Quintessential 半世纪 Birthday!

March 10, 2016

Arriving in Beijing, we were immediately impressed with the spacious and incredibly clean airport. Massive amounts of people moved through the space, yet it seemed quiet and not at all crowded. We followed the other passengers as we deboarded and made our way through immigration without a second glance. It took a while because a large group of students was arriving from India and our planes must have arrived at the same time. Pouring out of the standard zig-zag line, our queue snaked all over the remaining floor space. Seeing the organized chaos, the security guards didn't like it and lucky for us, several lines designated for Chinese citizens opened up to help clear the queue. We moved quickly from there, and on to customs where we found our suitcases immediately. The line in front of us there only had about 5 people in it and our bags were soon put through an x-ray tube. No papers were filed and nobody asked us anything. Our bags cleared and we rolled on through quickly and easily. The whole immigration and customs time took just over one hour. I was impressed at the efficiency.

As we came out of the international screening area, I scanned the crowd of people eager to meet their arrivals. Right by the exit was my friend and former student to pick us up. I was so happy to see her! She whisked us away and off we went into the insanity of Beijing traffic. Wow, people REALLY know their bumpers here!!  A couple of times, I had to close my eyes but couldn't stand to do so for long because I didn't want to miss a thing.

Other than the traffic and cars going every which way with little regard for street markings, lanes, or anything else, my first impression was that I couldn't believe so many people lived in this city and yet it seemed so well dispersed. In other words, although it was crowded, I didn't see the population density I had anticipated. My second impression was that there were many more trees than I expected AND the streets were SO clean! Thirdly, I was incredulous at the huge variety of electric vehicles and how many people could fit on one scooter!

My friend brought us to our hotel where we checked in and deposited our bags in our room. We freshened up a little bit and then headed off to our first real Chinese dinner. As I wrote in the last post, I skipped a year. Yesterday when I left Arkansas, I was 49. Today in China, I am suddenly 51. Why? Chinese consider a child to be one year old when s/he is born. Therefore, having been born in 1966, I am 51 because I was conceived in 1965. In China, the birthday tradition is to eat noodles, so my friend made sure we covered that base.

Because Beijing is world renowned for Peking Duck (Beijing = Peking), she took us to a restaurant with owners who had been producing Peking Duck for several hundred years. It had a stellar reputation and the food was delicious. The skin is supposed to be the best part, but I preferred the meat dipped in sauce. Then, the meat and sauce are rolled up in a tortilla-like bread with cucumbers and/or spring onions. Fabulous!


Of course, I got my birthday noodles, longevity noodles to be precise. These noodles are specifically for birthdays and a bowl will be filled with one single, very long, and unbroken strand of noodle which represents good health and long life. My noodle soup also contained a hard boiled egg (peeled), representative of wealth. Being with my friend and my daughter in a foreign country sampling many delicious dishes and participating in cultural traditions made this a quintessential birthday celebration.

Thanking and saying goodbye to my friend, she took us back to our hotel. We hope to see her again in a month or two. The next day, we anticipated tackling some tourist aspects of Beijing, so off to dreamland we quickly went.