Day 11 — First real day in Beijing
We started the day off right with a big bowl of beef noodle soup. A classic chinese dish that honestly works for any meal. The noodles and beef are very hearty.
Also got some of this. I honestly don’t even know how to translate it besides saying it’s a fried chinese like crepe with a thin layer of meat and scallions on the inside. Very oily. Very tasty.
We first hit up the Forbidden City, which is an ancient part of the city that old royalty use to live in. Very extravagant. Here’s a picture of Mao Ze Dong to remind us who the ruler was.
Super crowded.
Vast squares with beautiful buildings in an open air “city”.
Probably a throne where an emperor or an administrator would sit and yell at people/servants.
Dragon? Dog? Lion?
After, we went to the Silk Street market where we could try our hand at haggling for “questionably legit” products. We ended up paying about $30 USD each for some Nike Lunarglides and Adidas Ultraboosts. Probably could’ve haggled more but I think we got a fair price.
Also picked up some cool souvenirs, like scroll paintings. A great place to go but they price gouge the hell out of you. Be ready to bargain to about 15–20% of what they originally quote you at. Even better if you know Chinese. They say 300 RMB? Start haggling at 30 RMB and be happy if you settle around 40–60 RMB.
A few tips for haggling: it takes time and effort. If you don’t want to spend the effort shopping around at other stalls, just pay the price. There will almost always be another stall selling the same thing you want. Try and compare haggling prices between stalls to find the “equilibrium” price. Be willing to walk away. If you walk away, they WILL drop the price. By a lot.
In the evening, we took a nice walk around the temple of heaven area. Really beautiful and peaceful. Lots of trees. Reminds me of a more cultural and ancient Central Park, NYC.
For dinner, we balled all out. We went to a fancy Beijing Duck place. Beijing is specifically known for their roast duck and I highly suggest you try it!
Our meal ended up being $220 USD (split between 6 people) but you can definitely find less expensive. We just felt like balling out.
They cut (more like shave) the duck meat off right in front of you. They only pick the juicy/fatty parts and skin.
We eventually ended up with a couple plates of this beautiful meat.
To eat it, you wrap it either in a bun or a chinese style crepe, put veggies and hoisin sauce on it and enjoy!
A few of the other dishes we got: fried mushroom stuffed tomatoes (these were amazingly good), asparagus, classic fried meatballs, sweet glazed pork ribs (I suggest not getting), and sweet and spicy shrimp. But the real show was most definitely the duck.
Look at this tasty wrap!!
Came with some complimentary lychees on ice. 👌
And finally, us with our roast duck cutting expert. He did a superb job!
