Summer Palace, Peking Duck & Home sickness

Today when we woke up in Beijing, we knew something had happened overnight, having been woken up twice by thunder. I wasn't prepared for this sight when I left the room!
I'm not sure what will happen to all these bicycles over the Beijing winter
The rain and snow definitively cleaned the air up with the air being pretty breathable today, yay!

Even with all that snow, we decided to visit the summer palace. It definitively looked more like a winter palace today!
It features beautiful buildings and a rewarding view once we climbed the main hill.
Some of the areas were closed, probably because of the weather. These boats seemed stuck in ice at the moment.
I must admit the traditional chinese style has lost a bit of its appeal after more than 4 weeks here. Still, with the snow, it gave the traditional style a renewed twist
The emperor really knew how to live in style with beautiful buildings and twisty paths everywhere
One could easily get lost with all these paths, but I can think of worse fate than being lost in such beautiful surroundings
The palace also features a man made lake with an island in the middle
Simply beautiful!

For dinner tonight, we decided to try the famous Peking Duck. After asking around at the hotel, we settled on a place nearby called Da Dong that both the concierge and travel book both spoke highly of.
We had some trouble actually getting to the place. With the snow, the Beijing taxi fleet was obviously overstretched and our hotel couldn't even reach the switch board. They suggested hailing one from the main road about a block away. When we got to the main street, we quickly realised that all the taxis were either occupied or not even interested in stopping despite our obvious call signs. Even after they would stop, once they would learn of our destination, they would say it is too close and drive away! What kind of city is this when taxis are refusing fares? With a flag fall of 10 yuan for the first 4km, you'd think they love short distances to get more money for less mileage? The restaurant being somewhat close by, we decided to walk it after too many frustration dealing with the cabs. We relied on strangers for directions every now and then (good thing we had the Chinese address on a piece of paper provided by the friendly concierge)!

When we got there, we noticed that this was quite the high class dining establishment. I loved the setup with a fish pond surrounding the 4 ovens used to cook the birds!
From our table, we could see the working chefs and guess at which bird would end up in our belly :)
Once the duck was ready, a server side chef carved it up for us
At which point our soup arrived. You gotta love the Chinese style service. Try as they might and be friendly and smiling, they should take a lesson from the French and learn to stagger the dishes into appetizers, main dishes, desserts, etc. When eating in China, they bring whatever is ready whenever it is ready. Sometimes the soup comes last. Sometimes the sweet tarts are the first thing brought to the table. They have no sense of timing for food. The sweet and sour soup was delicious even if ill timed.
There is surprinsingly little meat in a Peking duck. I was under the impression that ducks were birds bigger than chicken and that one ought to feed a family of four comfortably. All we got once our table side carver was finished were two small plates likes the one in the picture
The proper way to eat a Peking duck according to the waitress and what everyone around us was doing is to make little sandwiches with the pancakes (think shawarma or fajita) and add the condiments that you like from a provided selection of cucumbers, onions, thick soy sauce, garlic paste, etc
This seemed completely wrong to me. The duck was absolutely delicious. The crisp skin was tasty and melted in your mouth. The little meat we were given was moist and absolutely deliciously flavored. To mix it in with the pancakes and condiments that way would deny our taste buds of the various levels of flavors from the duck and drown it amongst too many tastes. Not to say that the exquisite texture would be completely lost. I had mine as is, eating the pancakes and condiments on their own as well.

Once we were done with the main dish, I kept thinking where's the rest of my duck? Alex explained that this was most probably it, but there may be hope in that the Hong Kong style 3 piece meal includes a duck stir fry at the end with the left overs from the carving. We were not so lucky and I quickly realised this was it when we received this beautiful and smoking fruit platter
My Peking Duck experience was almost a total disaster. I had heard great things about the bird and the way it is prepared, but did not expect such a tease of a meal, especially at such a relatively high price tag for China. Maybe I need a whole bird to myself next time or find somewhere that does Peking Turkeys.

What I did have was delicious but not filling at all and I went to KFC after to fill up the hole left in my stomach.

With only one full day left in Beijing, I'm wondering where all my home sickness is... There are a lot of things I miss about home (family, friends, clean water and air, salads and the pets for starters) and there are some things I can't wait to be without (playing charades with everyone, cutting in line, spitting in the street, YUCK!). Yet, I am not feeling an overruling desire to be home. I think having this blog and receiving your comments (THANK YOU!) has helped feel connected. Plus the phone calls at odd hours to my family on a semi-regular basis (sorry!) has helped me stay current on local news. While I do not miss TV, I know my PVR will have a pile of programs for me to work through.

Going back to a routine will be difficult but also welcomed. I can't wait to be able to chit chat with the girl on the bus and understand what the intercoms are saying at shopping centers. It's funny that sometimes the little things makes the biggest difference.