name it on a stick

i could very easily and quickly null and void the last food comment in the previous entry, due to an experience today. i will tell you about it shortly, but chronological tendencies take me elsewhere first.

there were certain touristy things that needed doing during our beijing time. today covered two of them, namely tienanmen square and the forbidden city. the square is largely indistinguishable (nice word to write, try it) against other squares i've seen. a large area of hard grey. perhaps if we'd been able to go into mao's mausoleum then it might've been a tad more remarkable. unfortunately as we were to find with much of The Real Chinatown, the preparation for the 2008 olympics has resulted in shutting lots of monumental buildings so they can be tarted up. shame, we could have started and ended the trip with seeing an old dead communist in a box (certainly everyone's dream holiday).

the most interesting thing about this square for me, could be the fact that most of the rest of the world hear the name "tienanmen" and - at the very least - know something bad happened involving some students and a pro-democracy demonstration and some guns. some of us might even remember hearing about it at the time, though proven evidential details are rather scarce. while the rest of the world is aware of some fishy history, ask any beijinger under 20 about it and they'll most probably look at you blankly. and not for the language barrier. it will be as though you've made up history right there in front of them. the power of propaganda and censorship, eh? the evidence of communist dictatorship? who knows, but today we walked past the heavily guarded building where they print china's history books. you might find them in the fiction section in waterstone's.

north of the square you pass through the red outer walls and into the forbidden city. i'm not sure why it qualified for that name, it was seriously easy to sneak into. all i needed was a 60¥ ticket and a confident stride. it's a breathtaking sight/site, mainly due to the amount of tourists its walls could contain without splitting (though you can't tell from our patiently waited for photos). and we're not even in the busy season yet. highlights included The West Wing, where some of the old emperors used to live, and reminder of the best american tv series ever made. we whistled the theme tune all afternoon. also a remarkable sight was the old consummation chamber, less the chamber itself and more the huge crowd of chinese tourists peering through the glass at the old royal hanky-panky bed, and ignoring the rest of that particular building.

the penultimate highlight was a spectacular pair of glasses worn by an old chinese man. i would've killed to get a photo but he disappeared into the throng too quickly. they were like two glass plates held together with a brass cupboard hinge and held onto his head with a leather belt. they ruled.

the best part of the whole city were the gardens at the northern end. very tranquil, full of colour and texture. particularly the rockery right near the north gate which was beautiful and fascinating; a barmy rock sculpture which looked like only nature in all its randomness could've created it in some freak accident, but actually is entirely man made.


and so to the food. this evening after hours of walking we headed to a night market, famous for its unusual cuisine. rumour had it that if you can think of it, you will be able to buy it there skewered on a wooden stick and fried for your culinary enjoyment. not far wrong, the rumour is.

of course, the more normal sheep, lamb, beef, octopus, squid, banana, sugar-coated tomato...
but also:
beetle, scorpion, grasshopper, testicle, bigger scorpion, snake, centipede, cock (yes that kind), some sort of large millipede, whole starfish... you get the picture.

we ate snake. like salty chewy gristle. it seemed like the lesser of many evils. a local delicacy though, five times more expensive that anything else! i couldn't finish my jellied mango and tomato, but a man listening to an ipod and fishing through bins for food hungrily took the remains off my hands. odd moment.

a group of australian kids were daring each other to eat progressively more disgusting things, starting (yes, starting) at sheep balls and culminating in regurgitating crunchy grasshoppers. most were loving it but i did overhear the following enjoyable dialog:
A BOY: you gotta do it mate, or i'll never speak to you again.
ANOTHER BOY: [nervous] but... i do bungee jumping

on the way home we got chatted up by two rather drunk chinese girls. they were lovely but i think they just wanted us to buy them more drink. always a welcome addition to an evening though.

we walked for about 10 hours today. my feet feel like vodka-melons.

a couple of briefly remembered mini adventures of the day:

• bowling at the guotin 100, a hundred lane bowling alley. only 50 were working though, the rest were being refurbished. rubbish.

i haggled a woman from ¥125 down to ¥80 for the most amusing kitsch watch of charman mao. his little hand waves as the seconds tick by. i laugh every time i look at it.