Journal of a Sabbatical

China Trip 2000

no water

Quote of the Day: "Everything will be all right tomorrow." -- a grad student translating for the guest house manager

Today's Reading: The Story of the Stone (a.k.a. Dream of the Red Chamber) by Cao Xuequin

Photos:

Pinus bungeana behind the restaurant

Incense Burner Peak - visible for once!

Beijing Street Food Vendors

Carol eating kidney on a stick in Wangfujing Street

More Beijing Street Food Vendors

The white bark pine I've been admiring since I've been here is called Pinus bungeana. I never heard of it before. I didn't see a specimen of it in the Type collection I've been photographing. I finally found one tree in the botanical garden that had a label on it. Beautiful tree! I've been in love with it since I saw it in the Emperor's garden at the Forbidden City. I took a photo of the one right behind the restaurant. It's such a perfect example.

More flowers appear daily for the holiday. People have already thrown trash into some of the displays however.

The curly haired conifer guy, Aljos, reclassified three of the specimens I already photographed today. The specimen labeled Sabina vulgaris erectopatens is really Juniperus convallium. Juniperus zaidanensis is really Juniperus przewalski. Not that I would have known that.

Carol and I got cucumbers with garlic and hot peppers today for lunch. I loved the cool feel of the cucumber crunching in my mouth. Delicious. Got some noodle soup too. It was even the kind I wanted: greens and tomatoes in a clear broth. I had it the first week I was here. We still haven't scored the potato and green chili thing we saw people eating in the alternative restaurant.

Apparently the problem with István's laptop is the AC adapter. Of course, since his computer is obsolete nobody can find one that fits. I hate computers.

When we went to the Olympic Hotel yesterday to book the Tibet trip we saw some French fries on a table in the restaurant and immediately sat down and ordered three plates of them - with ketchup. Also noticed the menu featured iced coffee. Ice coffee!!!!! Woohoo! Had to have that too.

The washing machine got stuck on the rinse cycle yesterday when my laundry was in there. It rinsed for an hour but when somebody finally got it to move to a spin cycle and I unloaded the laundry my jeans and one shirt were covered with detergent. My underwear and socks didn't get really clean either. I hung everything up to dry but it wasn't totally dry by the time we got back from the Olympic Hotel. Today the washer and that restroom next to it have no water.

[9/30/2000 - the next day]

The whole neighborhood had no water. None at the guesthouse, none at the herbarium, none at any of the restaurants in town. Pretty dismal. I went to the front desk to talk to the guy who runs the place. He ran upstairs to get a grad student (ecology) who speaks English to explain to me that it's not just us it's the whole area. A pipe broke. They're working on it. And he tells me "Everything will be all right tomorrow."

Big red buckets of hot water were delivered to our rooms. Just as I was discovering this and undressing to wash Carol came by to tell me the red bucket water is hot. We rejoiced. I never enjoyed a sponge bath from a bucket so much in my life.

Oh and we finally scored that potato and green chili dish at the alternative restaurant. The green chilies were great but the potatoes weren't really cooked enough. Now that I've tasted it, this dish has potential. It's one of those local specialties I could probably figure out how to make at home.

This morning our usual restaurant was still without water, but we had water at home and at the herbarium. Carol and I went to the local bakery for breakfast and sampled those hard fried cruller type things that are a Beijing regional specialty. The bakery had no tea - no tea! I think this means they too had no water. The rice gruel looked unappetizing and the hot soy milk everybody drinks here in the morning tastes terrible.

On the good news front, we finally got a replacement AC adapter for István's laptop. Carol has gone to fetch it now while I put the stuff we're not taking to Tibet in the storage room next to Qin's office. I finished making my CD of the type collection about 10 minutes ago. Talk about coming right down to the wire. We are going to Tibet tomorrow morning for 9 days. The herbarium is closing today at noon for the national holiday tomorrow and will be closed for three days so this seemed like a good time to go traveling now that we finally got the permits for Tibet.

I can't wait to find out if any of the restaurants have water and are serving lunch. Else it's gonna be dry hard crullers with no tea for lunch too.

Rosalie has fled to a luxury hotel in the city. Carol and I plan to go visit her this evening to admire the lights for National Day then come back to our little hovels, which at least have some water now...

Oh, and the sun is out and the air dry and cool for the first time in a week. I can actually see the building on top of Incense Burner Peak as well as the cell phone towers on the Xiangshan mountains.

When we get back here after our vacation, I only have two more days to get some work done before I leave for home. Who knew a month would not be enough time? 

By the time Carol got back from fetching the repaired AC adapter and we left to meet Rosalie at the The Palace Hotel for our night of shopping and checking out the lights, it was after 4:00 PM and we ran into a little traffic. But we got there.

Beijing at night on the eve of National Day is a madhouse. Vendors selling Chinese flags are all over the place. Food stalls with every kind of snack you can imagine and a few you couldn't possibly imagine line the street and people are packed in so densely around them it's a challenge to see what they're selling. Meats cooked to order, vegetables on skewers, squid on a stick, deep fried fat on a stick, donut-like pastries including those Beijing crullers. I saw people eating fried lotus root on a stick but never found a stall selling it. I think it was impossible to check out every food stall. One had pancakes that they spread with bean paste and wrapped meat and/or veggies in. Another had something that looked like chocolate pudding. I got corn on the cob on a stick - roasted over a brazier - delicious - and a cruller. That kept me filled up until dinner.

Beijing's is famous for its street food so it's not surprising they would celebrate National Day with booth after booth of street food. What was surprising was that they keep the retail stores open until the wee hours and everyone goes shopping. Power snacking and power shopping. What a combination. We browsed in a huge foreign language bookstore full of everything from gorgeous art books to the latest in western management theory. The edition of The Dream of the Red Chamber they had there was divided into three volumes instead of five like the Penguin edition so I wasn't sure which volume I need in order to pick up the story where the second volume of the Penguin edition ends. Since I'm not that close to done yet, I guess I can wait 'til I find the right edition for the next installment.

The holiday lights and flower displays truly were impressive. My favorite light thing is these poles with a spray of fiber optics coming out of the top. They look like alien communication antennae during the day but when they're lit up at night they look like fireworks. Different parts light up in sequence exactly like fireworks exploding. I'd love to import those to the USA for 4th of July.