Who's that?

I'm going to take a break from Beijing stories and talk about who I saw. Yesterday, I decided to act like a tourist in Toronto so I can see the city with a different perspective. I have lived here all my life (except for the time in Beijing of course) so it was quite fun to actually learn about some of the places that I would normally walk by without ever giving any thoughts of their importance. Anyways, as I was walking down Front St. near the Metro Convention Centre, I saw a small group of people standing around some cars. I was very curious as to what was going on so I took a peak and saw a few guys in black suits jumping into a set of 3 black luxury cars (just like the movies). Then everyone starts waving to the car in the middle as it began to move except I still have no idea who was in there. I'm thinking that it must be the mayor of the city since there weren't too many spectators. As the car drove by me, I decided to walk right up and take a look through the windows (hey I'm a tourist!). In the front seat, I see 2 bodyguards (secret service?) in suits. The back window was tinted so had to get even closer to take a look. To my surprise it was .... Hillary Clinton! I was shocked. I just saw the US ex-president's wife...and I walked right up to the window too so I her face was like a foot from me...and she was waving ;-) So I'm going to tell everyone now that Mrs. Clinton was waving at me.....at me!! Who da man?? Moi.

Anyways, I had no idea she was in Toronto so I decided to do a quick search in the Toronto Star newspaper. If you care what she wanted to say, here's the article: Emergency Commuincations Still Flawed.

Unfortunately, I had no pictures of Hillary (yes I'm on first name basis since she waved at me) because my camera battery died like 10 minutes before the encounter. Ah well. Maybe next time I drop by the Clinton's home, I'll get a photo with Bill and Hill.

Wang Fu Jing (王府井)

While I was in Beijing, I visited Wang Fu Jing, which is a very famous area in Beijing for shopping. It's basically a "walking street" so no cars are allowed to drive in that area (except for tourist shuttles). When I arrived there, I couldn't believe the amount of people there. I guess if you are from an Asian country, you may be used to seeing this type of population density. Coming from Toronto, however, I usually only see crowds like that during rush hour, concerts, or sporting events. I wish I was here for the May 1st Chinese holiday...I can't imagine what it would have been like then! Wang Fu Jing has many shopping malls there. All the younger teens/students seemed to be in fashion. In one of the pictures I posted, you can see a picture of a girl in some kind of "frilly" dress (I think there's a real name for this type of fashion). I've heard that this fashion is popular in Asian countries but don't quote me on that. It reminded me of the Japanese movie "Kamikaze Girls" where the lead character really liked wearing these old style dresses. I thought it was quite interesting to see someone actually wearing one out in public. Anyways, if you love shopping, this is the place to be...clothes are not cheap here but that's because all the brand name clothing are found here - no fakes. Tourists think that Chinese people go to fake clothing markets to get cheap clothes all the time but it is sooo not true. I talked to a few locals and they all say they usually don't buy clothes at those markets because they are not high quality. Sometimes it feels like those fake markets are filled with only tourists. Wang Fu Jing is also famous for the wondeful food stalls there. They have the regular snacks/dumpling stands but as you can see in some of the pictures, they also have a few exotic ones for the brave souls. I couldn't believe the size of the grasshoppers on the sticks!! It was pretty gross in my eyes since some of the insects were still moving. Once you decide you really want to try one, the vendor would cook those babies right there so it's nice and fresh in your mouth. The shocker for me was seeing the live sea horse and starfish on sticks! I mean, do people really eat those things?? I guess they must sell well or else all these vendors would go out of business. While I was there, I didn't see many people buying them though. I did catch one girl eating a starfish. I guess the truth is that you can pretty much eat anything...our minds are just trained to say what we think is ok to eat...I mean is eating shrimps, octopus, seaweed any better? I think we are all just used to it. Hmm? Maybe grasshoppers are very tasty! I will be back to Beijing in a few weeks...maybe I'll give those babies a try...or maybe not....I'll stick with duck....mmmm...duck...

Quan Ju De (全聚德) Restaurant - PEKING DUCK BABY!

For those who know me, they know I love Peking Duck! I've always been the type of guy that eats to live, not live to eat...but when I am able to get my hands on some Peking Duck....oooh my eyes light up!
So what better place to eat Peking duck then...BEIJING (Peking)! On April 14, some of my classmates and I decided to visit the most famous Duck place in Beijing - Quan Ju De (全聚德). The original restaurant was established over 140 years ago and believe now it has about 4 locations. We went to the location on Qianmen. The funny thing is, we were actually headed to another restaurant but because we couldn't find it. I mean, every person we stopped kept telling us to go to Qian Ju De. Here's how the conversation kind of went (exaggerated slightly):

US: "Can you tell us where this restaurant is?"

HELPFUL CITIZEN: "Don't know it. You should go to Quan Ju De for their duck"

US: "Oh we don't want to go there today. We have reservations at this one."

HELPFUL CITIZEN: "Hmm...sorry but you should really go to Quan Ju De"

US: "Yes, I know but not today"

HELPFUL CITIZEN: "Quan Ju De is just down the street...keep going straight about 100 metres and it will be on your left."

US: "Well I guess Quan Ju De it is"

When we walked into the place, boy were we scared! This place looked expensive...and of course it was. There were no regrets all around though..I mean, we had to know what the best duck tasted like. We decided to buy the set meal. I can't remember the exact price but I think it was around 1500 RMB. Let's just say normally, a huge meal at a cheap restaurant would cost us around 100 RMB. I can't remember how many dishes came and what all the dishes were but they were quite tasty! It was the first time I tried Duck Heart ....yumm, it was actually pretty good. My mind said no but my tongue said yes! There were other dishes such as liver (I'm still not a liver fan), and of course 2 roasted ducks...ok, we were greedy! As for the duck, to be honest, I was a tad bit dissappointed. I mean I love Peking duck no matter how crappy it tastes but considering this is supposedly the most famous place in Peking, my expectations were very high. The problem I had with the duck was that it was a bit oily/greasy. The grease kind of ruined the taste of the duck. I actually felt that I had better Peking Duck in Toronto. In fact, I think Quan Ju De is known as the best Peking duck because all the tourist books say that it is. There were lots of foreigners in the restaurant and not too many local chinese (which in my eyes, that's not usually a good sign of a good chinese restaurant - of course it is a very expensive place). Overall though, it was a good time. The rest of the food was quite delicious and once again, I got to know some of my classmates a bit better.

I read in some magazine though that although Quan Ju De is the most famous Peking Duck restaurants, there are less well-known, but tastier duck places. I will definately try some of them once I go back to Beijing in September.

BTW, the picture of the classmate eating the Peking duck was a Japanese television news reporter on TV in her local town! I MET A CELEBRITY!! ;-)

You can find some more info and reviews about Quan Ju De here:

http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/beijing/31300.htm