In search of Central Perk part 2

Yesterday I followed the advice of thebeijinger.com in my attempt to find Central Perk.  That didn't turn out as planned but it was the first time we had ventured out of Mentougou and into the 'city' portion of Beijing on our own and therefore not a big shocker.  Today I decided to follow the advice of Google which said the coffee shop was in a completely different part of town.  To get to where Google claimed the coffee shop was required a bus ride and then getting on the subway and making three transfers.  To ballpark it, it took about an hour and half.  In China things just take a long time, you can't do anything about so we try to enjoy.

The route was navigated with, if I may, perfection.  The only issue was when we finally departed the subway at our destination, my traffic card wouldn't scan, so the nice police woman just let me through.  Before this incident we had eyed the building from the subway platform (FYI - this section of the subway is above ground).  Crossing the street was bit hazardous but we've pretty much gotten use to that and we arrived at the building (Map):

 Lot's of western stores, looks like the right spot to me!  There is even a Lion King restaurant with karaoke.

Side note: haven't noticed many bars in China.  All the restaurants serve alcohol.  Drinking is a very common thing: for lunch, during the work day.  So clearly there is no stigma here.  (Side side note: the favorite drink is called baijiu (beer in Chinese is pijiu) and I have been told it's white wine and rice wine.  First no white wine I know of carries an 80 proof and second it takes a little like sake which I have no clue what the proof on that is. If you would like to know more.) These restaurants though they don't have bars as you would see in almost every single restaurant that doesn't have a playground in the good ol' USofA.  Now our sample size is small and apparently in the boonies, but once we saw a sign for a bar on the front of this building we had to check it out.  Turns out bar in the USA or bar in China (this particular bar is my whole sample size) just means overpriced drinks and loud music, in this case even at 1 PM.

These have to be put to great use on a nightly basis.

So what if the beers are marked up over a 1000%, you get popcorn and tow kinds of nuts for free!

... and don't forget these awesome and huge chairs.

Uhhh, yeah, I got no idea what's wrong with this guy.

So we have arrived out destination, everything is falling into place.  Then we check out the directory.  No Central Perk.  Check several floors.  Nothing.  0 for 2.  Time for lunch.  We decided to splurge.  Doesn't this place look nice?  Can you guess where we are?  I am almost positive you have eaten in one of these before:

Welcome to Pizza Hut!  Pizza was quite similar to the US variety, aka delicious.

Next we headed for the Summer Palace via a very nice walk down Chengfu Rd to the catch another train.  Here are some shots of the Summer Palace:

This picture was taken from a very nice seat on a small rock  island with a nice breeze, just me, Julie and 98,000 new friends.  Did I mention it's a national holiday all week and a lot people live in this country.

Same seat, a great place to spend an afternoon.  Also, there were some dragon boars floating around the late.  Maybe next time Julie will let me ride on one!

This is the 17 (or was 19) Arch Bridge.  Wonder where they got such a unique name from?

Not sure what that is on the hill out there, but it  was quite a view and way to far of a walk for today.

Yes it's every bit as steep as it looks, no it would not meet ADA standards.

Bye bye Summer Palace!

Upon leaving the Summer Palace it was time to head back to the house.  Small problem.  We exited a different gate than we entered and had no clue where the subway was, but our motto on this trip is to go with the flow so we figured we could just follow the crowd.  That plan quickly changed when we were offered the opportunity to ride one of those really cool motorized bicycles with a box attached to it for people to sit in and for only 20 RMB (that's a little over $3).  Julie says it was terrifying but I thought the driver did quite a good job and so we were driving the wrong way down the road a few times, traffic laws are more like suggestions over here from what I can tell.

We are back safe and sound and tomorrow we head off for Shanghai on the bullet train.  We are very excited for our trip and will tell you all about before too long.  Hope everyone has a great week and we'll talk soon.

-Ryan

P.S. there is a place called the Charlie Brown Cafe: