Feb 29th - Peking & Choosing

When you go to Beijing, you have to eat duck, or so I'm told anyway. There is one restaurant that has been serving up the Beijing Peking Duck since the 1800's and boy, do they know their stuff. Since today is our last day in Beijing, and we have a train to catch tonight, we decided to just loaf around and maybe do dinner and a movie. The dinner would be duck, no doubt about it, and don't worry about the bill.

Now I'm not prepared to write a Siskel & Ebert (RIP Siskel) review of Attonement, so I'll just tell you that it was a good story, and looked like a good representation of the WWII period. There was one shot that blew my mind. After the British soldiers fought the Germans back and France was safe, the director showed the aftermath of this huge battle on the coast. This one shot must have lasted 5 minutes, and the main thing you got from it was the emotion those soldiers must have been feeling. Some were wandering around, losing their minds, lots were drunk, and every one of them looked homesick. Without a single line spoken in that sequence, I felt all those emotions.That's good cinema. But enough about the movie - it's time to eat!

This next part is not for the squeamish - or the vegetarian. I'm taking you to the Beijing Duck Restaurant, and I hope you brought your appetite. Everything here, and I do mean everything, has duck in it. "Can I have a glass of water?" "You want duck with that?" We ordered 1/2 a roast duck with scallions and flour tortillas. Again with the Chinese burritos, the filling was 100% pure mallard. I'm such a lucky duck!

A knife-wielding masked man snuck up behind me, pushing a squeaky cart that was built for one thing - transporting the carcasses of our dearly departed ducks. He sharpened up his tools and went to work. He carved and snapped and sawed away flesh from bone - the heavenly juices dripping all over his white uniform. I think the purpose of the mask was to catch his drool. My mouth was watering like a drain spout, so I can imagine what his must be doing. He plated up our meat and then BLAM! He chopped poor Daffy's head in half, right down the middle. It made a sort of twig-snapping sound. Inside was a perfect cross-section of its brain. I felt guilty for maybe 30 seconds, until the first bite hit my mouth. Who's Daffy again? Oh right, he's dinner!

After we finished our mouth-watering mallard, I felt the urge to fly ina V-line back to our hotel and sit down for a while. We collected our bags and prepared to head for the train station to begin our journey back to Harbin. We arrived at the station early. About 2 hours early, actually. We could have walked around the city some more, but it was too risky to go anywhere too far at the last minute, in case we got stuck in traffic and missed our train. So, we sat in a coffee shop and nursed a couple of drinks for 2 hours, until train Z15 was ready to roll.

I usually can't sleep on planes, trains or buses. I don't know why, I just find it difficult. Maybe it's the constant motion, or the smell of human uncleanliness, which is very common on this train. I know I showered today, can't speak for the other people on this train. it smells a bit like the animal reserve I visited in Hainan a couple of weeks ago. So, to battle the no-sleep Blues, my wife and I stayed up and played "Rock & Roll Trivia" for a bit. After we turned out the lights, I started listening to these History lectures on tape. I stayed awake until about 4AM when the battery died on my Ipod. What a feeling that was! I finished all of my candy too, so there was nothing else to do. I buried my head in my dusty pillow and closed my eyes. No snoring bunkmate this time, and no sweltering heat. I was closest to the heat control, and I had it cranked to zero. I actually managed to doze off. What a relief!

i was blasted awake with the sun burning my eyes like a poison. You know the feeling. The sun was rising outside the window directly across from my bunk, and there was no curtain to draw closed. Might as well get up. I could tell we must be getting close to Harbin now. People were shuffling around, getting their luggage sorted out and not showering. There was some sort of distorted announcement on the P.A. and the train started to slow down. I slipped my jeans on over my shorts and stood up. Wooooaaaaahhh! Guess I don't have my sae legs, or rail legs yet. I wobbled down the hallway to the bathroom and pissed all over the floor. Some wise guy decided to take a corner at the exact moment I unleashed my overnight buildup. Conductors are all such cut-ups. They were probably watching me on some hidden toilet in the bar of soap. Thanks guys!

We pulled in at harbin Station and I quickly gathered my things and headed off the train. Holy Mackeral it was cold outside! I forgot that Harbin is about 10 degrees colder than Beijing. I started jogging towards the exit. My wife said her hands were cold so I grabbed her suitcase to speed things up. "Do you have your ticket?" she asked. My ticket? What, I have to show my ticket again? With all my lack of sleep and white man confusion, I think I crumpled up my ticket and tossed it somewhere back on the train. My wife appealed to the security guard, but he said I had to run back and retrieve it, or else buy another ticket. Shit. I bolted.

Luckily, the train was still sitting there, and the guy at the door understood that I forgot something. I knew we were in car 16, so I ran to the door with a 15/16 sign above it. Shit, is this 16 or is that? The entrance is between the two cars. Did I just pass the lower numbers or the higher ones on my sprint down the landing? I knew I was in bed #7, but there was no ticket anywhere. I looked in the garbage can, on the floor, under the bed, in the ashtray. Wait a minute... I don't smoke. There are butts in this tray. I'm in the wrong car!

i ran up to the next car, bed #7 and there was my crumpled ticket, lying on the bed. I got off the train with my recovered ticket, and about 2 seconds later, the train started rolling away. Man was I ever lucky. My wife was walking toward me with the original security guard who had stopped us at the exit. She said he decided he would let me off this time if I couldn't manage to find it. "Well," I thought. "I needed the exercise anyway." It's 20 below, my lungs are burning, my teeth feel funny, and we can finally leave the train station. What a day already! And it's only 7:30. What's next?