I ate Peking Duck!

Our three-day whirlwind tour of Beijing (brought to you by the BOCOG) began this morning at the painfully early hour of 8:25am. On the agenda? Beijing's new water/sewage treatment plant, a visit to a "rural" Chinese village, and an evening cap of the famous Peking Duck. It's not exactly what I would have planned for a vacation, but I'm always up for an interesting adventure!

I'm not sure why, exactly, but all of our English-speaking guides and aides give themselves English names for the duration of our trips. The few CUC students that gave us our campus tour did the same exact thing. I hadn't picked up on it until one of the girls introduced herself as, "Cindy." The next girl in line introduced herself to me, "Hi, my name is Cindy!" Wait just a second here. "I thought her name was Cindy?" I replied to both girls. They looked at each other bewildered. "I am Cindy, you not Cindy!" one chirped. Right then and there I realized they had bypassed their given Chinese names to adopt those of popular Western icons. "Leo," "Cindy," and "Harry Potter" have all graced my presence thus far. Today's guide was Henry, and a cheeky fellow he was.

The sewage facility, as the pictures will tell, was pretty gross. Then again, it was a sewage facility. I learned that no chemicals are used in the purification process, only microbes. The other thing Henry mentioned, which I felt was too interesting to resist comment, was that, "The water is cleaned here and feeds to river for all sightseers to see." In one statement Henry enlightened us into the method behind the madness. This is a show. Beijing is on display, and the world is watching.

It's not something I didn't already know, of course. I just hadn't actually seen it come to life quite yet. Or had I? Henry's words sparked flashbacks and pictures in my head. The subway that I raved about came to mind. No wonder there were videos in each shiny, clean, AC controlled car telling people in Chinese how to use the system! Christina even showed one Chinese man how to use the card validation machines in the upper terminal. This is all new. The subway, the water system, the landscaping, and the recycling bins that overflow with the same garbage in both the green and red sides are all brand-spanking new!

The rest of the day was filled with this idea in mind. The rural village we visited was nearly 50km outside the city limits of Beijing. It was here that I saw the sun in the sky through the smog for the first time since I've been here (see photo album). Xiang Tang Cun was called, in English, "the Most Beautiful Village in Beijing." It is a stop on the Olympics City Tour for all the world to witness. It was Chinese suburbia complete with a beautiful (but not all that old) Buddhist Temple, an old folks home where one resident described that he was, "Living in paradise," a center for Tai Chi and other martial arts, a calligraphy center, and an 18-hole golf course that hosted the Asian Games several years back. The project has been subsidized by the government and has prospered by the booming greatness of the Olympic Games. The village was a presentation, a take-home message.

I dreaded the Peking Duck experience all day long. We were told the meal consisted of three courses. First, the duck's skin was peeled off and eaten between bread pieces. Then, the duck meat was removed and served warm with soy sauce. Lastly, the duck's bones would be ground and made into a soup that would be enjoyed as a dessert. The meal would have sides, but all things would include parts of the duck. Nothing is put to waste. I was not liking the sound of things from the very beginning! I have been pretty picky about food so far, but you can't argue with more than 200 years of history. I knew I was going to have to suck it up and get it done.

To my surprise, duck is pretty darn good! It tastes very similar to roasted turkey on Thanksgiving Day. The meat is a little darker and dryer than chicken, but still quite tender. Even though my mental block had me on high-alert, I think this meal was the best so far. For some reason I couldn't get past the prospect of consuming duck, but when it all boils down to it, at least I knew what I was eating!

Off to bed, it's late here in the East :)

XOXO

From the Buddhist Temple in Xiang Tang Cun, a mountainous village outside Beijing