Lina in China

In the morning I was awakened by some yelling and bumping against my door. But when I had the door opened there was no one. It seems like the Chinese, who are always so quite in Germany here are very loud. Much that sounds as if something is wrong is nothing but some general chit-chat it seems.

Since I was awake at 6 am now anyway (it was midnight in Germany) I thought I could get up as well. So I decided to make myself some coffee and try to find some breakfast.

One of the most valuable things I brought to China is a little jar of instant coffee and some canned milk. Even tough the green tea offered in the hotel room is quite good I just would hate to start my day without coffee.

So then I started “Lina’s Little Journey through Beijing” in order to find breakfast. And when I talk about breakfast in China I don’t feel like I should eat a plain old cheeseburger at McDonalds.

My first guess was to ask at the reception. Even the English speaking employee was present. At first they said I should go to the 8th floor. 8 that makes sense as the Chinese word for 8 is spoken “ba” which is similar to the word for “rich”. 8 is a common lucky number in China.

But as soon as I was heading to the 8th floor in order to find my Chinese breakfast they were calling me back. Why I did not understand and I thought – thinking of my limited mandarin knowledge – it would not be a good idea to ask “为什么“ (wei shenme = why).

So they started to explain me in a mixture of Chinese, English and handsigns where I should go for breakfast.

I started walking in that direction, happy about the coffee in my thermo-cup. I saw a lot of teenagers all wearing the same clothes. Probally a school uniform. I watched people on bikes of every form. Teenagers on their way to school, employees on the way to work and so on. Almost all bikes have a front basket and in almost every front basket there is a thermo-bottle of green tea.

So I went – or I think I did – in the place in Beijing where the hotel stuff had told me to find my breakfast. And I found a KFC. So I kept asking people – improving my Chinese – where to find breakfast.

Only problem: I had forgotten my dictionary and did neither know the words for “breakfast” nor for “search” or find “find”. In the end „吃饭在那里？” (chifan zai nail? = where is food?) worked quite good and I was send first to a McDonalds and then to another KFC. I started to get so despaired the next McDonalds I was send to I entered. I could have eaten a burger for about 18 Yuan = 1.80€. But even though my stomach started to hurt from no breakfast I did not see why I should eat a burger for breakfast.

So in the end I decided to return to the hotel and force them to tell me where I can find non McDonalds breakfast in China. Then I saw a beautiful little street and more out of curiosity then real hope I entered.

First thing I saw was a little restaurant or something like that. Real and Chinese breakfast! It did not look very open to me so I asked a guy in front: “有吃饭？” (you chinfan? = have they food) and he took me inside and tried to explain everything to me.

When I entered the restaurant everyone was staring at me. I guess not many foreigners enter there. There where nice pictures on the wall and plastic seats in strong colours.

There where like 5 different kinds of strange looking soup, some filled noodles, some boiled eggs and salad that I would rather not try.

I decided for the big filled noodle and some Chinese, white rice soup. It cost 4 Yuan (40 cents). I hope this is not a bad sign. The number 4 is in china a number of bad luck just like the 13 in Germany. 4 (spoken “si”) is similar to the word for death. So I just hoped I would survive my first real Chinese breakfast.

Everyone was watching me and I was watching everyone. At one table there were 3 women and one young boy of preschool age watching me. And me watching them. Small Chinese children always make a fuss about eating from what I watched. And they get a lot of attention through this. Even thought they are old enough to eat their breakfast themselves they are being fed. A Chinese once told me they are pampered until they go to school. Once in school Chinese children are very disciplined. But the change from being a child to being a school-child must be very heard for Chinese children. I wonder how they manage.

While I was eating my Chinese rice-soup for breakfast the young boy shyly waved at me. So I waved back and said “你好” (nihao = hello). But he was to shy to answer even with his mother coaxing him some.

After a while they left so I said “??” (baibai = byebye) and the little boy answered byebye. After I finished my boal of rice soup I left the restaurant. On the street I met the 3 women with the little boy once more. They greeted me very friendly.

Walking back to the hotel I saw a lot of women in uniform dresses. Coming closer it seemed like they were all employees of a jewellery store. They where doing something like a dance interpreting “We are the champions”.

An English lady walked by and took a picture so I also dared to make a picture. Turned out she was English, but quite aggressive. She said “Very impressive, very mechanical though!” And I answered that I think it’s a much better way to start your work day then how we do in Europe or America. Seems like she preferred Europe since she made some more unfriendly comments about the mechanical Chinese and then left.

Back in the hotel I was hungry again. Seems like some rice soup does not keep you satisfied long. And the filled noodle I did not really like.

Tags: breakfast adventure, breakfast in china, chinese breakfast, Chinese Food, chinese noodles, rice soup

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at 11:54 and is filed under Beijing, Chinese Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.