After the embassy visit, several of us asked Shiffong if we could take her to lunch. She suggested a "hot pot" restaurant. We had not experienced this yet. The waitress put a big bowl in the middle of the table with a chimney looking thing in the middle. The chimney was filled with burning wood, and the rest of the big bowl or pot was filled with water. Shiffong helped us order raw meat and vegetables, and we cooked them in the water. The dishes were accompanied by a delicious peanut sauce.
Two of the other heads and I decided we would spend the afternoon touring a hutong. A hutong is a neighborhood in China with small alleyways. Many of the hutongs have been bulldozed to make room for highrise buildings. A few are left where people live, and some of these have become available for tourists to see how the Chinese people live. The three of us met with a tour guide that Shiffong had contacted, and she accompanied us on a van to the hutong area.
We jumped on the back of a pedicab that looks like tricycle type thing with a seat in the back. A very strong man pedaled two of us on each vehicle, and we got to see a variety of streets and houses. We stopped at one house where a man has opened a bed and breakfast type place. He also opens his home to tourists so that they can see how a family has lived for many years. The home area we saw was comprised of four houses with a courtyard in the middle. The neighborhood shares a bathroom down the street. There is running water in the kitchen, and there are two bedrooms for guests. The man met with the three of us, and with the help of the guide, told us about his home and his life. I asked him what he enjoyed doing for fun when he was a boy of eight or nine. Having a son who is eight, myself, I enjoy hearing about others' activities from that age. He said he used to play with small glass balls and push them at one another. I asked if he meant "marbles," but he said no. I think that the word marble must not translate the right way in Chinese. Perhaps it only has one meaning. He left our small group of three and continued talking to another much larger group in the courtyard.
We continued our hutong tour and ended up at some beautiful gardens. The tourists were out in full force there, but still we were the only western looking folks! We stopped in a teahouse and participated in a Chinese tea ceremony. Then we learned about several different kinds of tea. We all felt so peaceful, and we didn't want to leave!
After the tour of the park, it was time for us to go to a "Kung Fu Show." The show was the story of Kung Fu and included interesting singing, dancing, acrobatics, and certainly Kung-Fu.
1 comment:
Sounds like the "Hutongs" which are in old Beijing just northeast of the lakes inside 3 ring road. They are "Quads" with a common courtyard. Chairman Mao Ze Dong once was in a similar place and it emblazoned in red with a plaque on the wall.
Once did the same, unfortunately did not negotiate the price beforehand, and was rather alarmed at the price. That was at a stay near the Embassy Area.
Another trip to the lakes to "maybe" the world's oldest continuous restaurant led by boys playing ping-pong on a sheet of plywood laid on sawhorses with a 2 x 6 for the net and the paddles were chunks of wood and the ball was an Osage Orange, or as in Texas, fruit of the "Bodark" or "Beau de arc" or even AKA "hedgeapple" and they were having a blast!!!
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