A Tale of Two Restaurants A person can get culture shock going back and forth between the two Beijings: the modern, Western city of skyscrapers and sleek hotels, and a second, much vaster China that is older than time. Last Friday my wife and I were invited to lunch in the coffee shop at the downtown Holiday Inn. The cleanliness and quiet was almost alarming. There were actual knives and forks on the table, rather than chops sticks and a paper napkin with which it is customary in the second China to wipe clean your plate and drinking glass. My wife ordered a Club Sandwich with fries, and I had an open face sandwich smothered with melted cheese. After months of local food, everything seemed fabulously hygienic. It was like getting in a rocket ship and going to Omaha, Nebraska. Later that night, we had a date to take one of our students to dinner at a small restaurant near our university. We had been there before, but I don't know the actual name of the place -- in fact, it could be Any Hole-In-The Wall Restaurant in Beijing, on the lower end of things economically, but not the absolute bottom. The food is excellent, amazingly varied, and dirt cheap -- which is why my wife and I keep returning. But the "atmosphere" defies easy description You must first imagine an overcrowded fish tank by the front door, future meals waiting to be cooked. Then your eye takes in the bare concrete floor, the linoleum tables that are never entirely clean, green walls with ancient stains, and the bright overhead lighting that fuses everything together into a kind of nuclear meltdown. On Friday night, the restaurant was heavy with smoke and noise. A dozen students were celebrating a birthday party around a large round table; suddenly they burst into a loud rendition of "Happy Birthday" -- in English. Four other students, boys, were getting drunk at another table, and next to them, four girls were doing the same -- getting drunk, that is, though it is extremely rare in China to see the fair sex drinking alcohol at all. In other parts of the restaurants, small groups were having intense conversations with huge amounts of food scattered about the tables, cigarettes dangling, and many open green bottles of Yanjing Beer. The noise and confusion were worse than usual tonight. The girls drinking at the next table all began sobbing at once. My wife and I became alarmed, but our Chinese friend assured us that it was quite a simple matter -- one of the girls was going away for a long time, and they were sad. Our favorite waitress came by and we ordered a feast which arrived in stages from the kitchen, each plate sizzling hot, placed in the center of the table for us all to grab at with our chopsticks. Meanwhile the drunk boys were trying to get friendly with the drunk girls. This presented some age-old problems. One of the girls told him, impolitely, to get lost. He responded by pouring a glass of beer on her head. I was about to stand up and get chivalrous, but I'm glad I didn't because the situation was complex. One of the boys told the beer-spiller that he had behaved very badly; then one of girls started chatting amicably with another of the boys. Perhaps it was the start of something big -- a future One Child Family. At our table, we had to shout to each other to be heard above the noise of all these melodramas. We had more than we could eat, huge plates of sweet and sour Pork, a dish of corn with pine nuts, sautůed mushrooms, bamboo, and green vegetables, spicy chicken with peanuts, shredded pork with garlic and chili peppers, bowls of rice, three large bottles of beer and soda too -- and our bill came to 81 yuan, about $10. A memorable, chaotic evening, not completely sanitary. But I found myself feeling sorry for the people who come to China and don't venture forth from the Holiday Inn. Next Week: Shop Until You Drop From the Editor in Chief: If you have some travel or work experience in China to share with us, we will be very excited to hear from you! Send your feedback by e-mail or regular mail to ASM Overseas Corporation. Thank you! And if you liked this column, please check Expats In China (International Community in China) for more interesting and useful information on life in China as a foreigner, including calendar of events, entertainment, housing, employment, classifieds, personal, etc. |
