Here's part 4 of Beijing.... are you tired yet???
He Ain’t Heavy….
June 17, Thursday
It’s raining and today is our optional tour of the Hutong
(small residential
alleys of Beijing)…We were not fazed by the rain, we
have done what we came
for, we climbed the Great Wall… Everything else from
this point is a bonus.
We had breakfast at the Crystal Ballroom - same-mo-same-mo.
Again tour mates
sat together recalling experiences at the wall, shopping
and dinner. Kirk
and Martha opted for the luxury of the Italian restaurant
at the hotel for
dinner.
The area we visited is 300 years old, the homes more than
100 years old…
Everyone joined the optional Hutong tour except for The
Family who went to
Xian to visit the terracotta soldiers. We boarded a rickshaw
pedaled by a
young man from the countryside, who drove us through
the narrow alleyways.
Nice morning for a rickshaw ride… The rain stopped and
it was cool and the
area was shady, no motorized vehicles for the most part,
so it was peaceful….
Our first stop was the Drum Tower… This is where they
beat the drums every
morning during the Ming and earlier dynasties to wake
up the people. Opposite
is the Bell tower, where they rang the bells every night.
Supposedly, we can
get a good view of old Beijing from the top of the tower
but we had to climb
64 very high steps… .Here we go again… no elevators …
no escalators… my poor
heart… I yelled rest stop in the middle of the climb
and everyone stopped. We
got to the top and I was panting… I sat and rested while
the guide gave her
pitch (we had a separate Hutong guide) and Rudy took
my pulse rate (needless
to say it was raising). The view would have been spectacular
but it was
hazy…so not good for pictures. Now it’s time to come
down (remember, I can
always climb but I have a problem coming down) and I
asked my tour mates to
wait so they can go ahead of me… We all climb down looking
sideways…Luckily,
there was a handrail we can cling to… Others, like Martha
& Kirk, just
stepped down just like these were normal stairs.
We rode the rickshaw again to visit a house in one of
the Hutongs. The houses
were entered through a double wooden gate, into a central
courtyard - usually
a garden. Several quarters surround the courtyard where
the family lives.
This home that we visited had 7 people in it, a father
and a mother, their 2
sons and 2 daughters-in-law, and a grandchild. They had
2 cats that were
treated royally, a 2 birds. The homeowner is a retired
archeologist. They had
modern conveniences such as microwave, VCR and cable
TV. Hutong dwellers
share a public toilet … so if you live in a Hutong there
are no secrets!
Garbage is picked up twice a day, toilets are cleaned
twice a day. Beijing is
a very clean city… Folks are constantly sweeping the
streets.. The buses
(windows and all) are cleaned constantly by the ticket
takers, even when the
bus is in operation. There are no mosquitoes in Beijing
and very few flying
insects…Very few folks own pets because of space limitations…
They also limit
the size of the pet… We saw 3 dogs throughout our visit,
but many birds in
cages….Jessica tells us you are only allowed one child
in China. It’s the
law. And it is especially enforced in Beijing. What happens
if you get
pregnant and don’t want to abort? ‘It can’t happen.’,
was the answer. Our
rickshaw driver pedaled us back to the bus, we tipped
him and the guide…Dave
and Dena felt guilty and tipped the rickshaw driver $5…
The bus took us to the Temple of the Earth (Ditan Park)
where the restaurant
is…This was the best of all the restaurants the tour
has taken us to…Pretty
setting. The restaurant is in one of the halls in the
temple compound so it
was in the typical Ming architectural style, painted
ceiling just like the
palaces in the Forbidden City… Same deal, cold dishes
(this time some
seaweed), hot dishes (delicious sweet/sour whole fish),
soup, rice and
watermelon…Rudy tried to ask for rice with the hot dishes
and sent the
waitresses into a state of confusion… They said.. ‘Later…later..”
It arrived
just like with every meal we’ve had, just before the
dessert. Jessica says,
it’s the Chinese way of eating… The Chinese visiting
professor Rudy sat next
to on the plane back to the states explained that the
normal Chinese meal
starts with a cold course, the hot dishes, then soup
(to settle the food in
your stomach), then rice, if you are still hungry, then
some fruits.
Mara and her grandmother, Barbara did not go back to the
hotel with us. They
wanted to walk back to the hotel (about a 2 hour walk)
. Our guide took us
shopping (30 minutes only), The White Peacock Arts and
Crafts Store - another
government owned facility. Rudy and I bought a cloisonne
Buddha figure (1,350
yuan less 5%). Kirk and Martha asked a lady painting
butterflies on a scarf
if she painted a particular scarf on display
and all of sudden scarves were
flying all over… They could not figure out what was happening,
until I said
they are making you choose one since each one is different.
. Kirk ended up
buying a scarf hand-painted with the plum tree in bloom.
Back to hotel, we
opted to nap (not feeling well, high blood pressure)…
others ventured to the
shopping areas on Wangfujing… We are having Peking Duck
tonight and will be
picked up by the bus at 5pm. We showered and dressed
for the dinner.
Peking Duck dinner was enjoyed with Dave and Dena, Martha
and Kirk and Eric
at the Golden Garden Restaurant at the Golden Era Hotel.
Again, cold dish
first, then hot dishes, then the carving of the duck,
then putting it
together (take a pancake, dip duck in duck sauce, place
in pancake, put some
scallions and Chinese celery, wrap it up like a burrito
and eat with hands).
We also had what we called the Little Mac - small sesame
seed buns, spread
with duck sauce and diced duck meat. Then we had soup,
and rice and the
ubiquitous watermelon. Drinks were unlimited. They
had that wine that 10
yuan wine the Minnesotans really liked (Ha..ha..)
The rest of the group were going to see the Chinese Acrobat
show (Dave &
Allison were joining them there)… We opted to go back
to the hotel via taxi
(our first of many taxi rides -15 yuan) There are three
levels of cabs in
Beijing - the smaller cabs, no air-con is 10 yuan plus
1.20 ... the next
level is 10 yuan plus 1.60 and the highest is 10
yuan plus 2 yuan for a nice
car with air-con. The cabs are clearly marked as to class..
Most 2 yuan cabs
have English speaking drivers.
After we got back to the hotel, Rudy and I walked to Wangfujing
St. to the
largest shopping mall in Beijing, Xingdongan…Martha talked
about the sales
clerks wearing exactly what was on the mannequins so
we wanted to see that…
It was really a weird sight….These ladies standing next
to the mannequins in
the same outfit…. We wanted to see the food vendors
(offering ready-to- eat
food such as grilled meat and vegetables, corn, and scorpions
- it reminds
you of Taste of Chicago) east of Wanfujing St, on Goldfish
Lane but I did not
feel very good so we went back to our room to rest. Our
beds were turned
down, fresh towels… the whole room was made-up, even
the toilet paper corners
were turned…. Again, just like every night, a white cloth
between our beds.
We have a little problem with our lights… It seems like
everything is on a
timer…. So at a certain time of night, the lights turn
off automatically… you
switch it on again and it will switch off after about
10 minutes…. So we gave
up on reading and just slept.