone). There were also lots of stores that sold Chinese instruments like the piba.

While walking along a whole street of the old stores, we bumped into an artists lounge where people were painting, writing, and drawing on the spot. The back streets were busy with people doing chores, selling goods, eating, and cooking. It was almost like going back in time surrounded by all the old houses – even the bathrooms were ancient; they were merely holes in a tiled floor. There aren’t any private stalls – just concrete divisions about three feet high between holes and no doors.

We couldn’t find the big street that my mom had gone to a couple years ago with my aunt. There was supposed to be a whole other street with an expensive tea house at the intersection.  We ended up asking a local in a backstreet, who told us to keep walking until we hit a tiānqiáo (“sky bridge,” overhead pass). Soon enough, we hit the bridge and found the wide street we were looking for. The store along this street were even greater than the ones we saw before. Sometimes, there was just a person with a stall selling things right outside their houses. There were lots of little hútòng (alleyways), which led to small shops that sold brushes, paintings, books, and occasionally, shadow puppets. The bigger stores wold stone seals that could be carved on the spot. I have one already from the last time I visited. Names in China are traditionally created from the family name and another character predetermined on the fathers side, plus the given name, e.g. Hú (my father’s last name), Xiào (predetermined name for this generation of my father’s family), Lín (given name agreed upon by my parents). I’m more commonly called by the name my mom gave me, Hù Kǎi Tíng (胡凯婷), which matches my English name. When I found out my traditional name from my dad, I decided to create an artistic pseudonym from it by assigning meaning and aesthetics behind each character. 胡孝琳 versus 胡潇嶙.

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Anyways, we walked to the end of Liulichang Dong Jie and back to the teahouse, where we ordered a whole pot of Mòllihuā chá (Jasmine Tea) for 80 RMB. We also got some zǎoníbǐng (date paste pastry). The teahouse also sold tea sets and had a small pool with goldfish by the entrance.  Proper tea-drinking etiquette states that once the hot water is poured into the teapot, it must be emptied quickly into a separate container for pouring to keep the tea leaves fresh and prevent the tea from becoming too strong. The tea was very good and that one pot lasted us at least 20 cups worth. When we finished the zaonibing, we ate some shānzhāpiān, which is a type of flat fruit cracker that my mom brought from Laolao’s (Grandma) place at the suggestion of my aunt. We spent the time chatting and figuring out the best way to 大栅栏 (Dashilar/Dashanlan) using an old detailed map of Beijing.

We walked along Liulichang Dongjie to 杨梅竹斜街 (yángméizhú xiéjiē)  to a really small alleyway to 大栅栏. We ate some liangmian (cold sesame noodles) and chaobing (stir-fried flat bread) for a total of 18 RMB. We thought it was a good price, but later found out that we probably could’ve gotten the same thing for 8 RMB in a non-tourist district.

After lunch, we browsed the major stores along 大栅栏 including a famous cloth shoe store and silk merchant. We also noticed a billboard advertising a trip to the Simatai part of the Great Wall, but a lot of these arranged trips are frauds so we moved on. I’ll have to do more research and come back to hike from Gubeikou to Simatai some other time.

At the end of 大栅栏 was the intersection between Qianmendajie and 鲜鱼口 (xiānyúkǒu, “fresh fish mouth”). After looking at a hat store on the corner, we walked along Qianmendajie to the only stone city gate left standing (the other ones were torn down for industrial/commercial purposes). We saw stores like Sephora, Starbucks, and UNIQLO. After taking some pictures at Qianmen (literally “front door”), we wearily wandered back to 鲜鱼口, occasionally stepping inside a store with particularly strong air conditioning (in Chinese: guòlěnghé).

Around 4pm we decided to in Beijing Duck at the famous Quánjùdé Duck House founded in 1864. One duck cost 288 RMB! It was really tasty though – very high quality – plus the dining experience made it worth it. Afterwards, we explored 鲜鱼口 a bit before taking Bus #23 to Ciqikou to Line 5, Line 2, then finally Line 13 to Liufang. We decided to go back to 鲜鱼口 another day to eat at a small restaurant we saw that sells youmian (a type of noodle my mom used to eat when she was growing up in Inner Mongolia).

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We got home around 8:20pm, exhausted from the day’s travels, and went to bed around 10pm.

~ end of entry, 6:08pm, June 9th, Laolao’s room

Tuesday, June 5th, Mom and I woke up early to bike to zaoshir to get groceries. I took some pictures of the market activities, while helping my mom locate the vegetables we needed for the day. On our way back, we picked up some shaobing and ludan for breakfast.

Didn’t do much today – just stayed home and wrote in my journal, updated the blog, and observed my grandma’s daily routine.

~ end of entry, 8:38pm, June 9th, Laolao’s room