Nanluogu Xiang and the Hutong – March 18

It is hard to believe that after all these posts about China, I am still on the second day of our trip! It just goes to show you that we really packed in the activities. At this rate it is going to take most of the year to write about our entire trip! This post will be a little shorter than the last couple. I had wanted to include these events in the post about the Temple of Heaven Park, but that post ended up being too long.

You must remember that by the time we arrived at this point in our day, we had already toured the Forbidden City, eaten lunch and toured the Temple of Heaven Park. To say that we were tired is an understatement. However, we soldiered on. Our next stop was Nanluogu Xiang for some shopping or window browsing.

Douglas and I did not buy anything, but we walked around enjoying the sites. I think his favorite was the Vulcan Bar. Maybe next time we can go in and have a drink.

Our students did buy some t-shirts. I noticed that they were quickly trying to shove them in their bags as we approached. This caught my attention. I probably would not have even glanced at what they had bought if they had not looked so guilty. They were “I ♥ BJ” t-shirts. Although they tried to convince me that they bought the t-shirts because they wanted to express their appreciation for Beijing, we had to send an email to the parents letting them know that the t-shirts had been purchased and that they would not be allowed at school. I did not have a picture of this event, so I used Google to find a picture of the t-shirt. You can purchase one yourself at Cafe Press.

There were lots of things that caught my eye like this little car with only one wheel in front.

Here is a picture of the traditional Chinese brooms. I have never been to a country where I saw so many people sweeping, but I only saw brooms made with man-made materials on the entire trip.

I also liked these little bugs. Can you tell what they are made of? Shovel heads. I am now on the lookout for broken shovels so that I can make my own bugs!

The roofs were fascinating, as was some of the sculpture.

Here were a few of the shops that drew my attention.

Douglas liked this fixie and the graffiti.

After a half hour on Nanluogu Xiang, we took a ride in a rickshaw. I felt rather weird about that ride. It seemed very colonial to me, however, we had to stay with the group. Douglas wanted to ask the driver if he could do the pedaling. I know he would have enjoyed the ride much more that way!

Here are some pictures from our ride. They are again rather blurry, but I wanted you to see the Hutong the way that we did.

The details on the homes we passed were cool.

Of course, I loved the red doors just like at the Cape of Dreams!

I also enjoyed seeing kids playing outside.

Our destination was right beside the Drum Tower.

It was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Liu who were hosting us for a meal of homemade dumplings. I regret that I do not have a picture of the Lius. They were wonderful people.

The homes in the Hutong are very small. I do not have any good pictures to show you because there were so many of us crammed in the small room. The two tables and a bed took up the entire one-roomed abode. I was standing at the front of the house when I took this picture of the shower at the back. You can see how close the back of the room was to the front. Many of these homes do not have bathrooms, and there are communal bathrooms that everyone on the block shares.

Before we ate, we were shown how to make dumplings. Here is Douglas making one and a couple that the students made. I cannot wait to try this at home.

Back at the hotel by nine the students begged for a ten o’clock curfew. I held firm that I would check them in at 9:30. I am glad that I did not try to stay up until ten because they were all sound asleep when I went to check them in at 9:30! Can you blame them after such a busy day?

As always for the next couple of weeks/months Mondays are China days here at the Cape of Dreams. To see earlier posts, visit the Travels tab under the heading or click here.

Happy Travels!