Enjoying The Big Apple in Beijing

I met my friend Shei Shei downtown on a mission to find a very special coffee shop we had read about, but Shei Shei first took me around the silk market area. It was not really what I had expected. In my mind, I had imagined people working on sewing machines and there would be endless rows of silk, like fabric in a fabric store. It wasn't that exciting. There was about a half of a floor with silk on display, but most of it was stalls like in other big shopping centers I have been to. There was a lot of shouting, "Hey Lady..." I feel that I can't even look at anything in that kind of shopping environment.

After a bit of walking around, we were ready to get to a very special coffee shop. We walked to a big high rise building full of shops. We took the escalator up six flights to get to Central Perk. Central Perk is the coffee shop the characters from "Friends" hung out at. A man in Beijing has started his coffee shop by trying to recreate the set as closely as possible. The signs were pretty close, as was the chalk board that listed all the different coffees. Shei Shei and I had the place to ourselves and we got the big couch in front of the big screen TV that plays the show on an endless loop. We got their right as the first Thanksgiving episode began! We even got to meet the owner. The real menu was in Chinese, so Shei Shei helped me order a hot chocolate. The waiter got my order wrong and the owner chuckled, "He's my own, Rachel," and made me my hot chocolate himself, and Shei Shei's latte. It was pretty funny. I still am not feeling my best, so it was nice to just veg and watch a bunch of episodes of "Friends." As we left, a big group of friends came in and were taking pictures. It's a fun, creative little place.

Here's an article on the shop if you are interested: http://articles.cnn.com/2010-07-02/world/friends.china.central.perk_1_coffee-shop-central-perk-smelly-cat?_s=PM:WORLD