有上当了！(Tricked again!)

When will i learn?  Beijing food will always suck.  Why do i keep giving it more and more chances??????

Went to the "biggest mall in Asia" today (it could be a total lie, like all of China).  It was originally built to host people who earn >3000yuan/mth (that's what they said).  Except if you only earn 3000yuan/mth, you're barely getting by, and therefore don't have excess money to shop for anything, let alone in a fancy shmancy giant mall.  On the other hand, the people who actually DO have tons of money, like my jiejie, wouldn't shop there.  The most expensive stores i saw there were Puma, the North Face, etc - like the normal stores in our normal malls.  Who knows, maybe there are tons of Chinese brands that are significantly more expensive that i just simply don't know, but i doubt it.  Anyway, the mall was like EMPTY, which is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO rare in Beijing, or China in general!!!  and i get that providing air conditioning for a place that big requires a huge amt of electricity, etc, but C'MON!!!  TURN THE FUCKING A/C ON!!!  i hate this city.  Luckily, it got cooler tonite.  it FINALLY rained (once again, NOT reported by the news).  its suposed to be 30 tomorrow.  ha!  i'll still dress for the Sahara. 

anyway.  We went to a restaurant today called 东来顺, which is a chain restaurant in Beijing.... Usually, by the definition of a chain, the food at the original place must've been pretty damn good, right???  well, i wouldn't believe it.  The original store is supposed to have been around for hundreds of years in Beijing - it was the first 涮羊肉 (hotpot) restaurant.  so, we ordered that.  .... it was so BLAH!  The best things we had today were the FREE pickled garlic and the FREE 南瓜饼 (pumpkin 'pancake'?)!!!!!!!  and it was so expensive!  (relatively)  it totaled 172yuan for 3 ppl, when our awesome meal yesterday at the Muslim restaurant only cost like 180 for 4 ppl!!

when will i learn???

oh, and btw, i just learned that the air conditioners in China uses FREON.  ... someone please tell me that it's a different type of freon??  someone please tell me that its a type that won't ruin our ozone layer??  most household here has about 2-3 air condtioners - that's a A LOT of freon and a lot of ozone damage if it is what i think it is!!!  and if it is, then the world seriously needs to take action and stop this!!!!!!  I hope i'm waaaay wrong.