Trips,Travels and Vacations: China

Beijing
Texas had a wonderful send off for us. Standing in the cold crisp air at 3 AM the moon shows as a coppery orb hanging in the clear sky with brillant stars glittering alongside. It is the famous blood moon and we had a perfect view.
Then driving to DFW the roadsides are bathed in swaths of azure bluebonnets. From the plane window as we scream down the runway the grassy medians are a blur of blue.
Easy flight from Dallas to Chicago and great flight from Chicago to Bejing. Leaving at 7:45 PM we arrive 13 1/2 hours later at 10 PM in Beijing . The weather is lovely and the air quality got a lot better yesterday but for us it is still bad.

Our hotel is in the heart of the old city and it is very very local. While here we are in the capable hands of Michael Xu and today we are off to the empress's summer palace. We ate a late meal last night at a neighborhood restaurant with yummy noodles, chewy and salty with fresh scallions. Very
dark when we arrived so it will be fun to see what this is like in daylight.

A cold drizzel in the morning and suffering complete time disorientation we force ourselves out for a vigorous two hour walk through the Hutong near our hotel. The hotel is up an alley off a walking street. One of the most popular walking streets in Beijing it is packed with small boutiques and restaurants like the fried durian stand on the corner that is our landmark to turn up the alley to come home. Not sleek and western like Shanghai this is a much more Asian experience. Totally safe except for the kamikaze bike riders. Believe it or not they are scary and silent. By late afternoon this street is packed with people strolling, street music and the sizzle of frying everything.
The afternoon is spent at the summer palace, home of the dragon lady empress. Here there are hillsides covered with peonies in bloom. Rising on small branching trees the flowers are the size of pie pans. A cherry tree blazes crimson against the hillside and pergolas are draped in wisteria, laden with delicate blossoms quivering in the breeze. There is one very huge blot on this lovely garden. The sun should be lacing down through the trees and the perfume of the blooms wreathing around us. Instead the pollution keeps the skies hazy and our noses and eyes burning so all we can smell is a thin weak oder if our noses are buried in the flowers. The oily miasma that hangs like a shroud over everything is a huge deterent to the beauty that is here. To sun loving Texan it takes a lot out of a days pleasure but we are only here a few days and the air quality is pretty good for our visit. Our guide loves his city and country but was stumped when I asked how many days a year they see the sun. He thinks only a few. He is used to it although he sent his baby daughter and wife to live with his mom in the country in the fresh air.

In our hotel one of the many courtyards

Jon's favorite breakfast is noodles and coffee.

The large courtyard outside our room. This was a very wealthy mans home 200 years ago.

Two resident dogs. They are so sweet.

Breakfast room. As you can see we didn't head for the Ritz Carlton and we had to pull our suitcases through the crowds and up the alley. Cars don't fit, not that a few don't try.

Take time to read sign over our head. Michael was so excited as he said Chinese wait in line to ride this car.

It is very steep. We hiked two towers and Michael was very impressed.

The Flag. Another ribbon on it's resume.

After all that work we deserve a beer and lunch so we head for a local place for a meal to savor before we head back to town. The drive is through an area famous for fruit trees and chestnuts. They have planted all the roadsides with lilacs and pears and apples that are just starting to bloom. It is hard to describe the scenery as the backdrop is jagged mountains with the road winding through valleys where all the land is planted with all sorts of trees. For some reason it is disturbing and not pretty with no small charming villages. Only a sense of revamping nature for the sake of production to feed the hungry mouths of the greedy city. There is no sense of the pleasure of a bucolic lifestyle. Michael said in fact everyone wants to leave the farm and go to the city so the big companies take over the land. It is beautiful nature but also not in a strange way and I usually get euphoric over miles of blooming lilacs

Our gift for the day. Chinese wine.

Nighttime so we wander to a popular bar and restaurant area. These red velvet couches were eye catching esp when at the next bar they stepped it up a notch with crushed velvet. They were only for drinks and music on an area around an old imperial lake.

That night we had another fantastic meal. We let Michael do all the ordering and he loves food so we are eating amazing stuff.

Our hotel

Morning in the Hutong

Saturday starts with a morning tour of the Hutong by rickshaw and a visit to a local celebrity. He is China's most famous cricket master. He trains fighting crickets and in China they fight them as a form of gambling. Huge fortunes where won and lost on the crickets. Today allowing a visit to his house in the Hutong is one way for him to support himself.

Annie our Hutong guide.

The talking birds.

The master.

He is world famous and showed us articles from New York Times and London papers as well as books written about his career.

The fighting crickets arena plus snacks for our tea.

Box of babies plus mom and dad. They only live 100 days so need keep with a breeding program.

Grasshoppers are for music in the house

No comment.

New kitchen.

Dove house on roof. They are pets. He doesn't eat them.

supermarket

Tianemen square and the Forbidden city.

The Chinese acrobatic show.

The Chinese hot pot. Hot charcoal fire with boiling water where meat, noodles and veggies are cooked. Michael's cousin had to get in line 2 1/2 hous early to get us a table, worth the wait.

Not once have we asked for fork and knife but we might have snuck a finger in once in awhile in the last 4 days.

Sunday morning and we head out early to the temple of heaven and some tai chi lessons along with the locals who are practicing all forms of excercise and playing cards. Gathering to sing everything from oldies and goodies Beijing style (Chairman Mao anthems) to Peking opera. They play shuttle cock with their feet and one section is for muscle builders working on gym apparatus. Another area is full of retired people who are lonely and write a big card out with their life information and stand by it hoping to strike up a conversation. It is a huge gathering place. We also have a rare gift. Last night the sky cleared and all morning is blue sky and fresh air. We can see all the way to the mountains and that is rare.
Farewell to Beijing and off to Xi'an in the afternoon.