Beijing, day 1

Beijing, day 1.

Found a green miniature pig as soon as I arrived in the Detroit airport on the way to Beijing. It is a lucky charm.

We were freaking out in USA about China, we bought 10 masks, I was seeing myself struggling in the midst of an overcrowded Blade Runner Beijing nightmare…

And then, Universe gave us an ironic wink, it has been so far the complete opposite:

A ghost airport received us, no one but our flight crew and passengers were walking the long and impeccable halls of the modern building.

The immigration officer was the only remnant of the Blade Runner dream, however, his robotic movements were betrayed by a small device with 4 buttons of small funny faces inviting you to press them to rate his service… I pressed “highly satisfied”, of course. They granted me a one year visa, I like that.

Then, a door to a world of sweet cute girl faces opened up and it hasn’t stopped amazing us. They smile at us, move gentle and speak soft. If I close my eyes, I can see them moving around like floating snow flakes, pointing me to have a seat and enjoy.

At the hotel, Crowne Plaza, the young concierge explained our questions by touching the flat screen of his computer, his clear english flowed around his fingers, zooming in and out maps of the city…

So, we decided to defeat the brutal jetlag and got ready to explore the city.

The “Hutongs”, neighborhoods whose alleys boil with small shops and busy life are very attractive to us. We took a cab and communicated in pure mimic language to the driver who dropped us off at one of the touristic hutongs of the city.

And here we were, walking around among many asian human fellows… I guess we were in their version of Miami’s Ocean Drive or Lincoln Road hutong, but, anyway we take it as it is, tourists, some days you are trapped in it and some other times you are not. It is ok.

We strolled on a narrow street with soft light, bordering a quiet and dark body of water… perhaps a lake? All around we see those Chinese elaborated houses from the books, and now from the real scene, illuminated by vines of light growing like groomed hair.

Cozy windows called our attention. We went inside and were greeted in English by a Chinese doll woman. Two girls came to our table and served us, sometimes they looked like kittens, resting on each other’s shoulders while teaching us some words like “jao-pan” very good…

Food tasted delicious and it was served with love. We were able to find dishes through the photo menu, a food hero in the land of sign language.

Wild mushrooms, spicy noodles, fried rice with some unique nut on top, steamy images of us around the table, unknown aromas and the mystery of the night: a yellow hard bud…of a flower? We surrendered to the unknown.

Walking on the alleys of that hutong was probably the highlight of the day, all kind of rare-to-our-eyes situations popped up in front of us: images of a communist Obama wearing a similar outfit to The Big Dude around here, fried seahorses, scorpions, gigantic cotton candies, dogs disguised in winter outfits, suddenly rude smelly corners and a strip of live guitar bars with talented performers singing in Chinese…

and above all, a state of happiness leaping around people…