White Rice: Life of Luxury in Beijing with Mom & Dad!

Wow, so sorry it's been almost a month since I last posted! Ahhh I'm awful! Here it goes...

So my parents arrived around Thanksgiving in Beijing. After my parents late night arrival on Friday, I sped out to their hotel (the Aman, it's fabulous, if a bit quiet and far removed from Beijing) on Saturday morning, where we had a lovely breakfast of pancakes (MY FAV!). Then we relaxed for a big and planned out our 2.5 weeks together! In the afternoon, we did a freezing cold tour of the Summer Palace, which was beautiful. My parents enjoyed their first trip outside their hotel and were of course, immediately stared at by all the Chinese tourists at the Summer Palace.

The Marble Boat

Afterwards, I worked out at the amazingly nice gym there and soaked in the sauna w/ my momma. For dinner we had hot pot at the hotel. Obviously it did not compare with Haidilao, my fav, but my parents enjoyed it.

Sunday we took a tour of a rural village about 2 hours outside of Beijing. It was really amazing to see this "preserved tourist" village, and see people who were still living in it. We had lunch at the village leader's house, who spoke to us about his family's history in the village and their experiences living there. They seemed grateful to have us, as I think tourism is their main income now since all the farmland has been destroyed by over-farming. The village still has lots of communist slogans on the walls from the Cultural Revolution so I of course loved that.

Mom and I eating lunch at the Village Elder's home

Village Elder's Home

The Village, nestled in the valley of the mountains!

That afternoon, Zan came out to the Aman resort and participated in a brief dumpling making class. I now finally have a recipe for dumplings!

I know, cool hats.

That night we had a yummy French-Japanese fusion dinner, and then watched Miracle on 34th Street in the Aman movie theater, complete with popcorn! It was very cute. AND the popcorn wasn't that stupid kettle corn you get most places in China so I was very content.

Monday morning my parents and I hiked part of the Great Wall. I had only done this once, on my very first trip to China so I enjoyed doing this again. Plus we went to a different part of the wall so the scenery was different. And at the end, you get to slide down this huge slide to the bottom- so fun! My mom was terrified though...

the slide!

Then I unfortunately had to return to school. My parents moved hotels on Tuesday to the Raffles at WangFuJing so they'd be more central to the heart of Beijing. That night we went to DinTaiFeng, the best dumplings in China (in my opinion), and my parents got to meet a bunch of my friends!

Wednesday, my parents went to 798 and I did work.

Thursday afternoon my parents came to WuDaoKou and saw my horrendous apartment. They even said, "This is worse we thought!". Great. After as brief a visit at the apt as they could bear, we walked over to Tsinghua to so they could see the campus. Unfortunately we didn't have much time to explore because we were going to a lecture at the Brookings Institute at Tsinghua on US-Sino relations under Obama-Xi. It was a great lecture with two speakers, an American and a Chinese, who presented very different opinions. Afterwards, we went to dinner with some of my friends at 麻辣诱惑, a delicious Sichuan style restaurant in the neighborhood. That night I went to see Nova Heart, a great Chinese electro pop group (I think I've written about them before)- similar to Class Actress if anybody knows her. Very fun.

Friday afternoon I caught up on some work while my parents toured Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City with Zan and a tour guide. That evening, I met up with my parents for drinks with a business friend and dinner, or so I thought! Actually, they led me to a surprise party Zan and my amazing Beijing friends had organized! They rented out an adorable venue from Hias Gourmet (a great group, totally recommend them!) complete with a huge table, and a well-stocked kitchen with ovens! woah! They made fried chicken, mac & cheese (another Julia favorite), pizza, carrot cake, cookies w/ hershey kisses in the middle, cole slaw, tomato & mozzarella salad, pumpkin bread, and more! It was soooo delicious! And Jake made his special Ginger Whiskey cocktails, which were great. In keeping with my birthday traditions, the party was Christmas themed, complete with a Santa (Wayne, I love you) and a tree! And best of all, all my new amazing friends I've made this fall were there to celebrate with me. It all astonishes me how many amazing new friends I meet all over the world on my adventures- love you guys!


Besties!!!

Saturday, I went shopping at the Silk Market with my parents, and got a business suit custom made. What a disaster. You really have to bring in a style that you want. DO NOT let them propose or "design" things for you. It shouldn't be that hard, but I've been to the place 4 times now trying to get them to tailor it right, because they just ignored my warnings to them about different issues I have with buying suits. I JUST 20 minutes ago received a final delivery of the last two items that hopefully fit. I don't have a full length mirror so I have to wait until my roommate or someone comes home to take a pic of me in my clothes to see what they look like. (I know, ghetto). Anyways, we also that day saw Life of Pi. AMAZING!!!!! OMG the cinematopgraphy was soooo good. I read the book, which I enjoyed a moderate amount, but did not expect much from the movie. I was so suprised and wowed. a MUST SEE of the year for sure. That night we went to "Made In China" for Beijing Duck, which my parents loved! It was the best duck I've had in Beijing yet. Afterwards, I met up with some friends for a Paul Van Dyk concert at Tango. It was AMAZING!

Sunday, I headed back to the Silk Market with my parents and Zan to get my suit fitted (the 1st time), buy prescription glasses (my dad got some awesome ones as always!), fake handbags, etc. Very fun. Then we all went to Lost Heaven, one of my favorite restaurants in Beijing.

Monday, I caught up on HW while my parents went out with a business friend, Vivien.

Tuesday (the 4th= MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!), I met up with my parents in the afternoon for some shopping in Nanluoguxiang, a great (and most touristy) Hutong. I bought a new puffy coat to deal with this crazy freezing Beijing winter! (Seriously, my teachers even said this is uncharacteristically cold. They're wearing their "Chinese New Year" time-of-the-year clothes right now! It's often less than 20F when I bike to school, crazy!) I also got an awesome modern Chinese paper cutting landscape piece, and some great postcards. That evening we went to Haidilao for dinner with some friends. It was delicious as always. For my birthday, they carved little animals into a fruit plate and put a candle in it. They also gave me one of those scented sachés that you put into your lingerie or sock drawer to make it smell nice. Random, but I'll take it! Then Kate, Zan, and I watched the first part of Holiday Inn, and it was great.

Dinner at HaiDiLao!

Wednesday, my parents went out to a Cosmetic Brush Factory that their friend in Atlanta owns, and I caught up on hw. Thursday afternoon I took my midterm early while my parents were at day 1 of the Chinese Association of Women Entrepenuers (CAWE) Conference on Innovation and Corporate Culture. That evening I relaxed at home with Zanipoo and planned out our weekend with friends as it was Zan's last weekend! :(

Friday, I went to the CAWE Conference too, and met a lot of awesome people. And most importantly, my mommy spoke too! Her speech was really awesome and interesting, AND stayed on topic & w/n the time limits! A first at a Chinese conference! Everyone wanted to meet her afterwards and she was a total celebrity and it was great.

Then we left in the afternoon when the conference ended, and relaxed a bit at their hotel. For dinner, we went to another Beijing Duck restaurant, Duck de Chine, because my parents loved Made in China so much. However Duck de Chine was a total disappoint to me. It was a beautiful restaurant that I'm sure is lovely in the summer. It's an old-style courtyard house that's big and drafty so it was freezing when we were there. Plus the duck just wasn't as good! Afterwards I met up with some friends for Zan's last KTV of the year (she's actually coming back to Beijing next January so it's not here last time EVER in Beijing, just for now).

Saturday, My parents and I went back to the Silk Market AGAIN because my clothes weren't right. I picked up a few more things I needed there, and then we just chilled. In the evening, we went to another of my favorite restaurants in Beijing, called DaGui. It's Guizhou style food, which means they have this awesome rub/topping they put on everything that's simply delicious! My parents at first were like, "Why are we at this tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant? Is this really that special?" And of course it was and they loved it. After dinner, I met up with Zan, Annie, and Zan's friend, Chantal, for massages and a classy night out. The massages were so nice, and not even that expensive (238rmb for 60 min at a really nice place). It's called Oriental Taipan. I'd highly recommend it. After that, we went to Apothecary, some of the best (and maybe most expensive) cocktails in all of Beijing! They even had winter/Christmas drink specials that were delicious.

Sunday, Zan left to go back to the US. :(((( so sad! But I got a new roomie named John, a friend of Jon Kaiman's (a vassar friend who lives in Beijing). John is a reported for the LA Times. This was also my parents last day in Beijing, and of course we AGAIN had to go to the Silk Market to get my suit fixed. Then we got massages at the Park Hyatt Spa (Tian Spa). After that, we had a truly AMAZING dinner at The China Grill, on the 68th floor of the Park Hyatt building. We started with a fresh mozzarella & tomato salad, which was to die for. The mozzarella was sooo fresh. Then I had a steak for my entree and it was maybe the best steak I've had in a whole yr (of course, it was like 300rmb, but still...I'd pay that in the US too actually for this quality). And then we had a delicious chocolate fondant for dessert, yum!!! And to top it all, the views at this restaurant were great. And mean, Beijing doesn't have a skyline like Shanghai, but it was pretty to see the whole city at night with all the light up traffic-filled avenues, etc. Then I went back to my parents hotel and gathered up all my stuff and said goodbye. My poor mom was sad because we haven't figured out exactly when I'll see them again (could be as soon as February or as late as July). I was of course sad to see them go as well. They left Monday (the 10th).

Last week I spent basically every day working out, sleeping, and catching up on hw. I tried to go to a lecture on Women's leadership held by the Tsinghua Women's Empowerment club, but when I arrived there was barely even standing room! It also snowed last week like 3 times! It brought a nice hush over Beijing, ya know, like snow does. It was really pretty while it was snowing too.

Of course afterwards it got kinda gross. Friday I got a massage at a local place (I know, I'm really into massages right now), which was awful, not relaxing, and they talked about us the whole time! Awkward! Afterwards, I got a great manicure in the WuDaoKou basement (the fancy one with glass windows), they even did gel, all for 120rmb! I'm def going back there. That night, we went to Cafe de la Poste for dinner, and had a great time! I would not recommend the steak, however my steak tartare was delicious, as were all the drinks, and the chocolate fondant (I know, I'm really into Chocolate Fondant these days). And they gifted us a bunch of drinks so that's always fun too!

Saturday, we went to The Hutong Christmas Fayre, which was so cute! I guess this is a thing in Europe. In December, they have tons of Christmas Fayres (yes, it's really spelled like that, I'm not that dumb) where people come and drink mulled wine, and hot toddies, and hot chocolate. Lots of vendors come and sell arts and crafts, handmade items, and lots of the proceeds go to charity! so nice! I bought a tshirt from my fav beer brewery called Great Leap, and they were selling growlers of one of their seasonal beers (they constantly have new beers coming out for limited time only, it's so fun!) called Hava Nagila. Naturally I had to buy some. I also got a lotion bar, some vinegar & soy sauce, and a cupcake! That afternoon I did some yoga at home, and it was really nice. I shut all the doors in my front entry way (this is the only place big enough in my apt for mat, so sad) and turned off the lights and lit candles and it was sooo nice. Then that night, my friends had a chanukah party! They made a menorah themselves out of beer bottles and candles, very creative.