Beijing Part Three: National Treasure

Walking the Great Wall of China is the requirement of any trip to Beijing. From conversations we had with other foreign nationals, we realized there were countless places in which you can walk the wall. While most have the feeling like that of arriving, say, at the Grand Canyon, I have been told of other, extremely secluded spots. One person told me about a place where you pay an old man 1 kwai (.16 cents) and head into the woods where after a 10 minute walk you reach a beautiful, but completely unrestored section of it. For our trip, we decided to go straight for the most common/most frequented stop: Badaling. Our trip to the Great Wall was supposed to be on Friday after our Embassy work, but the hotel switched us to Saturday. Big mistake.

Traffic around Beijing is legendary, so our 3 hour car ride is pretty standard. Yet the bumper to bumper traffic was exhausting, and I know that sounds like a first world problem, but the kids were just over it. We had no interpreter and so when he headed off the main road and I kept seeing signs for Ming Tombs, I knew that the hired driver had restructured our tour. Josh told him we did NOT want to see Ming Tombs and only the wall. So we got back on track and back in traffic.

Finally, when we reached basically the first option to see the wall, JuYongGuan Pass, we took it. This area, I have since read was perhaps the most strategically important part of the wall because it protected a large section of water which went into Beijing. It was originally constructed in the 5th century (fifth century!!!!) and then was rebuilt during the Ming Dynasty. Because the entrance is in the very bottom of the valley, it is basically up no matter which way you go. We went up several sections, but stopped at the bottom of a section of 400 stairs.

It was a (typical) hot day and the kids were not interested in doing much. Although it was great to see a very broad international representation at this national treasure, our kids were still hot subjects for pictures and felt pretty bothered by the time we decided to leave. Josh's iPhone camera is filled with images of the trash on the wall and over the side. Multiple times I saw Chinese litter. I was a bit taken back to watch Chinese kids poop on the wall itself, parents wipe bottoms, and just dropped them right there. The long of the short of it, is that we left our time there satisfied, but a bit aghast.  This is not the way a civilized society treats a national treasure.

There are other kid-friendly sites for seeing the Great Wall. I believe we will try and do it again. On a Friday. And we will know more of what to expect.

Sunday we were watching the clock. Our schedule and the traffic had us in need of leaving for the train station by mid-day. The smog (or weather, as it is called here) was horrible Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Overnight there was a huge rainstorm, which the government probably made happen, so Sunday we woke up to GORGEOUS blue skies and wispy clouds.

If you are super confused by that last statement, you NEED to read about how the Chinese controls the weather. Seriously. Look up "cloud seeding methods" immediately. They can make it rain here. They also can make it NOT rain. Click here if you don't know where else to look.

Sunday, we decided to just take a cab and stroll around the historic Tiananmen Square at a leisurely pace and that was all. I tried to do some research on the specifics of the area, but Google has been blocked in China since this year is the 25th anniversary of the tragic 1989 protest. So, it was hard to get much information.

Easy day for the kids, we hoped. We brought favorite drinks.

Again, we were in an area of major Chinese historical significance (constructed in 1415, it is where Mao Zedong made China the People's Republic of China in 1949) and it seemed that everyone wanted to take pictures of the white kids from America who were there for the day.

There was a whole lot of this:

Crowds gather FAST when someone wants a picture of our babies. 

So we bought these:

From above, they looked like all the other kids. And we were left alone! Success! 

American Child Protection Program 10 RMB each

Question and Answers

I caught someting in Beijing and have not felt very good all week. I will finish up with the pictures from our trip this weekend. In the meantime, I have had many of you ask questions about our life here on email-- and since so many of them are on similar topics, I thought I would just offer a formal, call-out for questions.

 

If there is something you are wondering about or a picture of something you would like to see, feel free to send Josh or I an email sometime in the next couple of days. We will answer them in a Q&A Blog at the end of next week.

This little cutie and his mom were so nice. And they were Japanese.
We could not communicate at all. 

Beijing Part Two: Feeling small

  

Sun setting during Beijing rush hour

Using trains is a much more traditional and surprisingly still an easier mode of transport within China. Obviously our high speed train is a new twist on tradition, but we we will just blame our need to get to Beijing faster on the kids. :) Aside from attempting to balance myself through the use of a squatty potty at almost 200 miles an hour, it was great!

Thursday morning we woke up, had our amazing breakfast, and we started walking towards a shopping area I saw marked on my map. We walked along the very busy 3rd Ring Rd. (These are very common here. Kinda like a 465, but with sidewalks, main roads, named Ring Roads emcompass cities. As the cities grow, they have more rings. Beijing now has five I think. From what we saw from the train, they might be working on 6th Ring Road.) We took the pedestrian overpass and took the first street west and suddenly the scenery changed.

Crossing the street from above is preferred to playing dodgeball with traffic back in Wuhan.

Now the streets were extremely narrow.
Quiet.
Tree lined.
Lush with vegetation.
Well maintained.
High walled.
Police officers standing at attention.
And was that barbed wire at the top of the fences?
We continued slowly and to my right I saw the gold seal along the wall "Embassy of Libya." Whoa. The boys and I continued walking along. To one side was the back sides of other embassies, on the other was one embassy after another. Kazakhstan. Serbia. Iran. I felt like a very small dot in a very big world.

That is the thing about being overseas, I think. It makes you think about how small you are. I am not just one person walking down a street in a city of 25 million. I am one person in a country of 1.35 billion. In a world of who knows how many billion. And then there are all these other countries that I have never thought about. Or heard of.  For the record, being overseas also makes you think repeatedly, "Don't let that idiot President do anything to piss anyone off until I get home" but I digress...

I realized how small the world was at that moment because there were all these official buildings representing people I would never know and yet I knew I have a whole world of my own standing behind me that would never see this place. It was quite a moment, I tell you! We kept on walking.

And then there it was.  A piece of my heart not in living flesh, but represented in just a single blue and yellow flag hanging from a modest pole in the middle of a courtyard. There was the Ukrainian Embassy. Boy, did I lose it.

Thinking of how much I missed Mariya was enough to make me cry for a big ole long time. And that was a good thing because we had a big ole walk ahead of us. Hudson and Tucker were real troopers though. We were a bit shock and awed to see the uniformed soldiers marching the area. We continued to see the names of countries far and wide: Somalia, Argentina, Turkey, Cambodia. 

Soon we found our expat/international supermarket and found our comfort snacks, did our happy dance, and were back in business. We spent a lovely afternoon walking around a gorgeous outdoor shopping mall enjoying the sights and smells. The mall was fantastic, but way beyond my spending habits. The boys and I enjoyed a couple hours reading books in a well-lit window of a fantastic bookstore where they accepted my American credit card (Holla! First time!) and walked the 1.5 miles back feeling renewed.

On Friday our main objective was to get our marriage certificate validated at the Embassy and do some touring. The U.S. Embassy is the opposite direction of the previous day's embassy walk. It sits on a guarded road next to the Republic of Korea Embassy.

Fortress surrounding Korean Embassy

Our passports gained us access to a gated street where we waited for our bilingual lawyer/girl to assist us. Standing outside the United States Embassy made me feel safe and proud. Only when we went around to the Visa entrance did I feel like I was in China again. Throngs of people were in long lines hoping to get their visas to come to the U.S.

Our work was quick and painless, but expensive. And so we left to begin our day touring the capital of China. Leaving the fortress, I took probably one of my favorite pictures of the trip. Notice (in the background of this picture) that I was told QUICKLY to not have my camera out.

Mr. T with machine gun-armed guards outside the Korean Embassy.

Tucker sized shack/store.

On this day we visited Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, and the Pearl Market. Probably each of those are worthy of a return trip and a blog of their own, but I don't think I have that kind of time. It is still four days since we got home and I am still doing our laundry. 

Sure, I will pose with you.

Is your kid obsessed with dinosaurs? Mine want a pet dragon.

We interrupt this blog

 (Drumroll.........)

We made it a month. A whole month and we have not lost our minds (or a kid) yet.
We know the most basic Mandarin.
We know how to hail a cab.
We know how to use the money. (They have a paper currency for 50 cents?!?)
We know how communicate with our non-English speaking driver.
We know where church is.
We know where to buy good fruit and vegetables.
We know how to use the washer and the fastest way to dry our clothes.
We know some decent snacks (fried peas! seaweed Pringles!) to make us feel better.
We know how to say, "Back off my kid" in the most appropriate and nicest way possible.
We know which banks will give us money.
We know how to say left, right, and straight to the taxi drivers.
We know which side streets are the safest for walking along.
We know at least 8 places to eat near our apartment.
We know where one park is.
We know what a "good price" is for most food and drinks.
We know where the zoo, Starbucks, and McDonalds are.
We have been all over our huge city.
We know where to get fresh water.

Walking down the streets yesterday, it did not escape me that four weeks ago I was walking down the same street in the same insane, muggy heat thinking I was in some sort of bad episode of the Twilight Zone. And yet, this time while walking I felt almost confident. Time changes everything.

This place will never be just like home, but we are making it one-- for now. If we look closely, we just might find something to love.

Beijing Part One: Payback

Temple of Heaven.
(Well, not to Tucker.)

When I was three years old, my grandparents and mom took me to Washington D.C. I remember basically nothing about the things I saw at the time. There are two distinct memories: red velvet and the national incident. The red velvet, I learned on my return trip in January 1993 for Clinton's inauguration was the velvet ropes used to keep The People from The Important Stuff. If you think of it, those are at perfect eye level of a three year old. I recall seeing basically them and nothing else. The second thing I remember is more significant and something I teased my beloved Geeky about until the day he left us: he gave me a spanking (the only one I ever got from him and one I surely deserved) in Arlington National Cemetery. I was an irrational three year old and had caused quite a scene. 

So, if you are into karma, the past four and half days in Beijing were the Great Payback. The reality of my memory of that trip makes me certain that in years from now when asked, Hudson and Tucker will only remember their visit to the capital of China as an incredibly hot place where people randomly touched them, meanwhile mom and dad constantly were threatening them within an inch of their lives. If we were not being always watched, I guarantee they would have been beaten in Beijing. They were both acting like irrational three year olds the entire time.

(Deep breath)

Understatement of the century: Traveling with a child is difficult. 

Heck, I have friends who freak out going to Florida with their kids. I brought mine to China. This is not a point of comparison, just acknowledging the reality that I still think we are crazy. I am really over telling my boys to be "more quiet" or to "not run too far ahead" My dreams of wide open (safe) spaces where there are no manholes or poop or stray animals or water hazards will probably continue until we leave. But that is the same blog you have already read. So here is a quick overview of our Beijing trip.

Running (and capturing attention) at Temple of Heaven.

Beijing, to me, is an easier China. Yes, it is bigger and more crowded, but I really enjoyed our time there. First of all, this is a total cultural copout, regardless, I loved being able to speak in English almost our entire trip. It just made life easier! Not to mention that signage for stores, whether they be insurance or liquor, were at least 50% of the time written in Chinese AND English. Glory! Amen! 

We stayed in the really nice Beijing Hilton near the US Embassy. The breakfast was fantastic and Western. REAL bacon, omelets, potatoes, you know the stuff you are used to. Walking around the town, in the general, everyday life areas, we were definitely foreign, but not stared at like we are in Wuhan. Even our mattress was not the rock-hard, Chinese mattress with no padding. It might have been the softest bed I have ever slept on. Finally, food from home, like real AMERICAN imported stuff was everywhere. We hit up two shopping markets and SERIOUSLY Hudson and I danced in the aisles of the Friendship International Grocery when we found Pop-Tarts and A&W Rootbeer. (Gwen, this totally made me think of you.) 

While in Beijing our lunches were nasty Chinese buffets (part of the tours) but our dinners were amazing feasts of Italian, German, and American fare that would rival any great restaurant at home. So, in fact, it really was a vacation from our current situation.

On Wednesday we took the nearly 5 hour high speed train to the city. On Thursday, the kids and I explored all over the area around our hotel. After looking on Mapquest, I think we must have walked nothing short of 4 miles that day. On Friday, all of us were together. We went to the US Embassy for Visa stuff, then toured Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven with a guided excursion/private van. On Saturday, we went to the JuYongGuan Pass section Great Wall and out to dinner with friends. On Sunday, we visited Tiananmen Square prior to catching our cab to head back to the railway station and taking the 5 hour train ride home.

Old man and instrument. Temple of Heaven.

Yep, that is a lot to pack into just a couple of days. But that is how it is. You try as hard as you can to check off all those "musts." With kids though, you just can't. You have to do things at a much slower pace or everyone is just off their rocker. We saw a lot, but very briefly.

He is SO unhappy here.

While Beijing was an easier time for me, it was not necessarily easier for the kids. Our little life here in Wuhan: the safe apartment, our driver Song, their toys, the streets they know is the home that they know right now. I desperately hope that we can go back, for reasons I will talk about in my next blog, but for now, I am so glad that I was able to see what I did.

If you tell him a joke about farts, he smiles. FYI.

And I am so glad that I will forever be able to ask Tucker, "Remember that time when I changed your diaper [standing up] on the Great Wall of China?"

He is smiling because his diaper is soaking wet at the moment.

Foreign in your own life

Can I just share that it continues to take my breath away for a second each time I see the China flag waving in the sky?

I'm not sure how long the feelings of "foreign" last. A couple months? A year? If we decided to stay here for typical length expat assignment (three years) would I always feel this way?
On the way to the train station I wanted to post an Instagram picture-- and even though I don't have wifi I created a post. We were crossing (one of) the huge bridges over the Yangtze and it was beautiful and horribly smoggy and so surreal to think I'm just here, a speck in the middle of this vast place. We, my entire little tribe, is in China. What the heck?!?

There is something cool about experiencing things for the first time in your life at the exact same moment your child is. There is no superiority, no "been there, done that," no mama knows best belief system when you are about to get on a high speed "bullet" train in the middle of central China with your kids for the first time (Not that this stops them from peppering you with questions!) You can also find the experience terrifying, but I like that I have done several things for the first time here with my babies in tow. I'm glad that the kids are living in the raw moment with all my first timer reactions and emotions. I don't think that happened ever in the United States.

Traveling 190 mph felt strangely familiar and surprisingly smooth. The entire experience of the train was really positive. Mr. song took us straight to the check in desk. The terminal was huge, clean, and cool. We are the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips, and fruit I brought. Trains arrived with perfect timing.

We opted to do this trip first class because the trip was over 5 hours and Josh's ticket would be covered. Tucker was free but that left him technically seatless so he was passed off between the three of us.

Finally we saw a wealth of green fields of corn and grains, orchards, and terrace farming. Multiple crops were in one acre. Groups of roaming animals were seen. Passing through villages and large metropolises you could see some shocking living accommodations. After I spied laundry drying on the rocks of a riverbank, I was reminded that my drip dry clothes line system in my air conditioned Wuhan apartment was a first world problem and I just better shut up about it.

I so very much wish I could read Chinese. Whether it be a sign in the terminal or a billboard on the outer wall of a tiny village, I wonder what information I'm missing.

We've reached the terminal at Beijing West. A new life experience awaits and this life can not be mine. It still feels so foreign.

25 Random Ramblings

We have made it 25 days!!!  Only 125 more to go...not that I am counting! {wink} So many things catch my eye that I must do a little brain dump here to clear up some room in my central processor for all the new things that are going to happen! Here are some interesting things about life here in Wuhan, China:

1. All Chinese men carry purses or a "man bag" as I like to call them. Some have straps. Some are more like a clutch. Mr. Song has a strapless little man bag that looks like a fake Fendi and I adore it.

Wuhan Style

2. Men in Wuhan like to roll their shirts up over their bellies to beat the heat. It is really, really unflattering to look at. 

3. There are the MOST annoying plastic door flaps to control the air conditioning at all entrances to groceries, stores, shopping malls... you name it. They drive me crazy. Both kids have obviously been jacked in the face by them a time or two. Most of the time when we get near the entrance of a store Tucker just covers his face and walks at a snail's pace.

4. Our building does not have a 4th floor because it is bad luck. The number four is extremely unlucky here (kind of like the number 13 in the US). The word for four "si" uses fourth tone. If you say it with third tone, it means "death."  

Our elevator is made by Otis of Bloomington, IN.

5. Traffic patterns are controlled based on your license plate number. You can not cross bridges or use certain tunnels or roads if your license plate is odd on even days and vise versa.

6. You wear certain shoes in certain seasons. Right now (July-August) is sandal season. Everyone wears them. I have YET to see an adult Chinese woman in tennis shoes. 

I have even been asked why I put the kids in tennis shoes when it is so hot. It is their conventional wisdom that kids should be in sandals too.

7. Internal heat is of great concern to Chinese people. Foods like lotus seeds because they "cool you internally." Interestingly though, they don't drink cold water. My friend works at a medical office and says this issue comes up all the time. 

8. The smells that attack you within one city block: garbage, sewage, delicious food, disgusting food, body odor, construction dust, diesel exhaust, rotting fish, rotting fruit, ripe fruit, poop...

Live eels for eatin' for sale at the vegetable market

9. In effort to get you to come inside and eat in most restaurants, they put their aquariums of their proteins in/near the front windows. Frequently the fish/turtle/snake/frogs are not all ... still with us. Nothing says "yum" like a couple floating fish.

10. Our apartment came with slippers. One size fits most. I thought is was cute. They also have slippers in dressing rooms at stores in the mall. 

11. Moths the size of your head. Or at least the size of small birds back home. 

For real.

12. The driving is INSANE. Obviously I could write an entire book about the insanity of traffic here, but one thing that blows my mind is that I have yet to see an accident. (Josh has seen the aftermath of one.) You literally do not know whether the car in front of you is going to STOP in the middle of the road, do a U-turn, or go straight. I have seen a bus do a U-turn on a 4 lane road. 

13. I went shopping alone last Sunday. They do not seem to stock large clothes. For example, I found NONE in H&M. I found one store that had larges and extra larges and I could not get my shoulders into the shirt. 

I went into an Aerosoles store looking for shoes (I only brought 4 pairs of shoes total: flip flops, Toms, tennis shoes, and black dress sandals.) They did not carry larger than size 39 (US size 8.5). I was actually laughed at by the store salespeople and they said something repeatedly in Chinese which I assume meant "Get out of here, Giant Footed Woman."

14. Sad shopping experiences. You finally find familiar packaging of a product you know and love and the flavor choices are absolutely disgusting.  "Fermented soy bean prawn flavor" Lays Potato Chips is Josh's favorite find so far. I found "Oxtail" Campbell's Soup and "Seaweed flavor" Pringles. Crackers are extremely rare.  

Not as bad as some.

15. In effort to keep their skin creamy white, women wear armbands (think lightweight legwarmers for your arms), huge visors (think welding mask), and carry umbrellas (think Hello Kitty).

Just your local KFC delivery driver.

16. Western Restaurants I have seen: Dairy Queen, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Starbucks. We have not been to them all yet. We have went to Pizza Hut. Their menu is 25 pages long. Appetizers include escargot, mashed potatoes, and calamari. McDonald's fries taste the. exact. same. Their drinks do NOT. We have not had anything else there because of the Shanghai beef/chicken scandal. They only are serving fish right now.

17. Construction happens anywhere, everywhere, and without caution. Walking through an active construction site happens all the time. Josh rode under a moving crane coming home from work this week. I can not believe the lack of barricades. The boys think it is super awesome to get so close to the equipment, but it is really stressful because it is not just sitting idle; they are operating it.

18. There are no dryers here. Those who have them say that they don't work. This means that if you hang out at your girl friend's apartment, you will see her husband's underwear drying on her balcony or bathroom. (Funny because it is true.) My washing machine is in my kitchen. Right where I wish my dishwasher was.

19. All the things that I thought were "dated" at home or companies that I thought were "failing" are big here. Tom & Jerry have a toy line. The IGA logo is on some supermarkets. And so on.

20. People push and shove like it is their job. It is so stinking annoying. Most of the time when I am waiting for my street food to be cooked or packaged, a Chinese person will come up and stand in front of me in a space not adequate for a person (regardless of their size). My favorite food vendors will continue to be those who recognize the line jumper and berate them in Chinese as they hand me my dinner.

I love this stretch on our walk to church.

21. The sidewalks are never stretch of concrete, rather they are individual pavers of stone, concrete, marble, terrazzo, or the like. They are FREQUENTLY broken and wobble when you walk. Sturdy footing is rare. Some of this has to be due to the heavy traffic of scooters and cars that use them. However, when you can find a stretch that is not broken, they can be really beautiful.

22. Manhole covers are optional. And moveable. And sometimes have big holes in them. If I don't have an ulcer when I leave here from just walking around, it will be a miracle.

23. Pirated movies rock. Yep, we have bought four DVDs off the streets. Three kid movies and Shawshank Redemption. Total investment: 40 RMB (or less than $7). Sorry, Hollywood. We gotta survive here.

24. Stores disappear overnight. Roads are rerouted overnight. Change is constant. When I think about the changes I have seen in just 25 days, it is mind-boggling.

Don't get too close to the backside, Hudson.

25. Beware of little butts. Split pants continue to make me do a double take. I still don't understand how little babies like the 5-6-7 (?) month olds communicate that they have to go. But their little bums are always peeking at me.

Foodie finds: Street Food

The travel doctor provided stern warnings against eating street food while we were abroad. Now, as a foodie and fan of carbohydrates in general, I had absolutely no real intensions of following the kind doctor's orders. So I asked him, "And if I was to eat something, your advice would be...?" to which he just laughed aloud and gave me a genuine smile. Nodding he said, he understood, and he had lived in China for a period of time as well, and he knew it would be tempting. His advice? If you're gonna eat something, make sure it is extremely hot (well cooked) and go to the stall with the longest line; after all if the locals think it is the best, you might too.

Street food in China is a whole new aspect of life unknown to Americans. Not even in the streets of NYC with its food pedaling carts can you experience how here quite literally is in every alleyway and byway around has food to offer. The foods are definitely not what I figured we would see. We are over twenty days into our trip and I have yet to see an egg roll! Most street food is carbohydrate/bread based. Noodles are huge here. We have yet to have the "famous Wuhan hot and dry" noodles. Frequently vendors are selling duck necks, tofu-ish shaped stuff, and random bird parts. We have yet to try those vittles.

This guy is set up every night from 4-?? p.m. I have yet to see anyone
purchase one of his "scary squares" or duck necks. 

To refer to the areas where the food is prepared as "garages" is probably a glamourization of both the cleanliness and size of the cooking area. The word "stall" is more suitable for there typically is a stray four legged animal near the cook's feet and it captures the general odor of the place. Not that what is made in these stalls is fodder for anything less than humans though. We have had some terrific things so far.

But alas, there is a wrench in my Chinese street food synchronicity. I have two incredibly picky eaters for children. Hudson is way to obsessed with spiciness to succeed in this area of China where heat is inherent in every dish. Wuhan has more Cantonese influence in its food and so most dishes are la (spicy). Tucker does not like noodles, rice, bread, and generally anything that you might find outside the Golden Arches. His intake of street food at this point is still null. I hope with time-- and general hunger-- the boys will find that mama and dada would not lead them astray. For now, here are our favorites:

TOP FIVE FAVORITES:
1. Pan fried pancake
There is nothing about this bread that is sweet, regardless it is referred to as pancake by the expats. You can find it being made in stalls around the vegetable markets. The cost is 10 RMB (~$1.50) for a bag full; probably close to a pound. The process of making this is a one man operation. The same guy kneads it, cooks it, cuts it, and sells it. His stall is very clean (comparatively).

The foreigners call this pancake. It is wonderful.

He weighs the portion and sends you on your way.

2. Garbage Can Bread/Trash Can Bread

Hello, Baby.

This has to be the overall coolest food find-- simply for how it is prepared. In our section of town, a man at a workstation rolls out the dough and covers it with spices. Then, that same man takes the raw dough and throws it onto the side of a 55 gallon drum where a fire is burning in the bottom. It is a ridiculously hot venture. Even standing near the drum is hot. I have pictures of the guy with his face right over the opening.

For real. Cooked along the sides of the drum.

Once the bread is ready his co-worker plucks it off the side of the drum with her tongs. She throws it onto her cart and if you so desire for some additional terrific flavor, she will brush it with spices. (This is where we learned la or bu la. Spicy versus not spicy) With her tongs she will then fold it in half and drop it into a brown paper sack of sorts. It is crazy hot to carry. After a couple minutes you can't help yourself and start eating and promptly burn your tongue. Not that I have done that every time or anything... It is a lot of bread! The cost is 4 RMB (less than $1).

3. Spicy Potatoes

Christos introduced us to the potato lady and, for that, I will always be grateful. These, too, are sold in the alleyway about 7 minutes from our place, around the corner from the bread people above. 
There is not much about these that makes these Chinese other than the woman making them or the fact that I buy them in a dirty, crowded alley in the middle of Wuhan, China!

Heaven. 

I adore this woman. Look at those pearls and lipstick.
She's the Chinese Martha Stewart/Paula Deen.

4. Baozi
These steamed buns can be found all over China (from what I have been told) and are traditional stuffed with meat of some kind. They are not that complicated or flavorful, but I bet they take a bit of time to make! In my opinion, the best part is you can take a small bowl and mix up some chili sauce and chopped green onion and brown vinegar of some kind (maybe rice?) and create a sauce to dip them in. They usually have these items available where you buy them. 
If you are like us, and eating them as you walk, you might just pour the sauce all over the top. With chopsticks you grab one and open wide!
The price point on these is varied. We have paid as much as 10 RMB ($1.50) for 8. Insanely cheap considering the labor-intensiveness of the product.

 5. Jaozi
A cup of jaozi, or dumplings, served with broth are also traditional Chinese cuisine and something I think we will find from Beijing to Shanghai.  These saucer shaped noodles are filled with vegetables or ground meat or a combination of the two. 
Again, the price point would be dependent on where you were buying them and what was inside. You can find these boiled or steamed or pan fried. I am a bigger fan of the dry ones. The fried ones (which I featured with a picture on one of the first China blogposts) are amazing, just as most fried food should be.

Jaozi to go. 

One final interesting note about food here: breakfast is not really any different in content than other meals. There are not "breakfast foods". This is evident even in our international accommodations. Each morning we have a buffet breakfast downstairs and it consists of fried char and noodles, fried rice, vegetables, salad, and the like. The items like Rice Krispies cereal and porridge and boiled eggs are those items they have added for the foreign visitors. The key difference here is that breakfast is traditional served on the go. So all of the above are foods that people grab on their way walking/biking/scootering/riding the bus to work. There is an actual street north of us in Hankou (another part of Wuhan) called Breakfast Street, but I think it is just much of the above.

One loser:
1.Tangyuan
Not my thing. Think the texture of eyeballs. The flavor of sugared rice. With hot broth. Try not to think of embryos or hockers. Then swallow.