China Days 5 & 6

Our last full day in China was a bit more relaxed. We got back on the overnight train and were picked up by the tour guide and driver and driven back to our hotel. We ate breakfast, checked in, showered, and collapsed. The overnight train is a great way to get to a location while getting a night's sleep, but we also felt like we'd been on the move for 3 days straight. William and I needed a break from the travel and Caroline wanted to try her hand in the markets. So, there isn't much to report for most of the day. For dinner, though, we had one check-mark left on Caroline's list. Peking Duck! Caroline had the name and address of the best Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing and it happened to be a mere block away.

There are some nice blocks in the neighborhood. This French styled hotel was an eye catching landmark that we used to know that we were getting close to our hotel in a taxi.

The restaurant was just across the street in this mall. I was feeling a bit underdressed as we walked past the GUCCI store...

It is a very nice restaurant with quite a bit of style. The duck kitchen is in the middle of the restaurant in the middle of a goldfish filled moat. As we waited for our number to be called, we watched them cook ducks in the wood fired ovens. They'd pull them out with a long hook and then several of them would look it over and tap on it to see if it was the perfect golden crispiness before being taken away by certified duck chefs to be artfully carved up at your table.

Not knowing much about Peking Duck, I was kind of worried that I'd have a fully intact, but cooked, duck on my plate that I'd need to figure out how to eat (do I eat this part?!) But they carve off the really tasty portions and take the rest away. You get two of these plates full of duck meat with the crispy gold skin. The waitress took pity on us and gave us a lesson on how to eat it. First off was taking a strip of the duck skin carved from the back (that you see laying on top) dipped it in sugar and placed it on our plates. We used our chop sticks to stick them in our mouths and quickly understood the draw of Peking Duck. Sandy, you would love this. It is the developed and perfected end game version of snacking on the fried chicken skin stuck to the bottom of the pan! Mmmmm!

Most of the rest you place on thin unleavened bread they provide...

Add a few condiments they provide, wrap it up in an open faced burrito, and eat. It was VERY GOOD. A nice ending to our China vacation.

The next morning we had some adventures getting to our flight. They had recommended getting to the airport three hours ahead of our flight. I set the alarm on my iPod for 4:30 to facilitate that and then woke up at 6:03 to find that I never un-muted the external speaker on my iPod. Poor start! We scrambled to shower, dress, pack and head to the airport in a cab. As we are getting into the cab, the door man and the taxi driver are asking us which terminal we're going to. Our paperwork didn't say and they couldn't find Northwest on the list, so we agreed that we'd go to one and look and if it wasn't that one, we'd go to the next. The cab took a little extra time since he was avoiding tolls and when he pulled up to the first terminal, he was already closing out the ride and printing the receipt. We were on our own!

It was a beautiful airport terminal. But, of course, it was the wrong one. So...

We caught the shuttle bus that took an honest 20 minutes to get to the correct terminal. I almost think we drove to a completely different airport! We got to the terminal and through the check-point, check-in, immigration, and all they way to our gate with 10 minutes to spare before boarding. Whew!

Some of William's video showing the Peking Duck restaurant