Peking Ducks & The Temple of Heaven!

Do we look like we are starving?

The one thing I can say about this trip to China is that the food was wonderful, plentiful and we were never hungry!

Before going, one of the many things I heard and heard again was that “Chinese food there is different than Chinese food here.”  But the kinds of things that I like meant that it wasn’t that different for me.  It was better!

Here in America the Chinese food most popular to folks seems to be of the breaded and deep fried and coated with sweet and sour sauce category.  Not my favorite here, and definitely not something I saw there.

Loads of vegetables of every variety, noodles, fish, chicken, pork, lamb, beef and seaweed –and don’t forget the rice!  The meals were utterly delicious.

The one thing we didn’t see a lot of were desserts.  Fresh fruit was often an option after a meal, and heavy desserts weren’t needed as bellies were full.  I don’t do a lot of sweets or desserts here at home either, nor do I eat them when going out, so it made no difference to me.

Such a fun group!

A Chinese delicacy – Peking Duck!

Peking Duck was very tasty, served on some Chinese pancakes with hoisin sauce, sliced cucumber and eaten much like moo shu pork (which is my absolute favorite Chinese dish!) and was very good.  The only problem?  There were 17 courses served this meal (SEVENTEEN! NO LIE!) and the main event, the Peking Duck came nearly LAST.  Next time, let’s do it with course #3 when there is still room for it in my belly.

The buildings around Beijing!

I have never seen so many tall buildings in my life.  They seemed to sprout up in clusters, many stories high.  As far as the eye could see there were clusters of tall buildings, like a scene from some sci-fi movie. we’ve talked about the air quality just a bit.  I shared this clip on Instagram from our drive to the Pearl Market:

A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Oct 22, 2017 at 2:17pm PDT

One of the difficult things for me was not being able to read a single sign in front of a shop, or a restaurant, or public building.  Chinese characters are so foreign to me that I can’t even make out the slightest thing!  We learned to know what things were by logos.  Things like Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut or Mc Donald's were easy to spot due to their logos.  And Starbucks! (Yes, Starbucks!) 

I also learned the symbols for EXIT  出口 and ENTER 入口. Also important to know: 厕所 TOILET! LOL!  But don’t even ask me to try to write that one.  

After feeling overwhelmed and completely underwater with symbols and a very difficult language, I will never ever think twice about someone’s broken English.  They are doing far better with their English than I ever could with a foreign language.

Sometimes the signs did have an English translation that gave us a chuckle:

Homely Dishes? Or Home-Style Dishes?  It’s all how you look at it!

(Please note – the blue sky!)

The Temple of Heaven.

The temple complex was constructed from 1406 to 1420 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor, who was also responsible for the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing. There is a whole lot of background information that was lost to me because I really didn’t know or understand the history, but standing here – I was just amazed.  After all of the days of smog and bad air quality, here we were in front of this beautiful amazing place and the sky was as blue as I had ever seen it.

It was as if the weather gods were smiling just for us.

Incredible building detail!

I posted a few photos by email while in China, but wasn’t really able to share everything.  I also wish I had taken more photos of the temple grounds as that is where the elder folk gather for their daily rituals of conversation, card games, mah jong and even crochet!

Woman sharing with us her beautiful handiwork!

Gentlemen at board games.

Cut throat card games!

Seniors get a free pass on all public transportation and they spend their days enjoying the outdoors, and each other’s company as it should be.  I just loved this insight into the Chinese culture.

You’ll find the rest of our excursion in the slide show below.  If all you see is a black box you are likely on Explorer.  Try a different browser.  I use Google Chrome.  You can also view the video on my YouTube channel.

I'm really enjoying going back through these photos.

For more information on the history of the Temple of Heaven, I also found a 30 minute documentary on YouTube HERE.

Nope, I won’t soon forget this!

In other news.  Rulers came, and rulers went!  They arrived as I was heading out for a massage.  I put them in the store, and when I came back they were all sold out to the tune of 232 orders in my inbox in just over an hour.  So I am out again!  But more were shipped yesterday and will be here in a few days, so stay tuned on those!

Just about the time I get these orders all out the door the next batch will be here.

And in the rest of the things going on – still playing the waiting game. 

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

I love the tongue in cheek, but this is so true!

Don't let someone else's annoying rub off on you!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!