Day 4 recap: Old Hutong

I really had no idea what to expect.  The agenda said "visit old Hutong sightseeing on a rickshaw. Visit a local Beijing family and have homemade lunch there."  I was excited for the "local" experience but a bit worried about the homemade lunch option.   While the rickshaw ride was clearly a commercialized tourist attraction, the integrity of the Hutong appeared to be real.  Real people. Living in the Hutong.  Usually extended families share an alley.  They also share a bathroom; there isn't indoor plumbing within each of the residences.

The women's bathroom 

The bathroom lacks privacy and a door. I can't imagine having to walk outside and down the road to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. It was a humbling experience to say the least.

   Our "tour" on the rickshaw took us around the perimeter of the Hutong so we were able to see many different homes.  The residence looked very modest ( ok ..primitive would be a better description) and old beaten up bicycles lined the street. But there were also a decent number of cars. Shiny, new-looking cars.   So the visual was a bit confusing.   I guess that the advantage of the video.

Lunch was served by a local family that owns a local restaurant.  We didn't eat AT the  restaurant. We ate on their back porch!

It was decorated beautifully and clean.  I don't know exactly what we ate, but it was pretty good.     After lunch, a local guide shared some of the history of the residence. We heard traditional music played on an instrument that I didn't recognize.  And said hello to the family pet.

A cricket. In a itty-bitty bird cage!

Shawna really bonded with Vivian by this point in the trip.  Early in the day, an older couple asked Vivian if Shawna was her daughter.  When Vivian explained our family, the older couple smiled and nodded in approval.  I think Shawna really enjoyed the attention.


When we arrived at the Hutong, Vivian and Shawna shared a rickshaw. Vivian wasn't supposed to come on the rickshaws with us.  But Shawna asked her to ride with her-  Vivian couldn't say no.  We
were grateful.

I'm not sure why the boys are scowling. 

By early afternoon, it was time to head back to Beijing. We had a train to catch.

The train station was wickedly busy!

We still took the obligatory selfies. 

  Thankfully, Vivian was able to accompany us all the way onto the train.  (While I consider myself a fairly seasoned traveler, I don't know that I would have been able to navigate the train station without her help! )  Once our luggage was stored at the back of our car and we found our seats, we bid farewell to Vivian.  And settled in for the 4.5 hour train ride to Xian.

More pics from the temple of heaven

The actual temple and an inside view

Surrounding the area is the "echo wall."  Here's the wall and the description.

  Of course, we had to try it out.  

Shawna was a bit hesitant ... but no surprise. Sara was happy to test her pipes against the wall. 

And really-- you don't have to yell. And surprisingly- it really works. Dan and Seth were on the other side and could here us talking to them. It was pretty cool. Of course, Vivian was in hand with the assist to make sure that we stood in the correct place etc. 

Next up?  The circular mound.  Constructed in 1530, the mound was an alter used to worship the heavens at the beginning of the winter solstice.

Day 4: temple of heaven

In ancient times, the  emperor would come to the Temple of Heaven to pray for a good harvest. The ceilings inside the temple are painted blue and green to represent the sky and life. Like many historical structures, the outer wall is circular to represent heaven and the inner wall is square to represent the earth. (In 1407, they still thought the world was flat and square. ) It's fascinating that these building were all constructed without nails. (This blog is like a fun travel journal and a history lesson! 😜

Now, the temple of heaven is largely used as a exercise park for seniors and a social gatherings place.  There are people everywhere....exercising, palace cards, Chinese chess, and hackysack.

We tired to play a little hackysack ourselves.... and I'm pretty sure the locals were amused by our futile efforts.  But we had a fun!  Vivian even bought us our very oust Chinese hackysack so perhaps we will improve with practice.

It's very peaceful and serene. Music also fills the air. More pictures later.

Day 3 recap: the Great Wall

Day 3 recap:  the Great Wall


After such a busy day 2, we were grateful that our day 3 agenda was a bit lighter. Up first-- the Great Wall. Since it's nearly 90-120 minutes north of the city, we left bright and early and arrived around 11 am.

We visited the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. We took a cable car up ... which was more like a rudimentary ski lift.  I'm not gonna lie- the cable car was a little bit scary.  Once we got to the top, we spent about 2 hours exploring and climbing the wall.  When Dan and I were here in 2009, we saw a different section of the Wall.  It wasn't quite as high or scenic...but  it also wasn't quite as steep.  Geez-  at some points on this trip, the Wall was more like climbing a ladder - nearly vertical!! 

Somewhere along the way, an Asian woman stopped me  "Hey- we saw you yesterday!"  Ummmm... huh???  ( my thoughts : There are 21 million people in Beijing - and millions of visitors to the Great Wall. For the life of me, I  have no idea who you are or why you think that you know me.  ). Well, as it turns out- she did know us!   They were the adopted Asian girls from Texas that we met, albeit very briefly, while in the entrance line at Tiananmen Square the day before.   I still think it's weird that they recognized us. And, I think it's equally odd that we were at the same place at the same time two days in a row.   Weird. And kinda cool. Later that morning, Sara and I got to be the celebrities on the Great Wall as we posed with another naive family for a picture.

We took the ''toboggan ride" down the mountain from the Great Wall.  And yes, it's in quotes for a reason.  Toboggan ride is a bit over stated.  It was more like a toboggan experience or a  motorless go kart. It was pretty uneventful. Dan and Shawna had a share a toboggan. Several times, I saw him pushing himself to keep going.  So it wasn't really a thrill ride.  It was simply a way down.  The alternative?  Taking the cable car DOWN the mountain.  Ummmm... no way.

On our way back to the hotel, we made the obligatory visit to the jade  factory.  Then headed out to see the People's park and the 2008 Beijing Olympic stadiums.

The birds nest and the water cube look just like it did on TV many years ago.  Now the area is filled with civilians who come to relax around the area.  It was a beautiful night so many young families filled the park to enjoy the evening.

Back at the hotel, tensions ran high as our tired, weary and almost hangry group had to navigate dinner on our own.

Let's go out for pizza
No. Let's stay here at eat at the hotel restaurant.
But I want pizza. Do they deliver?
I don't want the buffet. How about McDonald's?
Do they even have pizza in China?

Ultimately - we decided to go out for pizza and Map-quested the closest Pizza Hut.  We were feeling pretty confident for the first 7 minutes.  Then it became clear -- there wasn't a Pizza Hut, or anything familiar, on the route.

So we headed back to the hotel and relented to eat at the buffet.  But the buffet was "closed" because of a private function ( the Novartis team of all things! ). So again-- no food. Hungry people. Limited options.

We did pack snacks for the trip. So how 'bout cheese and crackers for dinner?  Pringles?  Or even Peanut M&Ms ?  We considered them all. Ultimately, we DID find another Pizza Hut not too far away and went there. Even though it was 830 PM. And we had to order from the picture menu again.

Day 2 recap PM: summer palace

The summer palace filled our afternoon.  Like the title suggests, the summer palace was where the emperor spent his summers. It's absolutely beautiful.  Lots of trees and the lake make it quite comfortable too.

We spent some time walking the "long  corridor," from one end to the other.  It's properly named because it is, indeed, a long corridor.  The ceiling is beautifully painted and many people simply sit and relax along the way.  Sara got caught up in the scenery and missed a step, which sent her crashing to the ground pretty hard.  (She's got a pretty decent bruise from that little misstep.  ).

Before we left, we took a the dragon boat cruise across the lake to the island that houses the dragon king.

Dinner was the famous Peking duck.  They carve this bird table side, and it looks like a tiny  version of the thanksgiving turkey.  However, you actually eat Peking duck in a wrap with duck sauce, cucumber and bamboo shoots,  Despite its similar appearance to turkey, Sara wouldn't touch it .  The rest of us enjoyed dinner.  Honestly, I think we were just happy that nothing  jiggled like the pork dish from lunch.

Following dinner, we headed out to the Red theatre for the Kungfu show. Again- the name is pretty descriptive.

And I'm pretty sure it was a good show.  Jet lag and sleep deprivation got the best of us;  Dan and I nodded in and out of consciousness for the entire show.  😳 The scenes that we did see were amazing - it was live acrobatics and kungfu combined.  About half dozen young year old boys with shaved heads performed forward and back head springs over and over again.  No. That's not a typo.  They didn't perform HAND springs. They performed HEAD springs.  Literally - they used their heads not their hands. It was fascinating and a bit painful to watch.  Our guide, Vivian, tells us that the boys can only perform here from about 7-8 years old.
After the show, we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep!

Recap day 2 AM: Tiananmen Square and forbidden city

Day 2 recap

The day started off bright and early. Not quite as early as I anticipated though. 😉  With the 12 hour time difference, I fully expected us to be up at 3 AM.  

We started the day with the "western style buffet" at the hotel. The buffet was just like I remember.... plenty of familiar breakfast items, and a whole bunch of stuff that I would never consider for early morning entree.  Eggs, waffles, fruit, cold cereal and some not-quite-coffee ( but as good as it gets) were the top selections. The salad bar had 'meat' that I didn't recognize but I did laugh when I saw the bacon bits. ( Flash back --- for those who were with us in 2009, you may remember that Shawna wouldn't really eat much.  But she LOVED bacon bits.  How or why she even came to have them?  I don't remember. I just know that we were desperate to get that kid to eat anything. And somehow,  we got her to eat bacon bits.  So, every morning at breakfast, we'd fill up a cup of bacon bits from the buffet and feed them to Shawna throughout the day.)  Other items of interest from the breakfast buffet included sweet potatoes, fried noodles, won-ton soubp, beans, congee and mixed vegetables.  It's eclectic - to say the least.

We met our guide, Vivian and headed out to visit Tiananmen Square.   While in the entrance line, another American family approached me to ask about Shawna. The woman was from Texas and had two adopted Chinese daughters ( both in their late teens). They were also on their first heritage tour.

Tiananmen Square was much larger than I anticipated.  It can hold up to 1 million people.

 Our guide shared much of the history of the buildings and Chairman Mao.  And much of it matched the summary that Sara had given us a week earlier. ( side note- each of the kids were preassigned a little bit of research on our trip. Sara had Tiananmen Square).   Not surprisingly - our guide did not mention the tragedy of 1989.  (Apparently, the museum also has no reference to the incident either. ). For obvious reasons, we didn't ask either.

The forbidden city is on the other side of Tiananmen Square. Again- there was a lot of history. A lot of tradition. Mythical creatures. The lucky number 9 is everywhere. Circles represent the heaven. Squares represent the earth.  We learned a lot. And walked a lot!  It's so much larger than the pictures can show.  As a function of security, there aren't any trees in the Tiananmen Square or  the forbidden city.  So it was really quite hot ... 99 to be exact.  We attracted a decent amount of attention throughout the day.  Vivian tells us that most Chinese people have never seen an American in person, so they were fascinated by our presence. Many took pictures from a distance.  Seth was approached by a young woman who asked him to pose for a picture with her.  He was a good sport about it.  Honestly, I think he was rather flattered.

,

Shawna was pretty quiet all morning.  I can only imagine what's going on in her little head.  It's got to be a lot to take in.  Many times, people would talk to her assuming that she could speak mandarin

  I think she's a bit frustrated ( or even quite embarrassed?? ) that she can't understand what they are saying. Sigh. 

Before lunch, we headed to the Tea shop.  Hot tea wasn't really on our wish list since it was 99 degrees, but it's part of the trip.  Yes- shopping trips are required.  4 to be exact. You don't have to buy anything, but you have to go.  Otherwise, your fees to visit China are increased. Nope- I'm not kidding.   But it was fine.  We arrived at the tea shop.  We had our own personal tea expert guide us through four different Chinese teas.  We bought two boxes and then went to lunch.

Lunch was a traditional Chinese lunch.  Most of it was pretty good.  Except for that one pork dish... that wiggled a bit too much for my liking.  We were told that it was a famous Beijing pork dish.  It looked like short ribs.  It jiggled like jello.  And, looked like it was made entirely of pork fat.  😝

Agenda day 4

I really expected to have leg cramps last night after climbing "the ladder" (aka the Great Wall) for 2 hours. Surprisingly, I feel pretty good. 😁 We leave Beijing today via bullet train and head over to Xian. It's a four hour train ride, so I will update the blog and fb in transit. Here is
today's agenda

Dang. That's a big wall

The stair master has nothing on the Great Wall. It's so steep at some parts, it's more like climbing a ladder.

Here's the highlight reel. I'll post more later.

This is what 99° looks like ...

Obligatory family selfie

At the Forbidden city

day 3: Beijing

Today's agenda : the Great Wall ( and apparently were bringing the terrible towel along). We will take a cable car up. Climb and walk a portion of it. And then, according to the agenda, we're taking a toboggan ride down. Hmmm. More on that to follow…