第六个周末: Weekend #6

This past weekend I had a chance to dabble in all sorts of things. Although I feel like I've done quite a bit (in terms of not being cooped up in Xinsong Gongyu), I'm definitely cramming as much as I can into remaining time that I have.

On Friday (7/29/11), I went with the rest of PiB to watch some pretty awesome acrobatics. Of all the acts, perhaps the most exciting were the ten acrobats piled on top of each other riding a single bike. It's interesting to note, however, that just like the Kungfu theater PiB went to see weeks ago, the acrobatic theater also had marquees with Chinese and English, examples of not only Chinese business accommodating Western foreigners, but also how translations often cannot fully embody the meaning of the original text. Particularly because Chinese is very pithy, the English translations of the acrobatic acts often seemed very crude. However, with regards to the show itself, it was definitely fun to watch, and I'm certainly glad that I went.

The next Saturday morning, I and a few other PiB'ers met up with a Chinese student (whom we met through the Yale-PKU Friends Connection Mixer) to go visit the Capital Museum.

       

Not only was the building amazing, the exhibits themselves were also pretty cool. The museum covered Beijing's history (up until 1949), and also had huge collections of porcelain as well as other objects. Particularly because everything in the museum was primarily explained in Chinese, I found it really helpful that we had someone to talk to and ask questions.

After lunch, we headed over to Jingshan Park (景山公园), which is right next to the Forbidden City. Although it was quite unfortunate that it had rained really hard the day before, that also meant that on Saturday, the sky was very clear, and from the hill within the park, we were able to see this . . .

In the evening, we went to Nanluoguxiang (南锣鼓巷), essentially a commercialized hutong. The road is filled with small shops, bars, and restaurants，and for dinner, we actually had hamburgers. The area is an interesting mix of East and West; there were even churro stands along the street. (Although, rumor has it that churros were created as a misunderstanding of making youtiao (油条).) Anyways, although this doesn't relate to hamburgers, churros, or cultural exchange, below is a video of one of the street vendors making sugar-blown animals.

Finally, this past Sunday I also went with another friend to check out the Silk Market, filled with plenty of tourists ready to try their hand at bargaining. It was quite an experience, watching other people attempting to haggle for fake Coach and Prada purses. As a huayi, I certainly appreciated the the change in shopkeeper tactics. I was pretty satisfied and left Silk Market with a qipao, a stone seal (for calligraphy), and a couple of hair clips.

Overall, a really good weekend (although I can't believe I only have one more left in Beijing)!

-艾琳