Beijing Evening Activities

Beijing Opera		Beijing Roast Duck Dinner
Chinese Jiaozi Dinner

Beijing Opera
It has existed for over 200 years. It is widely regarded as the highest expression of the Chinese culture. It is known as one of the three main theatrical systems in the world. Artistically, Beijing Opera is perhaps the most refined form of opera in the world. It has deeply influenced the hearts of the Chinese people. Although it is called Beijing Opera, its origins are not in Beijing but in the Chinese provinces of Anhui and Hubei. Beijing Opera got its two main melodies, Xi_Pi and Er_Huang, from Anhui and Hubei operas. It then absorbed music and arias from other operas and musical arts in China.
Unfamiliar characters and a 12-tone musical scale have long defeated Westerner's efforts to stay to the last scene of an average Beijing (Peking) Opera performance.
In fact, it's all very simple with those two-century-old artform, which combines singing, musical dialogue, martial arts and fantastic costumes. There are three roles: female (dan), male (sheng) and clown (chou), each of which, depending on age and disposition, is identified by its facial makeup. How each face looks discloses the nature of the role - good, sly, cruel or bad. The plot, of course, differs with each work.

Beijing Roast Duck Dinner
Peking Duck has the reputation of being the most delicious food Beijing has to offer. Eating Peking Duck is seen to be one of the two things you are absolutely supposed to do while in Beijing. The other one is climbing the Great Wall.

The ducks are raised for the sole purpose of making the food. Force-fed, they are kept in cages which restrain them from moving about, so as to fatten them up and make the meat comparably tender. Peking Roasted Duck is processed in several steps: first the ducks are rubbed with spices, salt and sugar, and then kept hung in the air for some time. Then the ducks are roasted in an oven, or hung over the fire till they become brown with rich grease perspiring outside and have a nice odor.

Peking Duck is always served in well-cut slices. The whole duck must be sliced into 120 pieces and every piece has to be perfect with the complete layers of the meat. Normally there are many dishes served with the duck, including a dish of fine-cut shallot bars, a dish of cucumber bars and finally a dish of paste-like soy of fermented wheat flour. Without these the dainty duck is surely in the shade.

The place that offers the best Peking Duck is the Quan Ju De Restaurant, which has outlets at Qianmen, Hepingmen and Wangfujing. It was established 130 years ago.

Chinese Jiaozi Dinner
Jiaozi or dumpling is a traditional and popular food with a long history in China.

There is a legend about the origin of the Jiaozi. In the later years of Eastern Han Period (Dong Han) an official called Zhang Zhongjing invented a kind of food to help poor people keep warm in cold winter. This food looked like ears with mutton, hot pepper and some medicinal materials as the fillings Afterwards people began to make dumplings as well.

Jiaozi is the food that will no doubt appear on tables during Spring Festivals. Generally, people prepare it before midnight on the last day of the passing lunar year and eat it after the New Year's bell sounds.

Jiaozi looks like shoe-shaped gold and silver ingots so when people eat it during festivals they really hope it could bring fortune and good luck to them, and this of course is their best wishes. Sometimes people will add some sweets, Chinese dates and chestnuts in fillings of some dumplings to express their wishes. They hope those who get sweets could have a sweeter life, those who get dates and chestnuts could have babies early, because date (Zao) which is homonymic with early in Chinese, so are chestnuts (Zhenzi). Zi is homonymic with children.

Today Jiaozi has already become an important part of Chinese cuisine.