Where the locals go to eat and shop…
My roommate and I took our lunch hour and went over to a local shopping market called 金五星百貨店 (jīn wu xing bai huo dian), which translates into Gold 5 Star Hundred Products Market. This place was kind of like the place we were yesterday (Silk Street) only not as upscale…and with much better prices! We found some really good bargains! I bought some really nice calligraphy pens, and 2 sets (8 books total) of calligraphy practice books. A few other things too...and my roommate Hong bargained for me. She talked the vendor down from 202 RMB to 170 RMB! It’s one of those places you could get lost in for days. And end up spending lots of money…though you’d definitely get a lot of stuff!
Since it was lunchtime, we walked out through a Chinese food court! We ate dumplings (these were pork and a special kind of vegetable that is very much like dill) and lamb on skewers, and drank hot soymilk. It was really yummy and very reasonably priced (the dumplings were only 7 yuan or RMB per big bowl)!
Graduation!
After the end of the sessions, they had a graduation ceremony for the participants of the workshop. We all received a certificate of completion and an additional 50 RMB (which I wasn’t expecting)! We were all exchanging e-mails and contact information afterward…I know some of us felt a little wistful to leave friends that we had just met – especially because for many of us, as Chinese Language teachers, we don’t find too many others around us with whom to share ideas and experiences. That, I have to admit, was probably the most valuable thing I gained from the workshop—having the opportunity to network with so many other Chinese Language teachers from all over the world.
The Famous Tea Shop
We gathered with a few friends and went to a very famous tea house called老舍茶馆, lăo shè chá guăn, or “Old Building Tea House http://www.laosheteahouse.com/.
We ate a pretty good dinner, and got to watch a musical group made up of four young ladies, three of whom played traditional Chinese instruments (the guzheng—like a plucked dulcimer, the pipa (a little like at 2 stringed ‘cello) and the dizi (Chinese Bamboo flute). The fourth young lady played the synthesizer/ keyboards. Later on, they had a traditional shadow puppet show. Because it was performed using the traditional Chinese affected voices (that go up and down and are kind of squeaky), so none of us understood what the dialogue was about. All we could tell was it had something to do with a man and a snake and what happened three years later, three months later, and three days later. It was really cool to watch, though, just for the experience. I did record a video of it as well.
We all enjoyed some very special tea at this Tea Shop, an entire tea blossom with the flower inside, and once you add hot water to the clear glass, you can watch the blossom open up as the tea flower steeps. It is very pretty, and also very delicious tea, which is a good thing, because it cost about 40 RMB, or about $7. It’s equivalent to the price of a glass of wine.
After that, we walked along the main road until we got to a shopping area known as 前門大街qián mén dà Normal 0 0 2 false false false EN-US ZH-TW X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-font-kerning:1.0pt;} jiē, or “Front Door Big Road.” I was told that it was the main road going through Beijing that was used in the ancient days that led up to the entrance of the Forbidden City. It’s now a pedestrian mall, with lots of shopping, including a Starbucks, Hagen Dazs (which wasn’t translated into Chinese), and lots of shops. Some of the architectural style was preserved/restored from the ancient buildings, which made this a really enjoyable place to take a walk after dinner. It was a nice way to end a nice day.