Thank God its Tianjin

[To all those who emailed us about our relative silence, our apologies if we've worried you. We've been out and about in China, so we have not had time to post. But we're not doing any human rights law, so there's really nothing to worry about.]

This week has been more adventurous than those prior. No sarcasm aside, we sought out the Haidian TGI Fridays earlier this the week, because no person can subsist on oil-ridden Beijing cuisine and mystery meat for too long. On the way there, we even stumbled across a store selling bike helmets, which are a tough commodity to locate in China. So, we will be the only people in Beijing toting styrofoam on our bicycles that isn't piled ten feet high on a three-wheeled model. (To quote my mother, who we spoke with this morning, "thank gawd!")

Lunch at Fridays was Ameri-tastic. I would never darken the threshold of a Fridays in the United States, but there's something about ordering BBQ beef and quesadillas in Beijing from a waitress wearing just as many pieces of flair as her American counterparts. TGIF completely duplicates the American Fridays experience, right down to the Heinz Ketchup imported from Pittsburgh that you can't find anywhere else in China. You really can't beat it.

After lunch, we made our way to a little-known fashion district in Zhongguancun just north of the Third Ring Road. One thing you learn about the Chinese is that while there's some obvious enmity towards the Japanese （日本人) as a people, that distaste does not extend to Japanese fashion--indeed, most fashion trends in China can be traced directly to China's eastern neighbor. So to find a street where those fashions are available, and to be the only 美国人 (meiguoren/Americans) in sight was quite a feat. We managed to get some pretty good deals on fall clothing, which we will proudly put on display once the weather gets truly frigid, but we stayed away from some of the more "out there" fashions, which include wearing tweed shorts with knee-high stockings and high-heels. And you should see what the women wear.

Yesterday we got up early for a day in Tianjin with some friends. Tianjin is about 2.5 hours southwest of Beijing on the coast of China, and mistakenly ranks within the top ten of most polluted cities in the world. (It turns out that the environmentalists meant to refer to Tianying) Before Shanghai became a treaty port/concession, Tianjin was where all of the foreign countries came to do business with China. So, a lot of the architecture in Tianjin that looks very Western, and today most of it is owned by banks. The pollution actually wasn't too bad, relative to Beijing, but you really can't get away from pollution in China.

Aside from the architecture, there's a river running through the middle of town that they've tried to dress up like the Thames, right down to the boats and modern bridges designed by fancy European architects. There's also a very interesting little artistic district where you can find all manner of stores selling the exact same items for the exact same prices. It's funny how that works.

On a completely unrelated note, if you find yourself shopping for imported beer in Beijing, avoid Corona. We were trying to make a Latin American feast one night last week, and felt as though we had struck gold when we found a little bodega that sold our favorite weak swill. But when we opened up our prizes back at home, we could tell by the taste alone that the Corona mark in China means nothing more than Yanjing Beer poured in a Corona bottle. This is not a recipe for successful branding. Talk about likelihood of confusion...