Beijing is Pissing Me Off: Two Complaints
This past week Beijing is really making me mad, so beware: what follows will not be pretty. On the other hand, the following complaints do not reflect an overall lack of love. It is simply that two things have really been pissing me off lately.
First: the weather. For the past week the weather here in Beijing has been horrible. I've never seen so much rain before. No joke, it rains hard and it rains long. I sit next to the window in my Chinese class, and yesterday morning at 8:20 - my usual time to begin zoning-out - my jaw dropped after looking to the left - outside it was darker than it would have been at 8:20pm. It was like midnight-black outside. It rained hard our entire class - 4 hours - and kept raining the rest of the day on and off.
Usually I love rain storms. Right now I'm in a cafe in WuDaoKou and the thunderstorm outside is kinda cool. On the other hand I did not bring an umbrella, as usual, which means that I'm probably stuck here for a few hours. I've already had to buy a couple of umbrellas and by God I am not buying another.
The rain is bad enough but the weather here sucks for another reason - one moment it's looking nice and the next it's storming. And that's how it was when I left my room a couple hours ago. It's been beautiful all day today - the first in a week - and then I leave for the evening and of course it storms. Damn you Beijing summer weather (don't get me started on how cold it got last December).
The second complaiint of the day is how bloody difficult it is to eat in China by yourself. Take last night. I was on my own for dinner, which meant either McDonald's or eating at a Chinese restaurant and ordering multiple plates for one person, which is such a waste.(Btw: the entire street outside is flooded, the water just about above sidewalk level. It was sunny and gorgeous only an hour ago). I also could've gone to a more respectable Western-style place than McDonald's but that would've meant payig Western prices, and China makes you super stingy.
I've been going the McD route too often of late so I tried out a Chinese restaurant down the street from my place. I ordered a chicken dish - Kung Pao Chicken actually - and my favorite vegetable dish - steamed broccoli, plus a bowl of rice and a beer. The quality was basically the norm for your average neighborhood Beijing food joint - pretty tasty but extremely oily. The meal cost me about six US dollars, which is three times the cost if I'd gone to McDs. In the end it actually wouldn't have cost much more to visit a Western restaurant. Considering the amount of food I wasted eating alone at the Chinese restaurant I probably should have gone Western (except for Pizza Hut - love the taste of it in China but it's such a rip-off that it's should have its own blog post. Let's just say you can buy 10 big bottles of beer at a corner store for the price Pizza Hut charges for a glass of water.).
(The sidewalks are now mostly underwater and cars look like they're struggling to make it down the street. Cars are now driving on the sidewalk. I think I just saw one hit a parked car. The thunder right now sounds more like the US and China are finally going at it. I'm never getting home.)
First: the weather. For the past week the weather here in Beijing has been horrible. I've never seen so much rain before. No joke, it rains hard and it rains long. I sit next to the window in my Chinese class, and yesterday morning at 8:20 - my usual time to begin zoning-out - my jaw dropped after looking to the left - outside it was darker than it would have been at 8:20pm. It was like midnight-black outside. It rained hard our entire class - 4 hours - and kept raining the rest of the day on and off.
Usually I love rain storms. Right now I'm in a cafe in WuDaoKou and the thunderstorm outside is kinda cool. On the other hand I did not bring an umbrella, as usual, which means that I'm probably stuck here for a few hours. I've already had to buy a couple of umbrellas and by God I am not buying another.
The rain is bad enough but the weather here sucks for another reason - one moment it's looking nice and the next it's storming. And that's how it was when I left my room a couple hours ago. It's been beautiful all day today - the first in a week - and then I leave for the evening and of course it storms. Damn you Beijing summer weather (don't get me started on how cold it got last December).
The second complaiint of the day is how bloody difficult it is to eat in China by yourself. Take last night. I was on my own for dinner, which meant either McDonald's or eating at a Chinese restaurant and ordering multiple plates for one person, which is such a waste.(Btw: the entire street outside is flooded, the water just about above sidewalk level. It was sunny and gorgeous only an hour ago). I also could've gone to a more respectable Western-style place than McDonald's but that would've meant payig Western prices, and China makes you super stingy.
I've been going the McD route too often of late so I tried out a Chinese restaurant down the street from my place. I ordered a chicken dish - Kung Pao Chicken actually - and my favorite vegetable dish - steamed broccoli, plus a bowl of rice and a beer. The quality was basically the norm for your average neighborhood Beijing food joint - pretty tasty but extremely oily. The meal cost me about six US dollars, which is three times the cost if I'd gone to McDs. In the end it actually wouldn't have cost much more to visit a Western restaurant. Considering the amount of food I wasted eating alone at the Chinese restaurant I probably should have gone Western (except for Pizza Hut - love the taste of it in China but it's such a rip-off that it's should have its own blog post. Let's just say you can buy 10 big bottles of beer at a corner store for the price Pizza Hut charges for a glass of water.).
(The sidewalks are now mostly underwater and cars look like they're struggling to make it down the street. Cars are now driving on the sidewalk. I think I just saw one hit a parked car. The thunder right now sounds more like the US and China are finally going at it. I'm never getting home.)
posted by Matt Powers at 8/01/2006 06:26:00 PM
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