Beijing Day 2

We were able to find new accommodations this morning after some
internet searching and a few phone calls. We ended up eating
breakfast at the hotel, which had a very large buffet of Western and
Chinese food. Our favorite were some (vegetarian!) egg rolls that we
found. We then checked out and left to explore the city. We wondered
down Wangfujing Dajie, which has a lot of shopping, in search of a
guidebook or map. We found the map at the HUGE Chinese bookstore and
a Michelin guidebook in the foreign language bookstore aways up the
street. And while you can buy an English Lonely Planet to any other
destination, there are none for China...

Just off Wangfujing Dajie is a market of street food called
Demonstration for Food Safety Market, where there were a lot of
offerrings, there was not much that looked appetizing--scorpions still
squirming waiting to be fried, fried starfish and seahorses, just to
name a few. We weren't quite up to the food adventure and settled on
some roasted corn, which tasted like wet popcorn. So, we were
disappointed. I'm sure if we had been more adventurous we would have
been rewarded.

Armed with our guidebook we attempted to set off for a restaurant it
recommended that appeared to be nearby. We spent probably a half an
hour trying to guess which side street to wander down. I sort of
wonder if we are doing something wrong, because if places are really
as hard to find as they appear to be, one would think the guidebooks
would have more detailed directions. We eventually gave up, but were
definitely rewarded on our little excursion into a residential area
next to the huge shopping street, which was a big contrast.

So far the most shocking thing about being here is how unique we
appear to be. And we certainly didn't see a lot of caucasians around
(or maybe its just that there are so many Chinese that we are vastly
out-numbered). We definitely get stares on the street and in the
subway. A couple people have tried out their English with us, which
is fun. A close competitor though, as far as shock goes is the
pollution. It's like nothing I've ever seen and just so sad--we have
no idea whether the sun ever came out today or not!

Our new place is a "Culture House" which is a mix between a hostel and
a small hotel in a traditional courtyard setting off a hutong (alley).
It's off a hip street with another hostel, shopping, bars, and
restaurants and we've definitely seen more tourists in this area.
Again, it took us a lot longer than expected to find our hotel. We
might have figured it out before we wandered WAY past it on the hip
little street if we had realized that hutongs (and maybe streets in
general) do not have the same name on both sides and that, apparently,
hutongs do not go straight, but wind around and without clear street
signs (ones we can read anyways) you have no idea if you're on the
same street or wandered onto a new one altogether. But we are settled
for now and about to head out to find some food and probably a beer.

Tomorrow we hope to tackle some of the sights around here. For now, I
hope that the pictures I've attached post so you can check us out
wandering around Wangfujing Dajie.