Not Forbidden to rollerblade in the city? Guess not!

Thursday morning, I skated my way to the Grand Beijing Hotel for brunch. China is so hot and humid that I almost took a shower in the restaurant sink because I was sweating all over the place. I ordered “drunk chicken” with oven-baked pork buns. Once more, the service was excessive and overwhelming. They brought out a fresh warm wet towel every single time I wiped my hands or mouth with one. My dedicated waiter spoke English very well by Chinese standards, and was quite informative. He pointed out that my table-neighbours were enjoying Japanese abalone, a kind of sea creature, at U$500+ per plate! Australian and South African abalone are about half-price, but don’t “taste as good”, said my waiter. Needless to say, I did not order abalone.

I then rollerbladed to the Forbidden City: China’s largest and most opulent temple. I purchased the Rodger Moore Audio tour and looked at the different pavilions. Chinese emperors such knew how to live. Any commoner making eye contact with the emperor would be executed immediately. After I completed the official tour, I put on my rollerblades and skated around the different pavilions. My guess is that I’m the first person to rollerblade in the Forbidden City in 700 years of existence. Most guards did not care and the ones who did could not catch up with me… 90%+ of the tourists in Beijing are Chinese, and many asked me to take pictures with their children or videotape me rollerblading. I concentrated too much on showing off and did not notice that a brick was missing. My right skate jammed into the whole and sent me crashing to the ground. I was fortunate enough to land on my wrist guards and only suffered a very light bruise on my right knee. Slightly embarrassed, I got back on my feet and waved at the crowd.

After a couple more hours of rollerblade in the surrounding areas, I grabbed my cheapest meal in China, at only 7 kuai, (less than $1) which consisted of a bowl of tasty noodles and a 640ml Tsing Tao. I learned that there is no age limit to drink or enter a bar, but you need to be 18 years old to go into an internet café. Go figure. I dropped the Belgian guy’s apartment to check out his new remote controlled car, which is about 60cm long, and can reach speeds of up to 90km/h. We then hopped into a cab to go to Taku, a club in Haidian, the student district. At 50 kuai (less than $10) for cover and all you can drink Tsing Tao or mix drinks, it is a very popular place filled mostly with foreign exchange students looking for a cheap night out. I grabbed a 40 yuan (yuan = kuai) taxi home around 4:30am.