Hutong's And Temple of Heaven

When we went down to the front desk my girl just took care of business. Each of our requests were met with a request to go back to our room and wait for someone to come fix it. They do not follow the, “I’ll take care of it while you’re out” concept. So my girl just says, “Do you have another room?”

I asked that last night to no avail. Low and behold another set of room keys popped right out of the drawer. So we have internet, and most of all, a working hair dryer, which Christe says now, she will no longer be in need of. Something about the humidity and pollutants make for ‘the best hair days ever’.

We went and grabbed some free breakfast. Our menu –clearly geared to Americans– included croissants, bacon, veal sausage, steamed eggs, some fresh fruit, and orange juice and coffee to drink. Nothing too special but this hotel knows its stuff. What do Americans like for breakfast besides maybe some fried rice and noodles? That’s right, you guessed it, Baked Beans. Mmm Mmm good. Now that’s a breakfast that’ll make ya some friends on hot steamy tour bus.

So at 8:30 am we returned to the lobby where were taken on a tour of a Hutong area in Beijing, complete with Rickshaw driver, lunch and then a tour of The Temple Of Heaven.

The Hutongs are old traditional living quarters built 7-800 hundred years ago. Now they are very scarce and the government is trying to protect them for historical reasons. We visited a ‘day care center’ in one building. It was a riot! It was great to see kids that had been trained to dance with the tourists whenever someone blasted American music from a radio. And as you all know in 90-degree weather in July all Americans dance to Jingle Bells over and over. The adult kept replaying the song each time a new group of tourists would come through the door. “Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way……..” Note the donation box in English in the second picture.

We did meet several very nice couples also from the Kansas City area. The first of which is Tom and Andrea (I cant remember their last name). I’ll add a link to there website when I talk to them again.

Then we where rickshaw‘ed’ to The Drum Tower building. The Drum Tower is one of two tall structures in Beijing. The second one (just across the road) is The Bell Tower. The drums used to be played every hour and twice at 6 to let the people know to go home. There were only 12 hours in a day at that time. So it was equivilant to two hour intervals. So that would make it noon and I guess that meant people would go home and eat?

To get up there you had to ascend 69 very steep stairs, which is a mini test before you get to the great wall. Christe was very happy when we had gone back down as she is not fond of heights. At the top there was a very cut girl practicing her violin. She was seven and she said she had to study because in September she was going to take a test to see if she can get into a music school of some prestige.

Then it was off to lunch. The food was supposed to be Thai, one of the ethnic minorities in China. It was fairly uneventful but I have a picture for those interested.

The Temple of Heaven was next. Most of it is under repair construction. The 2008 Olympics seem to be spurring a lot of construction. This is where I decided to be an artsy photographer and quit trying to take tourist photos. Instead I decided to focus in on the details. So I found a brick with a flower carved in it. It was in a wall of bricks with no other carvings. I have no idea why it was there.

It’s a little after 6 pm now and I have to wake Christe from a nap. We might venture out with those other couples and see if we can find some adult beverages china style.

I have to admit, that I haven’t been able to view to blog since we entered China. So I get the comments you leave in emails. So thanks again for all the comments. It reminds me there are folks back home interested.

Cash