Beijing, By Any Other Name, Is Still Peking

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First, our apologies for not getting our blog posts done in a timely fashion. These really have been hectic go-go-go days, and we are both so glad that we didn’t start this vacation in Beijing. Arnold asked his group on the bus, who had previously had Peking duck. I took the bait like some others, and he asked, “So, you’ve been to Beijing before?” To truly be Peking duck, the ducks need to be specially raised for the feast, and specially prepared, as not done anywhere else. The two must-do’s on everyone’s list coming to Beijing is to Climb the Great Wall and to Feast on Peking Duck, according to Arnold. And I must admit, both are high on my list. In the old days, with the older dialect of Chinese in power at the time, the capital of China was Nanking (Nan meaning north and king meaning gate). One of the emperors moved the capital to Peking (pay meaning north and king meaning gate) when the Forbidden City in Nanking burned down. With influences from the north on the language, these two cities became Nanjing and Beijing, with the same meanings.

We had breakfast at the Sheraton. We could really get used to Viking taking care of all the checked baggage transfers. Our bags need to be in hall by 7am, and Viking took care of the rest, with our bags showing up in our hotel rooms in Beijing before we ever get there.

The bus driver dropped us off at the airport, and we were among the last off of the bus. Our two blue handbags were ready for us to take, but there was one lady whose carry-on was missing. When Arnold, who was inside, heard this, I swear he turned white. He was proud of his record of never having lost a tourist or their luggage, and he rushed outside. The problem was quickly resolved as another traveler in our group had mistakenly taken the wrong bag. We assembled as a group just inside the terminal entrance, and had to wait while Arnold and one of our group had to resolve a problem with the checked baggage. A lithium battery had been found and had to be moved to the guy’s carry-on bag. As we waited an elderly Chinese man, very slender and wiry tried to engage one of us. Why do these people always seem to zero in on me? He tried several times to grab my attention, and his efforts must have succeeded, and I realized with him saying “See-oh-wet” that he wanted to do a hand cut silhouette of me. I tried to ignore him, but he persisted, and despite my efforts to turn away managed to come up with a very well done cutting, showing me in my red baseball hat (okay, with the black and white cutting its hard to tell that it’s a red baseball cap), and my glasses which were expertly cut to show separation between them and my face. The rendering all agreed was really well executed, and when he said “One dollah” I really couldn’t say no, especially since I did have a dollar bill in my wallet. In less than one minute he’d done one of another gentleman in our group, and then one of the attractive British woman with ties to India. His cutting was so precise he captured her eye lashes. It was time for us to go onto the gate, or I expect we’d all have come away with our silhouettes.

Inside the terminal, we were all carrying the box lunches Arnold had passed out on the bus. They seemed awfully heavy. We feared that they might contain a bottle of water, but that wasn’t the case as we all easily passed through security; well, that is except for me. I decided to wear my hiking boots and these triggered much too much interest at the security checkpoint. After setting off alarms walking through the scanner, and again during the personal pat-down, the boots had to come off and be put through the X-ray machine.

Once at the gate I ate my boxed lunch, discovering that the weight was due to two large pieces of fruit. Mine also had an egg and cucumber sandwich, and four local snack delicacies (a cookie or two, a fried won ton, some stale Pringle-like chips). Sharon tried the chips, but mostly we just threw much of the lunch away.

We boarded on time. Viking had done an excellent job of helping people with the same last names to sit together on the trips within China. One of their security measures seems to be randomizing seat-assignments at the gate. Arnold apologized when he handed out the boarding passes, that he’d been unable to work the same magic on this leg of the journey. Another security measure is the seats in coach don’t continue their numbering from where it leaves off in first class, so when you board you might think that you’re near the back of the plane, but you’re really near the front. This flight had three seats on either side of the aisle, as did our other two inside-China flights. There was some confusion with seat assignments because on the left side of the plane (facing forward) the seats were lettered A-B-C from the aisle seat to the window seat. And, they were lettered J-K-L from the window seat to the aisle seat. We were able to move a couple of people around in our row so that we were next to each other as was one of the other couples.

The flight from Xian to Beijing was on time and went very smoothly. After a perfectly smooth bump-free landing our whole group applauded the flawless landing, especially after the huge double bounce our plan did coming into Xian. I have never come down so hard followed by a three second bounce before coming down hard again. This reminded me a story that my uncle Neal told me of a flight he experienced back in the 1960’s, and how he would remember that pilot’s name forever from the “Hello, I’m Captain Buck Rogers” greeting at the beginning of the flight. It was a landing like this. Ten years later my uncle is on another flight, and the captain comes on with that same greeting. My uncle said that in ten years he hadn’t learned to land any better with a hard double-bounce. I’ll have to let him know that I think his Captain Buck Rogers is now flying for China South Eastern Airlines.

Indeed, today, we would be doing the Hutoung Tour, getting a Pedi-cab ride, checking out the bell tower, having a China Tea ceremony and then dinner. All of this before we get to the hotel; because, with the heavy traffic in Beijing this is the most efficient route. Believe me, we still get to experience the very dense Beijing traffic. Going to the hotel first, and then to dinner, would have added ninety minutes to the commute!



We arrived in Beijing to mostly sunny skies. The somewhat accurate weather reports people had been hearing had heard that there had been some rain in Beijing during earlier portions of our cruise; and, current weather in Shanghai was pouring rain. It appears that we’ve really lucked out as far as the weather has been concerned, and the air quality has yet to be an issue. We’ve seen one or two local people in a sea of a thousand faces who have been walking about with white surgical masks on (not one with dragons like the one Sharon got me; although, that might be a big hit). Arnold had said that the monsoon season starts in May to June, and then the three really hot muggy months. And crowd wise, especially in Beijing and Tiananmen Square, the worst crowds come on the three days starting on May 1 for the May-Day celebrations, and the very worst on the week in October when Arnold said 90% of the country is on vacation, and it seems like they all come to Beijing.

Our bus driver dropped us off in one of the old neighborhoods, and we walked through some meandering streets. These are the very streets like those that Arnold grew up in a few miles away. A group of Pedi-cabs were waiting along one narrow street, which supported cars, motorcycles, motor-scooters, bicycles and pedestrians. Sharon and I piled into one pedi-cab, and the smirk that the next driver shot our driver and the clear look of anguish in our driver’s eyes as Sharon and I tried to squeeze into the narrow seat (okay, so it was only narrow for people ours size). Tilting our bodies somewhat sideways we managed to get situated; while, the very slim mother-daughter vegetarians on our vacation had no trouble slipping into their seat on the contraption next to us. We’d been told that the fare should be 20 Yuan (about $1.50). Down one alley we spotted a man getting his hair cut in a vacant plot by a barber that had set up shop there.

After some pedaling we reached a local home and went inside where the elderly lady was waiting for us with stools arranged around her living room off the entryway. The couch along the wall looked like someone might sleep there as well. The kitchen off the left-side of the entry way was very tiny; yet, she’d managed to prepare Jasmine tea for all of us. Through our young local tour guide she told of her family story, how her great grandparents had first acquired this entire courtyard residence in the old city. He was a craftsman/artist who painted images on the inside of bottles, much the same as we’d purchased on the ship. The woman’s niece who was working in the small neighboring anteroom came and gave us a demonstration, passing around some pieces of art and the delicate brushes used to create them. Some got to try their hands at using them and the precise meticulous delicate work is not easy, and if you make a mistake, there really is no way to fix it. The old woman said how during the Cultural Revolution the government took away about 70% of her home leaving her family just a few rooms in one corner, while another family was allowed to occupy the remainder of her family home, a situation that remains to this day. Today, only her niece carries on the family tradition of producing this type of art. On a painting in the room she had quite a few pieces of foreign currency which they said was from all of the countries that she did painting for during the Olympics. Several in our group purchased so very nice pieces at bargain prices; although, we still prefer the larger piece we bought with the pandas on it.

The Pedi-cab drivers were waiting for us, and we did remember “Number 53”, the identifier pained on our cab, although our driver us when we came out. When our driver tried to get us going, the chain slipped off the gear and our driver’s shin slammed into the gearing. He grimaced, rubbed his shin, and with a rod-and-hook device maneuvered the chain back in place. On the way we got caught in a traffic jam between 2 cars. Most of the others turned down a different street to avoid it at that point. He did smilel with the 40 Yuan that we gave him.

We walked to visit the Bell Tower. In the distance we saw the drum tower. These sounded the morning bell and the evening drum. And this is also where we saw a wiry older guy give a hacky sack demonstration. He used a couple of colored feather plumes attached to a small padded metal disc at the base for his hacky sack. And he’d given us each a gift of one hacky sack so we could try as well. There was only one blue one and a couple of green ones, and they went fast. Sharon got a magenta colored one and I got a yellow one. Heck, in China, yellow is the color reserved for the emperor! Our expert demonstrating the hacky sack once manipulated that weighted feather plume 10,000 times without dropping it in about 3 hours. How would you have liked to have counted that effort? He not only could hit the hacky sack repeatedly, with the inside of his foot, the top of his foot or his forehead; he could also catch is on various parts of his body, switching legs and maneuvering his leg first over the hacky sack before coming around full circle and catching it on the top of his foot. He then invited one of us to come out and perform a duet with him. And a retired doctor in our group did quite well, considering.

Our next stop was to experience a Chinese Tea Ceremony. Sharon and I sat against the wall; which, as it turns out is the best seat for this ceremony. At the end opposite the entrance is the front where our tea will be prepared. Our two tables lined either side from the front to the rear entry way. First, we enjoyed Jasmine tea, which was very refreshing. Then we had the Ginseng Oolong tea, which was my favorite. The woman doing the demonstration told us you’re supposed to slurp the tea and showed us how. However, the woman across from us must not have slurped it quite right as she ended up inhaling instead. She choked pretty badly but eventually caught her breath. I didn’t care for the Pu’re Tea, a bitter concoction, but perhaps I should have given it a second because it is supposed reduce blood pressure, fight diabetes, reduce cholesterol and help with weight loss! I also liked the Lychee Black Tea. In the end, I decided to buy some tea. I was going to buy one each of the three that I liked, but was told if I bought four I’d get two free cup-strainer-top combinations. The cups were demonstrated for us during the ceremony and because they change color when they contain hot liquid. And we also got a free temperature tester, a small reddish brick color pottery boy. If you pour some water on top of him and nothing happens; well, the water is not hot enough for tea. But if the water is hot enough, water squirts out of the figure and it looks like the boy is… well, think you get the picture. I believe that when we get back home we’ll have to invite our friend Lin to tea. Everyone enjoyed the tour which was not originally on our itinerary. It used to only be included for those that di the trip in reverse (Beijing to Shanghai) but they are now including it on both.



Dinner was another round-table affair, which I enjoyed, but it’s now been ten days of Chinese food and even for me I’m counting the days until we get regular food (for us). And I know that Sharon has been counting the days from Day One. It was a long day and we were ready for the hotel and bed when we got there.

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