The whole chicken!

Asia » China » Beijing
April 7th 2018

Published: April 7th 2018

We are currently docked in Beijing for three days, giving us plenty of time to explore this amazing city and general area. I think the population of this one city is more than double that of Australian, people everywhere and for the most part very polite and accommodating gentle people.

Our first day here we took the tour into the city about a 3 hour drive from the port, this allowed us to see lots of the countryside, many many many high rise apartments to accommodate their growing population. The guide told us that the one child policy was relaxed sometime ago because there would be no young people to work in the industry to ensure growth in the economy, and only this week it was announced that families can now have three children, I have no idea where they are going to put all of those people.

There is compulsory retirement once you tern 60 and the govt pays a pension. Interesting developments happening around us. There is a job for everyone under 60, they just make it work and everyone pays their way unless they are ill or disabled.

The city and villages are so clean, it is a credit to them, as for the air and atmosphere in general it is very bad we havent seen the sun since we have arrived. I dont know how they get their crops to grow in this pollution and without the sunshine.

Our tour took us to the summer palace where the empress spent her summers, it is on a beautiful lake and is surrounded by historical buildings including pagodas. The whole place is steeped in history and is fascinating to see, if these walls could talk!

THe grounds are surrounded by amazing and well manicured gardens, today it is a public space that people over 60, locals can visit for free and practice their tai chai, they are so precise in their movements and delightful to watch as they do their daily exercise, not a hip replacement in sight!

From there we went to the Beijing zoo to see the panda bears, they have a breeding programme in place. but the main research area is 1000 km away in another provence, which would be interesting to see as they have cubs at the moment.

I think half of China and a high school from Coventry England were visiting on the same day, although it was freezing cold the bears were out, but turned their backs on their many admirers, they are in huge compounds, with glass walls, they sat eating bamboo most of our visit with their backs to the crowds. The apparently spend 90% of their waking moments eating. I did get some good footage of one when he went for a walk, sniffed at the windows with his admirers staring then went about his business and turned his back again.

WE had a stop on the way back to the ship at a place called Pearl Markets, it was full of privately owned businesses but a market place nevertheless.

Talk about pushy sales people, they followed you, grabbed your arm and tried to pull you into their stalls. Tony walked outside not wanting a bar of it, but I persevered :-) there were interesting purchases to make, but the overbearing attitude made it difficult for the most determined shopper, me! I bought a few bits and pieces but would have bought more had they left me alone, but it was an interesting experience and nice to get out of the cold air into an air conditioned clean marketplace. The comparison to the markets in Korea was interesting, the Korean market was more centered on providing fresh produce to the locals with some very interesting tidbits for sale. Asian people eat EVERYTHING of the animal. For example they eat the whole chicken, including the feet, head and beak. They love the liver and other intestines. All on show for the locals to buy, some of the fish at the fish market I have never seen before, strange looking creatures that were being snapped up by the local housewives for their dinner. An amazing experience to see.

I am so impressed with this country, it is unbelievable.

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