At breakfast, I heard the Austrian dialect for the first time since Yunnan, and in this case, it reminded me of everything I DON’T miss about Austria…
The food was 50% Chinese-Western (I myself chose to 90% Chinese), and the tourists were at least 80% non-Chinese.
I started a long walk along Beijing’s Ming City Wall Ruins Park, continued to the Chinese Women’s and Children’s Museum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCshu), then tried to get a tube scarf from Jack Wolfskin (closed) and then from Nike (expensive and not what I wanted, but I didn’t have time to be picky!), and then Han & Peter (=HP) and I met up an exploration tour.
I’ll leave the details in the photo captions.
(not yet finished!)
On the way, HP recommended I try a special tea from a shop called Changchuntang (= Changchun Hall), which focuses on combining traditional Chinese medicine with modern bubble tea, thus uniting health and flavor. I chose an almond tofu milk tea, and the taste was surprising and delicious.
Before that I had tried a glazed fruit I was unfamiliar with: Chinese hawthorn, slightly sour and with five large seeds, which is also used in TCM. The fruits seem to be much larger than what I associate with hawthorn in Austria, about the size of a plum. The glazed version on a stick is called tanghulu.
So I wasn’t that hungry at dinner, but that didn’t prevent me from again eating food surprises and finishing everything what was not too spicy for me.
We had another extensive and profound discussion, which gave me plenty of food for thought and rethinking. One can never be too careful about Western prejudices in general and personal ones in particular, whether they’re due to the media, other information, or simply my own biases.
K25&beyond d64 – Beijing to Urumqi (20.10.25)
Today starts my 48h train ride so I can continue uploading when I am again in Urumqi (22nd of Oct)
K25&beyond d63 – in Beijing (19.10.25)
At breakfast, I heard the Austrian dialect for the first time since Yunnan, and in this case, it reminded me of everything I DON’T miss about Austria…
The food was 50% Chinese-Western (I myself chose to 90% Chinese), and the tourists were at least 80% non-Chinese.
I started a long walk along Beijing’s Ming City Wall Ruins Park, continued to the Chinese Women’s and Children’s Museum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%BCshu), then tried to get a tube scarf from Jack Wolfskin (closed) and then from Nike (expensive and not what I wanted, but I didn’t have time to be picky!), and then Han & Peter (=HP) and I met up an exploration tour.
I’ll leave the details in the photo captions.
On the way, HP recommended I try a special tea from a shop called Changchuntang (= Changchun Hall), which focuses on combining traditional Chinese medicine with modern bubble tea, thus uniting health and flavor. I chose an almond tofu milk tea, and the taste was surprising and delicious.
Before that I had tried a glazed fruit I was unfamiliar with: Chinese hawthorn, slightly sour and with five large seeds, which is also used in TCM. The fruits seem to be much larger than what I associate with hawthorn in Austria, about the size of a plum. The glazed version on a stick is called tanghulu.
So I wasn’t that hungry at dinner, but that didn’t prevent me from again eating food surprises and finishing everything what was not too spicy for me.
We had another extensive and profound discussion, which gave me plenty of food for thought and rethinking. One can never be too careful about Western prejudices in general and personal ones in particular, whether they’re due to the media, other information, or simply my own biases.
K25&beyond d64 – Beijing to Urumqi (20.10.25)
Today starts my 48h train ride so I can continue uploading when I am again in Urumqi (22nd of Oct)