Off to the Hutong

First of our tours was a trip to the Hutong where we boarded a three wheel pedal cab to go through the narrow network of lanes created by closely built built quadrangle homes. Most all of the buildings are one story and each entrance generally opens to a courtyard of 4 homes. The area dates back to the period of Gengis Kahn and reminded me if the residential areas of the old city of Jerusalem.

While we rode in the pedacab, our guide was riding a bike next to or sometimes behind us. The alleys go anywhere from .5 meters to maybe 9 meters wide. Gets interesting when you meet a car coming the other way

 

An interesting tidbit was that each family is allowed one tree and many of the alleys were shaded by walnut and other species. We paid a visit to a "typical" home where a daughter was painting bottles. The interesting part of this is that she was painting the inside of the bottle through its neck with a handmade brush. David got a chance to try - not easy. Because of the drainage in the Hutong area no one has toilets. There are communal toilets all over but none in any houses.

We then went to the bell tower were we participated in a tea ceremony. In this the tea was more important than the ceremony and we had the chance to try 5 different teas. It was fascinating to see the tea prepared and the quickness of the brewing. Steeping had no part of these teas.

 

After returning to the hotel we took off looking for a Chinese foot treatment. On the way we had to check out another tea shop. Melanie was looking for reflexology but no one has heard of it here. They most have another name for it. Anyway a 45 minute foot massage was wonderful. In the room was a sign saying no drug taking or drug trafficking here.

How could could you not live a country that has wonton soup and pork buns for breakfast? And they have shoes that fit my feet! i bought a paIr of hand painted sandals. We had lunch at a noodle shop that was not a tourist place.

 

 

I had the worlds slipperyest noodles. I ended up eating them by winding them around my chopsticks the way you wind spaghetti around a fork.

Bikes are a common form of transport. The are all utilitarian but we found an interesting bike sharing program with newer bikes.

The bikes latch into the meter system. Couldn't read the instructions though.

 

It is clear a little more language prep would have been useful. Next trip we'll be sure to have less, more, yes and no in our vocabulary.

 

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China - we've arrived

Travel was pretty easy. We had booked an aisle and window seat and the center seat was never sold so we had a little room to stretch out. In Melanies case that meant she could actually sleep fo several hours on her stomach(with her husband funtioning as human footrest).

We arrived at terminal 3 which seemed big to us but i guess predates the olympics. We seemed to be the only flight arriving at the time so it was a bit eiry how empty it seemed as we landed we could already see the haze which shrouded Beijing. Reminded me of mornings is El Paso when the smelter was still running. we had to be under 1000 ft to be able to see the ground although there were no clouds.

Anyway, with no checked bags we made it easily through passport control, were politely waived to the "nothing to declare line" and out to reception where our guide "Bambo" was waiting for us. 86 degrees and 80 % humidity made it feel just like home except there was no sighn of recent rain and the yellow haze blurred the details of all the buildings. Bambo walked us to the car where "Mike" drove us the 1 hr to the hotel in L.I.E. rush hour like traffic. (being a Sat. The traffic was apparantly quite light for the S12Airport Expressway.). While i could identify many of the vehichles, it was clear that Detroit and Japan have no lock on the auto industry in China. Going to have to do a little research on the trees along the the roads. There is something that looks like an aspen along with a variety of fir trees.

After checking in at the Crown Plazza we took off downd the main drag to (one of )the 5th Avenues of Bejing where we experienced getting iur eyes treated for the bags under them by agressive saleswoman, checked out a couple deaprtment stores, a music instrument store, a pharmacy complete with attendents in nurses caps with all sorts of drugs, medical equipment along with dried seahorses, spiders, worms and other "naturals of unknown origin.

We skipped the ralh lauren, versace and other chain stores but Melanie did find a couple of booths with shoes of her size to try on. lots of sign language-very little English.

 

Early this morning David went out for a walk. Streets were quietbut by no means empty.

Street on side of hotel leading onto the shopping street. It is 6 am and you can see the imfamous Beijing haze.

Street on entrance of hotel. In a few hours it will be crowed a noisey.

Breakfast - first course fried noodles , egg, sweet roll, rice congee, wonton soup without wontons (somehow got translated to rice noodle) Melanie has fallen in love with congee.

 

And for the second round sesame twisted roll, tea egg chinese sweet pancake watermelon and meet roll of dubious origin

More later. Off to meet our guide.

 

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China: day one

We're at the airport and excited about this trip. We've got one carryon each with extra empty bags packed within them for Melanie's shopping.

 

Getting ready for air quality issues in China. Do they have a smaller size?

 

Made it Detroit and got our Yuan

 

next post from Beijing!

 

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Prepping for China

I'm using Melanie's birthday as an excuse to do a test post using a new (for us) blogging app and a new system of getting photos from the Cannon on to the iPad. So far so good.

We spent the weekend in Rochester at a hotel right on the Erie Canal. Melanie stared off with a great massage. Afer a quick nap and a birthday drink we took off down the Canal trail for dinner. We were struck by a wonderful scent of what we think were Linden trees.

The next day she had a visit from the Rochester crowd.

 

 

Someone else enjoyed the flowers!

 

Then off to lunch

After goodbyes and a makeover it was off to Syracuse to see the Lone Ranger (which we loved), a quick dinner, an attack by an escalater which drew blood and home to respond to birthday greetings.

All and all a good day. Now to figure out how to move and resize these photos.....

 

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Getaway!

We ducked out of town for a couple of days and turned off our phones.

Soaked up some positive ions and took a few walks.




Walked along the falls, passed dinosaurs,

 went down past Ripley's and the Wax Museum to the Rainbow Bridge.

 Crossing under the bridge you come to Bird Kingdom where Melanie got to talk to and feed the birds.














Then back up the hill to pick up a candy apple, some lemonade and settle in for a few books while watching the water fall.



Had dinner in a spaceship

Killed off a few more books,


 

Hiked down into the gorge,

till you get to the water.  Then back up the hill till you get winded and are relieved to find 





the shortcut

Then to feed David's geekdom a quick trip to Lock # 8 on the Seaway 

Enjoyed High Tea at Queen Charlotte's 

and managed to just miss the rain on every foray out of doors.  Home now, recharged and ready.....

(perhaps for another book)