Dinner in Beijing

November 5, 2004

One of our traveling companions was given the name of a restaurant that was supposed to have great food at low prices, so we all met at 6pm in the lobby to go. She had the address written in Chinese. We called two cabs to take the lot of us.

After our cab driver took off, we noticed that he smelled of alcohol. He may not have been drunk, but he surely must have been on a bender within the past 24 hours. Ar had the joy of sitting next to him in the front seat of the cab. The driver slapped his leg and it was all rather weird.

We had no idea how far away the restaurant was. We were driving and driving and then we were on the outskirts of town in a less than desirable place. We finally arrived at our destination and it was smack dab in the middle of a residential area. It had a bright neon sign that said, "Restaurant." The other cab had not arrived. It was cold so we went inside to wait.

The others showed up and we were seated at a large round table. The menu was adventurous~Rabbit, ell, shark fin, pungent sauces...I selected the tomato and egg soup and veggie dumplings. Everyone shared all of the food and it was delicious and plentiful.. We were all drinking Tsingtao beer. The bill for 7 of us was #321 yuan, which was about $40. That us what I call a real bargian.

We asked the restaurant to call us two taxis and they did. As soon as we exited the restuarant, they locked the doors. It was only 8 pm, but I gues sthey wanted to go home. No cabs showed up. We banged on the doors and finally someone came to see what the ruckus was about. We asked them to call for two cabs again and this time they arrived. The ride back to the hotel was uneventful, and we were pretty happy with that. Tomorrow we have the group tour so we will be heading to bed pretty early~9 pm.