Last EAP Excursion: 爨底下村 (Dicuanxia village)

So some of you may be wondering, "Does Beijing have anything else besides Chinese food?" The answer's yes. There are restaurants of practically every country somewhere in the city. Most international restaurants' menus tend be more like western prices though, so I usually don't frequent them.. unless it's a friend's birthday! Friday was my friend Alice's 20th birthday (you may remember her from all my pictures while traveling... she was one of friends I trekked China with) and so a bunch of went to this Italian restaurant on the eastern side of town. It was a pretty fancy place, and besides the rich-man-style small-sized portions, was an enjoyable dinner. There were even two Chinese women playing the violin and cello in the corner of the room, but to my disappoint they only played classical music and didn't take my requests for Queen's "We Will Rock You" or AC/DC's "Back in Black." Oh well. The restaurant brought out Alice's birthday cake and stuck this huge dynamite-stick of a candle right in the middle. The sparks were like 3 feet tall; it was sweet.

Saturday EAP took us on last excursion to this place called 爨底下村 (Dicuanxia village), about 2.5 hours west of Beijing in the barren hills. I think there was some special explanation behind the village's name and how it had some historical significance, but I kinda ignored it. The small village it self was like any other Chinese tourist place, nicely rebuilt and crawling with vendors. The director of Beijing program had brought her husband so he took some of us who didn't want to listen to the tour guide on a hike outside the village. The trails weren't very clear and the map he had was a little outdated, but luckily after a half hour of walking through thick brush and getting whacked in the face by brush and tree branches we reached a steep hill of loose rocks. The only way was up, so up we went.
There was a road/trail at the top and we followed it to this cool looking abandoned village. There was an older looking man who was watching some sheep nearby that we talked to a bit. He said the village was abandoned a while ago because there wasn't any water, and when we asked him where he used the bathroom and threw away trash, he responded with "Anywhere, the whole place is trash can." We watched where we stepped a little more carefully after that.

We got back to Beijing around 6:30 pm that night and EAP took us to this dim sum restaurant. The food was good, but it for me it was just a pre-cursor of the Thanksgiving feast that will be happening this Thursday. EAP originally said we would have to find a place for Thanksgiving dinner on our own because the budget wasn't big enough, but last week the hotel the normally go to called and said they would offer us a discount because of the current financial crisis. Soooo, this Thursday we are getting hooked up with an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink thanksgiving dinner buffet at this sweet hotel (forgot the name at the moment). So by the time all of you in the States wake up on Thanksgiving Day, I'll have already stuffed myself with as much fire chicken as my stomach can hold. I'll post pictures of the inevitable Thanksgiving craziness this next weekend.