15 April 2018
Walking too far eating too much
From Wangfujing to Xidan to eat Biang Biang noodles
Really tired now, eyes struggling to focus, tripping over imaginary stairs that dont exist, waving at confused Chinese people who I thought were saying my name.
Despite functioning on little or no sleep, I have walked over 40,000 steps today, its now almost late enough to go to bed but first I must type this and badly edit some photos
Tonight I went to Xidan, on the subway, the intention was to just go there, have dinner, come back, but instead I decided to go back on a different subway line and walk back.
I went to Xidan when I was last here in 2011, it has not changed as much as other parts of Beijing, but then it was brand new in 2011 with giant malls I could not get a seat in to eat. Tonight I got a seat, and had a great dinner of Shaanxi style Biang Biang noodles. Highly recommended.
Despite mentioning above that I was deliriously hearing voices saying hi to me, on at least 3 occasions in the back streets this evening, a random different old guy did see me and scream something out, each time I will just scream back WHAT!? in Chinese, then he will laugh, then I will use my famous angry glare, then a puppy will attack me, then I will sneeze from pollen, then a cop with an electrified bow staff might appear.
Most of what I just typed is true, especially the cops carrying the electrified bow staffs! in China you get cattle prodded now.
How many people do I know would actually fit in one of these?
I am going to have to retract what I said earlier about the dockless bike organisation problem being solved. All they have managed to do in China is take it up to the next level. In addition to blocking the footpath with millions of bikes, now they are blocking it with thousands of bike moving tricycle ute things!
A trackless tram! They have had these in China forever, and I think the concept has been around for more than 50 years.
I have seen them operating without being connected to the wires, which suggests they use the wires to recharge a battery, read on to find out how that works.
I wandered into the Yang Rou Hutong, literally - Lamb Meat Neighborhood. Their leisure centre has a pagoda. Actually all around it was some recently restored old shops and houses kind of on display, I wasnt sure if they were on display or if I was trespassing. Another tiny white dog attacked me.
There is however a free library. I read some Sun Tzu.
Here is the main bit of Xidan, shiny.
And here is one of about 20 food courts. This is a crap photo but I took it to demonstrate something I have been seeing a lot.
In places where they prepare your food out the back, they have cameras streaming to tv's where customers can see whats going on and check out how clean the kitchen is.
This is my sort of food court, well suited to the solo Nigel no friends diner. The floor below had a theme street full of little street food stalls, but all that meant was you cant sit down and you eat everything with toothpicks.
Biang Biang noodles. The production line of this place was a joy to see, at least 20 people working. All the noodles are made fresh by hand, mine are thick and long, I think it means long belt or similar. The Biang character is also the most complex Chinese character with 20 strokes, hence they put 20 random toppings on my hand cut noodles. Can you name them all? I cant but they were delicious. At least 3 mystery random meats and at least one of those was bits of sausage which probably contained a deeper level of combinations of mystery meat!
It's the famous TFBoys, what are they selling? Face whitening cream. Everybody wants to be white.
I am back at Wangfujing now, taking steady hand held night shots and boosting some shadows.
Here is the massive apple store, the place to go if you really enjoy notches and $1600 phones.
Every European tourist was having their photo taken in front of this church. By European I might mean Russian, hard to tell cause it was dark.
And of course, mass grandma dancing has broken out, the song of choice, little apple. There were probably 5 competing troupes along this part of the street. Just wait until I get to Chongqing where there were groups of a thousand! The competition between rival groups is so fierce in Chongqing that there have been suspected murders of group leaders!
And now as promised, squint at this, this is where the electric trolley buses re connect themselves to the wire after they have been operating on battery for a while. The metal plates help guide the poles back onto the wires.
BED TIME!