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Published: September 22nd 2013
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Looking out over the City from the running machine in the gym does not bode well. It looks wet, with visibility in the smog down to about 1km. No sign of the sky, clouds or the sun. You can even tell there is smog in the air by looking across the street to the other buildings. After checking our washing, which is still very damp, we rustle the boys up and head down to breakfast. Joseph has pancakes, M&Ms with rice bubbles, and another cereal. Liam has eggs and bacon but probably wished he’d found the M&Ms also. Ky has her usual cereal and yoghurt while I also tried that and found the vanilla yoghurt quite tasty.
We meet Tina and the driver, and head off to a tour of the Hutongs. The hutongs are narrow alleyways through single storey buildings, some areas still remaining despite the advancement of high rise apartments. The tour starts with us meeting Rain, a friendly lady guide who cycles with our rickshaws from the main road to the confluence of the front and back lakes. One area that the tours focus on the north side of the lakes is the ‘good face’
of the hutongs, with nice little shops selling a wide array of fascinating arts, traditional clothes, tourist items and the like. The area had been rebuilt during the Olympics, so there were no original buildings there.
From there we walk through the good area and on to the Drum and Bell towers. We opt to climb up the 75, 1:1 stairs to the Bell Tower to admire the 1600kg bell, and look out over the City.
A walk back to the Hutongs, and we have a visit to a local family’s house. The 400 square meter area comprises four main buildings surrounding a courtyard. They are, from the south side clockwise: two shops, toilet and sleeping rooms, sleeping rooms, and kitchen with dining space. The buildings are not connected so during the middle of winter you have to go from a cosy bedroom to outside to get to the kitchen. The man who owns the house gives a short talk saying welcome to his home, which Rain translated. She offers to take a photo of us there, but that didn’t make sense to us so we declined. The courtyard area is interesting: scaffolding and bamboo trellises
hold up a range of different vines like squash, grapes and cherry tomatoes. In spring they must completely cover the courtyard. Despite all the grey streets and walls along the hutong, there are picturesque potted plants and vines that added a dash of colour to the drab day.
The owner creates calligraphy, and his wife creates paper cuttings, of which Kylie purchases a gloriously coloured painted cutting of cranes, symbolising long life, for ¥180 (A$33). Joseph also picks a cutting of dragons (¥180). We don’t really have time to look in the other shops, so we arrange for Tina to drop us off back at the hutongs after the Summer Palace.
Lunch is in a restaurant called Mei Zhou Dong Po in a mall. Again, a fabulous selection of dishes with colour photos making the selection easy. I am tiring of unusual dishes though, so skip past the ducks’ feet in mustard sauce, and ducks’ tongues, to select a dish of eggplant with chilli and stewed chicken with water chestnuts. Joseph selects a fillet steak dish which turns out to be tiny strips if steak mixed with two unidentifiable veges (possibly bamboo and beans)
and mushrooms. Liam again picks an expensive item, a fillet of fish. All the dishes taste excellent, and the total bill with rice and coke is just over ¥200 (A$36). This meal, like the others, is covered by the overall tour price.
The Summer Palace visit is a peaceful walk around part of the huge man-made lake. There is a good number of people visiting, but it doesn’t feel crowded despite the entry sign indicating a projected 58,000 visitors for the day. The Long Corridor has beautiful paintings and decorative work. On the lake are both simple and well made dragon boats.
We don’t look inside any of the buildings, being a bit stretched thin from touristing. The humid day, despite not being hot, makes walking around a sweaty experience. Liam finds a wooden sword to his liking, so paired up with his chopsticks and army cap he is all set for battle.
As promised, we are dropped off at the Hutong area. Tina draws a simple map for us showing that the Drum and Bell Towers are aligned in a north-south direction, precisely north of the Forbidden City and Jin
Mountain. So as long as we can see the towers, we should be able to make our way back to our hotel – if we wanted to walk 45 minutes. So we wander around the outside and through some of the other hutong area, but find not much else of interest outside the main attraction alleys. Joseph is getting bickery so we manage to find a taxi and stick our door card in his face (it had the address on it). ¥17.50 later and we are back at the hotel, for air conditioning and a nap!
Dinner is back at the basement of the mall from last night, plus a hunt around the six floors of the mall with up-market clothes stores for undies for Liam. Can’t find any so he’ll have to do without (he’d only packed three pair!). We haven’t actually seen an equivalent of our Kmarts or Targets, but then maybe the malls downtown are too fancy for that type of store.
On the way back, a large store selling scooters and similar sporty gear has a bunch of people out front doing line dancing. I figure it’s a sales trick: after being suitably motivated from dancing you trip on inside for a buy. Further down the street the whole front park of the St Josephs church is full of people also line dancing, and mixed among them are the green shirted choir! Must be a case of mind, body, spirit, with a happy communion of the three…
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