Tuesday August 3 Beijing

Today, after breakfast, we head by bus to the hutong district in Beijing where we take a rickshaw tour of the neighborhood after a brief introduction by our guide for this portion of the trip named Grace. She is a young, single woman who moved to Beijing with 11 of her friends from another part of China - can't remember which - after completing university 2 summers ago. They all thought it would be easy to get jobs, but it has not been so and only 3 of the 12 young women remain here now. Hutong means "water well" in Mongolian, but now refers to the narrow streets in this part of Beijing first settled when the Mongolians came here in the Yuan Dynasty. Rebuilt in 1420 in the Ming Dynasty and prominent in way of life through the Ming and Qing Dynasties. This is the biggest hutong area in Beijing and the one with the Drum and Bell Towers. Because people didn't have clocks, the bell would be rung at dawn and the drum would signal dusk in the evening. These towers are at opposite ends of a small square in this district along what is referred to as the "dragon line" in which the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square are on the same imaginary line in keeping with feng shui. This is considered for good luck and friendship, Grace describes. Some of the gates (- like large doors) to courtyards remain in this hutong neighborhood; they were like faces in old Beijing in that the number of beams above the large, gated doors reflected the wealth of a family. Typically, an arranged marriage would be between 2 persons with an equal number of beams. However, if a boy was from a family of 4 beams and a girl from a family with only 2, she could only be one of his concubines. (The whole concubine culture sounds horrendous, but certainly weighs heavily in Chinese history). The only person to have 12 beams over the gate would be the emperor. Grace told us the Chinese folktale of the butterfly lovers, one that we've heard several times by guides during this trip so it must be popular. The guides have each told us that it is the Romeo and Juliet story of China. Stone figures of a lion couple traditionally stand outside of the entrance of homes. If there is a carving of a drum under the lion's paw, that symbolizes that an official resides there. If there is a carving of a book under the lion's paw, that means that a scholar lives there. Homes in the hutong district would be divided into 3 areas, the front yard being the living area, the middle yard being for the parents and boys while the backyard would be reserved for girls in the family. Thresholds at the gate were considered to cast off evil spirits or ghosts. Was considered important to step over the threshold without disturbing it. When the last emperor was young, his aunt allowed for the thresholds to be cut so that he could ride his bike around unencumbered, and, sure enough, Grace explains, he became the last emperor. Grace also described the tradition of footbinding: Legend has it that this custom was started by an emperor in the Tang Dynasty who was intrigued with a concubine who could dance like a fox with her small feet in his hand, but I'm not sure I heard Grace clearly. Sounds bizarre. At any rate, the custom was outlawed by Dr. Sun Yatsen in 1911 though it continued for longer until finally stopped in 1949. Grace says there are still some very elderly women alive in their 90s whose feet were bound when they were young.

We climb into rickshaws (- the ones that are tricycles, not carried... Thankfully, that kind of servitude is not employed anymore) to take a tour of the hutong neighborhood. The streets are very narrow with small alleys off of them. The roofs are the traditional old tile atop the one story homes. The general area looks very dilapidated and the people mostly older though there are some children sitting along the street too outside of doorways several of whom are drawing pictures in workbooks. Some of them - mostly men - are gathered in places along the way. Anna and I are sharing a rickshaw and pass the camera back and forth between us. We catch a photo of a cart full of green vegetables. We see a young woman who I suppose is a new mother because of a babe that appears to be a newborn swaddled in her arms and it looks like she is carrying a booklet of some sort. Up the street, after an imposing looking humvee with guards inside drives by, we spot two women in long, white medical coats - one with a stethoscope hung around her neck and the other with a surgical cap on her head so we must be near a community medical facility perhaps? When we left the area where the rickshaws were lined up with many of the drivers asleep in theirs, we were about the only ones taking a tour this way, but when we come back to our starting point, it appears that there are lots of tourists being driven around in them.

We then walk a little ways away and down a small alley and into Mr. and Mrs. Shen's home (- am not sure that I got their name correctly...) where we are to enjoy a homemade lunch "with a local family". We are invited to look at their myna bird who is in a large bird cage hanging in their courtyard. Mr. Shen is not home, and Mrs. Shen is cutting up vegetables to prepare our lunch. The rooms in their home each open to the small courtyard but, except for the middle room which adjoins the dining area, not to one another, so one has to go outside, it appears, to go from one room to another. The room farthest back appears to be their bedroom with a double sized bed in it that takes up most of the space. It is open to the courtyard, and I don't see a French doors there though there must be some sort of a sliding door perhaps? To shield them from the elements, I would imagine. The middle room is about the same size as the bedroom and looks like it can be used for multiple purposes, probably like a family or living room. There is a large open ginger jar with water and several koi fish swimming around in it there. A small net rests on one rim of the large bowl, and it looks like a small hose goes into the water from the back of the bowl, too. Her pet crickets are noisily making a racket in their small 2 level cricket cage; they are fed strips of carrots. We are invited to sit down at their round table with stools around it, and then served lunch. Mrs. Shen does not join us as she is preparing dish after dish and bringing it to the table for us to eat. It's all delicious, but we're disappointed that she's not joining us though she does sit down after we've finished in order to visit. Grace interprets for us. Mrs. Shen tells us that she and her husband have been married for 30 years and have one son who married last year. She points to a photo on the wall of her and her husband all dressed up in Chinese traditional attire, describing that the photo was taken at her son's wedding. When she and her husband were married, typically, there were no wedding celebrations. We give Mrs. Shen a packet of Anna's notecards with her art work on the fronts as a thank you gift and take a photo of Mrs. Shen and Anna together. During our lunch, Mrs. Shen's brother-in-law has arrived to assist us in making some kites after lunch. We are invited to sit around a small table that has been pulled out for us and he proceeds to take out some white paper squares and strips of dried bamboo for the crosspieces of our kites. He then takes out some color markers for each of us to make a design on our kite which is fun before we each tape a paper tail to one corner of our kites. We also give him a packet of Anna's notecards and take a photo of him with Anna. As we are leaving the Shens' courtyard, another set of tourists has come into the courtyard. I hope she doesn't have to prepare another lunch! This has been a lovely opportunity and a bit of a welcome departure from the typical tour. I sure hope that these folks as well as the rickshaw drivers are doing a booming business and making good money off of all the tourists, including us!

Note: Our travel agency, Lotus Travel, has made all of our arrangements including this visit to the Shens' hone. Also, along our travels, they have provided a variety of gifts, via the guides, for Anna and Becky to welcome them back to their homeland.

Back on the bus, we head for our final tour of the trip, that of visiting the Summer Palace. The grounds are beautiful and meander around the large Kumming Lake. Gail pointed out that this is more of what she expected the Forbidden City to look like. We take a water taxi over to the other side of the lake to continue the tour. One of the hallmarks here is the Marble Boat that the Empress Dowager Cixi had built in 1888 with money that was supposed to go to developing a modern navy. The Marble Boat is immobile and it looks like it's fallen into bad repair compared to the grounds and other structures. Maybe the Chinese officials have decided not to sink anymore money into it. The Empress Dowager Cixi was really worse than Cruella da Ville, from everything I can gather. Sunny describes that she only cared about power, pleasure, and luxury. Her living quarters at the Summer Palace were entitled the Hall of Happiness and Longevity. 3 bronze figures sit outside next to that building: A crane symbolizing harmony, a deer symbolizing fortune, and a vase symbolizing peace. We walk down the Longest Corridor with a series of a multitude of paintings that depict Chinese stories. On our way out, predictably, there are souvenir shops and hawkers all about. One kiosk is selling all variety of items including a t-shirt we've seen a bunch of times now with a likeness of our President Obama on the front in a Mao get-up including cap that reads "Obamao". Interestingly, Sunny thinks this reflects that Chinese people can make fun of other people's presidents but not their own.

One final stop is at a park where we fly kites that Anna and Becky have been given by Lotus Travel in an empty concrete stadium in the round. Not much wind but enough to put the kites in the air for a bit.

Back at the hotel, Richard, Anna, Gail, and I decide to make an excursion to Silk Street to look for the one thing Anne had hoped to find that she has not seen at all, that of round silk pillow covers that used to be sold practically everywhere. This will give us a chance to see what the subway system is like if we visit Half the Sky tomorrow morning and to see another part of Beijing. The subway system is clean and fairly easy to use, but the cars are packed with people. We have to make one change to get to our stop. At one place, Richard is assisted in getting into a subway car by someone giving him a big push from behind! We emerge from our stop into a shopping area but can't find what we're looking for so we cross the street to go into a huge building which has a sign that reads "Silk Market". Once inside, the whole thing overwhelms me, but Richard, Gail, and Anna find and make the selections. We exit the building and go around to the side to a little coffee shop to have supper at a table outside. Richard and Gail order beef and chicken curry while Anne and Anna opt for cokes and to share a piece of chocolate cake. Yes, nutrition at its best. There are several older women on the street collecting cans and selling socks, one of whom has a child with her. Anna wants to be sure that I give my can to one of them though I apparently give it to another woman than Anna had intended, alas. This looks like an area that is more metropolitan with a mixture of Chinese and foreigners walking along the streets, lots of traffic, and large, modern buildings all around. Once done, we reverse the process in terms of taking the subway back to near our hotel and walking the rest of the way. This was the way we spent our final evening in China on this trip!