Dragon Boat Holiday

June 14-16 is a holiday in China... to celebrate the Dragon Boat Racing Festival. In order to take the 3 days off for holiday, most Chinese businesses require their employees to work the preceding weekend, thus only allotting one actual day of holiday. Since I work on the weekends anyway, this 3 day holiday was a welcomed reprieve from the lab, and I enjoyed three of the best days that I've had since my arrival in TEDA.

Day 1:

After a non-stop week of experiments, I decided to just relax on the first day of the holiday. I cooked up some fresh veggies in my rice cooker and took a leisurely stroll around TEDA. I even stopped into the sketchy dvd shop, which moonlights as a children's clothing store, to purchase a movie. The movie was of surprisingly good quality until 54 minutes in, at which point it was completely defective, but at $1.50 USD, it was not a major loss. Later in the evening, I joined some fellow Americans at the Wei-Ha Pub to watch the World Cup, Denmark vs. Netherlands. I was shocked to find a very large contingency of ex-pats here from Denmark, all representing their country in jerseys and singing the national anthem. It was a very festive bunch, and a local photographer was snapping up the scene for the local paper.

Day 2:

I left my dorm at 6:30 am to head to Tangu Railway Station and catch the 8:30 am train into Beijing. Due to the holiday, I left early to get a seat. Upon arrival in Beijing, I met up with Sarah, a friend from orientation, in the Wudaokou area, which is an area with many universities and a large student population of both local and foreign students. We then met up with another orientation buddy, Andrew, to begin our journey to Houhai Lake, a manmade lake near the Forbidden City. Our goal was to see some dragon boat racing in honor of the holiday. From everything we read online, it seemed that anywhere there was water in China, there would be dragon boat racing. After several wrong turns and a long walk down some very traditional chinese streets, we made it to Houhai Lake. After a long stroll in the scorching heat, our first order of business was finding lunch. We ate at a nice thai restaurant right on the waterfront. The only boats in sight were paddle boats, but the people watching was good. After inquiring in a tourist information center, we were informed that dragon boat racing was at the north end of the lake, so we began a leisurely stroll around the lake. Despite the no-swimming signs, rebel swimmers were in abundance; most simply wearing underwear rather than actual swimsuits. Upon arriving at the north end of the lake, we spotted some kayakers, and some docked dragon boats without their dragon heads, but no racing. We stopped for popsicles in the shade and continued to watch swimmers and bikers, and wedding photos in the park. In China, it seems to be very trendy to have your wedding pictures taken on a day other than your wedding day, when the weather is guaranteed to be sunny sunny. Brides change into many different western style wedding dresses and take pictures all over the city for a more diverse wedding album.

After leaving our perch in Houhai Lake, we stopped by an outdoor gym on our way back to the subway. Scattered throughout Beijing, there are public outdoor gyms, complete with elliptical machines and and weird ab contraptions, so of course, we had to try it out.

After more than 5 hours of walking around in the Beijing heat, we were hungry and exhausted. We proceeded to cook a tasty dinner of sauteed mushrooms with lemon, garlic, and olive oil served with bean vermicelli. Dessert consisted of a watermelon purchased from a street vendor outside of Sarah's apartment.

Day 3:

After our long day yesterday, Sarah and I decided to keep today more low key and stayed in the Wudaokou area. Our first order of business this morning was to go out for fresh mango juice and to the supermarket for SoyJoy bars. When I left the states, I had brought a stash of snack bars to eat and unfortunately went through them quicker than expected, and until now, had not been able to replenish my stash. Sarah had remembered that I liked SoyJoy bars and found them at the Lotus Supermarket across from her apartment, so this morning, I stocked up.

Next on the agenda was a hunt for Tiger Balm. In addition to my mosquito bites, I've been breaking out in some violent hives that have left my skin both itchy and raw. Apparently, Tiger Balm is a Chinese remedy for just about everything, but most importantly, it is supposed to combat itching. Also, it is a natural insect repellant. Chinese characters for tiger balm in hand, we set out to find the chinese apothecary that was supposed to be right next to McDonald's. Unfortunately, it was not there, but upon asking someone, we were given directions, in English, to a Chinese pharmacy that was right around the corner. We obtained the much acclaimed Tiger Balm, and I tried it out. So far, it seems to be helping, and if nothing else, the packaging is pretty cool.

I left Wudaokou around 2:30 to head back to Beijing South Railway Station, planning to arrive early enough to purchase a ticket for the 16:55 train back to Tangu. Unfortunately, the train was sold out, so the next one was not until 18:50. I found a quiet table in the station and read from Anthony Bourdain's The Nasty Bits. I'm finding the book to be quite engaging, and the extra 2 hours at the train station passed relatively quickly. Despite missing the dragon boat races, it was a great visit to Beijing!