What did General Tso do to get his own Chicken?

I would first like to start out this blog post with a HUGE thanks to fellow Deerfield alums John Gray and Jack Chen who took us under their wings our first day and gave us the ultimate introduction to Beijing.

The people in Hong Kong were right, Hong Kong and China are not the same thing. While Hong Kong is an international metropolitan hub, Beijing has characteristics that are more distinctly Chinese. Upon our arrival we delved right into the action of the Forbidden City.

Everything in Beijing was open and expansive unlike the congestion of Hong Kong. The Forbidden City was no different. We had heard you could spend all day there but it was not until it took us three hours to walk to the other side that we realized that there was still much to see. We wandered in and out of temples, palaces, and imperial gardens until our feet hurt and then went back to our hostel to make contact with John Gray who graduated from Deerfield a year ahead of myself.

John had us meet him on the other side of town in the more modern business district around where he worked. We had not yet seen a white person speak Chinese so we were both astonished as he navigated to a nearby hotel.

Suddenly it was as if we were back in the Ozone Bar in Hong Kong as we shot up to the top of the Shangri-La Hotel to have a drink while taking in a spectacular view of Beijing. John informed us that the current pollution conditions were “great” which was why we could see so much of the city.

After our inaugural drink we headed down to meet up with another Deerfield alum Jack Chen who was a native of Beijing. As he drove us through town on our way to dinner he confirmed that the clear skies in Beijing were not normal and shared the fun fact that during the 2008 Olympics the government actually had factories use a higher grade of oil to reduce pollution, but that soon ended after the closing ceremonies.

Jack continued to drive us through town, and after picking up one of his friends, we made our way to the restaurant. This was not just any restaurant. As Beijing is known for its duck cuisine, Jack chose the famous Dadong restaurant, which is the best duck restaurant in all of Beijing. We didn’t know how lucky we were until we researched it later and found that it is high on the Time Magazine Top Ten Things to do in Beijing. Seeing as we had no idea what was going on John and Jack determined that it would be best if Jack take the reigns and order for us. Order he did. By the end of the meal close to 10 courses had come to our table including beef, fish, and fois gras; but the culminating courses were all Beijing duck. Our companions showed us the traditional ways to eat the different parts of the duck: dip the skin in sugar, wrap the meat in a little tortilla-type thing, ect.

For every part of the duck there was a multitude of different toppings and sauces that could go with it. We washed down our duck with Tsing Tao beer and a country gin-type liquor called baijiu.

As we ate our food we were enlightened by the dinner conversation. Our three companions talked about what it was like living and working in China, being away from home, and their future plans. It was very interesting to get the perspective of people who have decided to start their career working outside of the US, especially in an area that is growing and changing so rapidly.

Upon broaching the subject of Chinese food, the conversation turned from enlightening to downright shocking. We were confounded to find that our conception of Chinese food was erroneous. We, as Americans, have fallen victim to perhaps the greatest conspiracy since the JFK assassination: there is NO SUCH THING as General Tso’s chicken in China. There is no orange chicken either. In fact, as Jack informed us, there really is no “Chinese” food. Certain areas of China have unique types of food (like duck in Beijing) but there is no uniform, ubiquitous Chinese food menu that all revolves around General Tso and his kick ass chicken. While this makes perfect sense, we still did not understand why General Tso was such a big deal in the US. We determined that the early Chinese immigrants must have voted for General Tso for president and left China after Mao Zedong was elected. The chicken dish that bears his name must be a final salute to their fallen hero. While a 400 year old general and a Cold-War era Communist have nothing in common, it was the best we could come up with. 

After dinner John showed us the Beijing night-life and despite it being a Wednesday I must say that it was happening. We hopped around to a few bars before settling at a club. As John had work the next day we did not stay out too late and got some rest for the big day ahead of us.

The next day we spent walking around Beijing and eventually we found our way to Tianamen Square for the national flag-lowering ceremony at the end of the day.

There were hundreds of people in the square but the immense group seemed small in the vast public square. As we stood there we imagined large military rallies taking place back when Communism was really heating up. When the flag ceremony started, the 16 lane highway that separated the government building from the square was shut down and across it marched a small regimen.

After surrounding the flagpole the giant Chinese flag was lowered just as the sun set. After the ceremony the government building holding Mao Zedong’s portrait was illuminated with a red glow and everyone was evacuated from the square. Seeing as this happens every night, we assumed that this was to aid in the prevention of protests like the Tianamen Square Massacre of 1989, which the Chinese government denies happened.

Our last day in Beijing we took a trip to the Great Wall of China. We decided to go to the less touristy part of the wall that was not renovated and was farther away. The three hour bus ride turned out to be worth it as there was virtually no one there and the views of the wall were spectacular. We were reminded somewhat of Machu Pichu as we saw the man made structure twist and turn along the high peaks of the spine of the mountain. We trekked along the wall, which turned out to be exhausting as the Wall ascended and descended from one peak to the other. 

The Great Wall was simply a miracle of construction that stretched from one end to the other as far as we could see.

Later that night we returned to Beijing and had some drinks with John before turning in early to catch our trans-continental flight to Istanbul. It is hard to believe we are officially out of Asia and in the last stretch of our trip: Istanbul -> Israel -> Scandinavia -> Home. Time has been flying.