Summer Palace - WOW!

Beijing, July 11
Today's field trip, boys and girls, is to the Emperor's Summer Palace. Quoting from the Guide to the Summer Palace: "The Summer Palace, originally named Garden of Clear Ripples, was built by Emperor Qianlong in 1750 to celebrate his mother's birthday. It was later used as a pleasure garden by the emperors and empresses. In 1860 it was brutally burned down by the Anglo-French Allied Forces. Empress Dowager Cixi diverted navy funds to rebuild it in 1886. The garden was again seriously damaged by the Allied Forces of Eight Powers in 1900 and was rebuilt again in 1902."

The Summer Palace, also known as Yihe Yuan or the Garden of Health and Harmony, has a total area of 2.9 square kilometres. The buildings on the property have an area of about 70,000 square metres (roughly 700,000 square feet). Roughly three-quarters of the 2.0 square kilometres is under water, an artifical lake called Kunming Lake. The dominant land feature is Longevity Hill which was built using the earth excavated from the lake bed. (Information from Wikipedia and ebeijing.gov.cn)

Why should we care? First reason: it is my host's favourite of the historical sites in Beijing. Since she has taken care of me so well during my visit, the least I can do is tell you about her favourite place. Second reason: it is easy to get to, two subway stations on Line 4 are close to two different entry gates for the Summer Palace. (As always, "close to" is a relative term, about a fifteen minute walk, or you can spend Y20 for a power rickshaw ride.)

Third reason: it is incredibly beautiful and breathtaking. It is a long steep climb to the top of Longevity Hill from the North Gate entrance. Anybody who made that climb regularly would almost certainly be fit and live a long life. Once you get to the top and start down the other side, you start to catch glimpses of Kunming Lake. If you go on a fairly busy day, as we did, then you will also see various sizes of boats on the lake. It is almost magical. The small boats look as if they are floating high on the water or perhaps dancing on the surface. Even the larger ones look light and airy as they head in various directions to various destinations on the lake. There must have been some wisdom in the heads of the planners of the Summer Palace. Buildings are scattered around the site, more of them around Longevity Hill than elsewhere but they are spread throughout the Garden. If you were a court official (or the emperor) you could spend a few hours in one of many different places in the Garden and be away from the noise and business of the court.

One of the things that struck be about the Summer Palace is the significant similarities between it, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. The buildings have the same design and the decorative touches on the buildings are almost identical. The Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven are considerably older than the Summer Palace. All are immense engineering and design feats, especially without motorized vehicles. Yet they all look as if they could have come from the same mind (or set of minds) and all been built about the same time. At least some parts are deliberately similar. Parts of the Temple of Heaven were built to match parts of the Forbidden City for example. But these similarities suggest a mindset that relied on the past for guidance and did not change readily. Even work commissioned by Dowager Empress Cixi is like work completed by emperors in the distant past.

Another thing that struck me about these three sites (and the Great Wall) is something I alluded to in the previous paragraph. The work was done without motorized vehicles. The Summer Palace, all 2.9 square kilometres of it including dredging roughly 2 square kilometres for a lake, and piling that earth to make the stable, long lasting Longevity Hill, all that was done using human and animal power. And it was completed in less than two years, in time for Emperor Qianlong's mother's sixtieth birthday.

Some things have changed in China since then. The country and the government look forward as well as show respect for history. For example, China has the single largest number of Internet users in the world on a per country basis. However Internet penetration on a per capita basis is not impressive, people are working to change that. And China, like most nations, has lots of motorized vehicles for major projects. The government is still able to mobilize tens of thousands to millions of people to focus on a particular national project just as the emperors could. Unlike the projects of the emperors today's projects are focused both inwardly (Three Gorges Dam) and outwardly (2008 Olympics).

Living Art

Beijing, July 10
My host and I made the trek to the 798 Artists Collective this afternoon. I don't know if it is correct to call it an Artists Collective but I think that name gives a sense of the area. Out past the 4th Ring Road there is an area of abandoned factories and warehouses along with what look like workers' housing units along with other buildings. The area has been taken over and converted to galleries and shops. The warehouse spaces are very good for displaying large pieces and installations. The workers' houses and other low buildings have been converted into shops and stores.

Some of the art is not to my taste. All of it is beyond the range of my budget this trip. There was a gallery of Buddhas in ceramic, priced from Y250,000 - Y500,000 (The Y means Yuan. The exchange rate is roughly Y6 = $1.) The statues were very beautiful, most were serene, some were a little playful. Some were distinctly Chinese. Any one of them would be a good addition to a Buddhist home. We saw one exhibit of what I have to call "modern painting", I have no idea what stream of modern art this was. And I would not have any one of them in my home. I either did not connect with the pieces or I connected negatively.
We saw an exhibit of large black and white photographs made during the photographer / artist's trip to Tibet. A few of them I felt neutral about. Almost all of them I would have taken home if possible. There are stunning, powerful images that reveal some of the beauty and the reality of living in Tibet.
Scattered around the parts of 798 we visited were what would probably be classed as "grotoesques" by art critics. Human figures that are distorted in some way, or non-human figures that the human visitors could react to and with. We saw two sheet metal outlines of human figures attached to a wall. They reminded me of sardine cans. Each metal shape was big enough for one person to stand in. People were gathered around waiting to get their chance to get into the cans and be photographed.

We went into one dimly lit shop that was full of cloth and embroidery. The space was about 3 or 4 meters square and roughly regular ceiling height. Except for the door and window there was cloth and clothing stacked floor to ceiling. There was also a pile about table height in the centre of the room. The woman who talked to us told us the embroidery was done by monks, Tibetan monks, or monks from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, from the look of the designs. Absolutely beautiful work, bright colours, fascinating designs, swirls of colour, almost all strong primary colours: reds, yellows, blues mostly. I wanted to buy something but I knew I would never be able to walk out with just one piece.
There were lots of souvenir shops of course, and most of them were overflowing with people, some looking, some buying. Quite often one or two items catch my eye and I think about buying, and then I see the same item in two or three or four places and I know the "unique" piece I saw in one shop is a mass produced item. I did buy a key chain with the name of the subway stop I have used every day since I got here. It will be a daily reminder of this trip once I get back to Toronto.
And we went into the UCCA Store. That is the store to go to if you want new or unusual items from the 798 area (unless you buy original art of course). Lots and lots of well designed pieces, pieces people can live with and use. Lots of art gallery souvenirs as well and some limited edition art. So it has something for all pocket books, and probably something for all tastes. A great place, and full of people young and old wanting to find something for themselves or for others.

Lost and Found Tea

Beijing, July 9
This morning I managed to get myself lost. I went to the bank machine which is about ten minutes walk away, that means walking east about 1 1/2 blocks along Dazhalan and then north five blocks on the closest main street, which is called Meishi. Then 1/2 block west on Qian Men Xi is the ATM for the bank. On the way back I decided to go into the hutong and wander a bit, knowing as long as I kept heading more-or-less south I would come out either on Dazhalan or a street parallel to it. Full of self confidence I just kept walking making turns that I thought were appropriate. When I eventually came out of the hutong I did not know where I was.

I thought I recognized a couple of familiar landmarks in the distance so I walked towards them hoping to be re-assured about my location and direction. Whoops, they were familiar alright, but I could not remember why or when I had seen them before. More importantly I did not know where they were in relation to the hotel. I turned off the main street I was walking on into a quieter pedestrian area and stilled my brain. Then I had the best thought I had since I left the hotel: it was only about 8.30 am. That meant the sun was in the east. Then I realized I had been walking south since I left the hutong instead of walking north. So I headed back the way I came. Then I remembered when I had walked on this street before. This street was Nan Jinhua, it marks the western edge of the hutong where the hotel is located. I kept walking north until I got to Qian Menxi, then east to Meishi and south to Dazhalan and then to the hotel.

Except I did not go to the hotel. I walked past the hotel and went to the tea shop I first visited yesterday. I spent over an hour there, seeing, smelling, tasting tea. I bought a few hundred grams of tea which I could make last a very long time if I wanted. I could save them them for very special occassions and very special people, or I could enjoy them as they should be enjoyed, which is what I intend to do. One of the things I found out was the tea merchant will ship tea to Canada if I tell him what I want, and if I pay for it of course. Now I have a list of five or six teas I like very much which I can order from him whenever I wish. He does not speak very much English but his daughter was very helpful. She sat with us and translated when necessary. It was a very good start to the day, and a very nice change from being (almost) lost.

The tea merchant is the Yaxiang Tea Shop, Tiehuxie Jie #4 Beijing. The owner's name is Zhang Heming. I have an e-mail address and two phone numbers if you are interested in ordering. Tiehuxie Jie is at the western end of Dazhalan, maybe five minutes walk west of 365 Inn. (Jie just means street or road or avenue or way.) If you visit tell him Robert from Canada sent you.

After we finished our most pleasant business I went to the grocery store to buy water for tea. According to my host nobody in Beijing drinks water out of the tap. That is partly because most Chinese will not drink anything cold, but mainly because tap water here has a distinct odour, usually a little like sulfur. It is quite safe apparently just not pleasant.

In the afternoon I caught up with some work and watched some TV. I wondered what people will be doing in church in Toronto on Sunday. My host and I hope to go to one of the art districts in Beijing tomorrow afternoon. I have seen some of the main historic attractions, I have seen the modern commercial side of Beijing, perhaps tomorrow I will see some of the avant-garde side. This city has over eight hundred years of history (four hundred years more than Quebec City) and is a vibrant and forward looking as the fresh shrimp you will have for dinner next week. How all of these parts work together as well as they do I am not sure, and I will probably never be sure. Right now I am just enjoying swimming in as many streams of Beijing culture as I can.

Bugs, Books and Ducks

Beijing, July 8
Unless you go to a particularly historical area there is not much to take pictures of during a shopping trip. I was focused today on the purchase possibilities and not on architecture and people so I am not posting any images this time. The malls in Beijing look very much like malls in toronto or Halifax or Vancouver. The signs are in a different language but many of the store names are the same, and many of the products on sale are quite similar.

Three of us shared a significantly large dim sum lunch: szechuan dumplings, chicken feet, soup inside buns and what were dishes four, five and six? (Why did I not write them down after lunch?) Then we shared a wonderful mango and sago dessert as well as a bean dessert which had a disappointing colour but a pleasant flavour.

Then my host and I headed to the famous Wangfujing Street to do some serous shopping. I am not a serious shopper most of the time, but I can stay focused on shopping for several hours if necessary to get what I consider to be the best gift for a particular person. Wangfujing Street is featured in many tourist guides mainly for its food market. It has its own Wikipedia page. Apparently if it is edible it is available on Wangfujing Street. We walked past at least two shops featuring scorpions on a stick. There is at least one video on Youtube about this dish. And there are probably contests every night to find out which guy can eat the most of these "treats". I say probably because I know guys who will do anything on a dare, especially after a few beers.

Wangfujing Street is a pedestrian only area, at least the main shopping area. There are many big Chinese brands in various stores as well as well known international brands. One of the important things to know about Chinese companies is their potential size. A company that operates only in China has the potential to sell goods to about 1/4 of the world's population. Why would they need to become multi-national?

Because the area is well-known there are lots and lots and lots and lots of souvenir shops and stalls. And lots and lots and lots and lots of people eager to sell you whatever you might want, and everything is offered at the best price in Beijing. (And if you believe the last bit about price, stay away from this part of Beijing.) We walked through one narrow area of souvenir stalls and we got out alive and without spending any money. That's because both of us stared at the exit and kept moving, occassionaly having to make a hand motion to say "no". These sellers are quite persistent, one man even grabbed my arm briefly. Unfortunately for their sales techniques, their merchandise was almost all the same, arranged differently in different stalls. But it was the same statues and bracelets and wooden things that I have seen in many places since I hae been here.

We went into one department store that had one floor of toys. Such a place! Some toys were internationally known, like "Transformers", others were new to me. Some were distinctly Chinese, others could have been sold anywhere in North America (basketball, dart guns, etc.). There were some lovely intricate wooden kits of various historical buildings in Beijing as well as wooden dinosaurs and doll house furniture. After fifteen or twenty minutes on this floor the rest of the store looked pretty plain.

We also spent considerable time in the Wangfujing Bookstore. If I remember correctly it has been on the same site for about sixty-two years. If you are a book lover this is a place to go. Only new books are sold on the four floors, and more than half are in Chinese of course. Even so, the selection of English language books is quite wide. I saw English language books in many categories: recent novels, classics of literature, cookbooks, dictionaries, children's books and more. There are lots of books for people who speak Chinese to learn other languages and people who speak other languages to learn Chinese. One of the things that amazed me was the number of people under fourteen reading and talking about books to each other. My host explained that at least some of them were groups of children from local day camps. Even that is amazing, who in Canada or the U.S. would take kids in day camp on a field trip to a book store? But these kids were swarming over the books, excitedly enjoying them. I saw copies of one of Stephen Hawking's books in Chinese in the children / young adult area. When I mentioned this to my host she reminded me she has one nine year old student who wants her to tell him about Einstein's General Relativity equations.

We both managed to spend some money in the bookstore and other places along Wangfujing. Then we made our way back to the hotel. I left my bags behind and we went to the restaurant next door to have the world famous Peking / Beijing Duck. (In the ten minute walk from the subway station to the hotel there are at least four restaurants that specialize in duck. We picked this one because ??) First thing to know is there is no one correct way that Peking Duck can be served and eaten. Some cookbooks say one way, others describe other ways. Whatever way you like and whatever restaurant you like is the "right way". Second thing to know is that it is duck (unlike Bombay Duck which is a fish), so it is bound to taste good. Third thing is unless you can eat enormous amounts or like lots of leftovers, go with at least one other person, preferably two or three other people.

So I had my first Peking Duck meal in Beijing -- what could be better -- at least as far as first tastes of a world famous dish. And we had an incredible mushroom and bacon dish which I think I may be able to cook correctly myself, if I can get the same quality of bacon. Of all the wonderful things I have eaten here so far, this one dish is right at the top of the list. This mushroom and bacon dish, along with the egg and tomato dish I have had a couple of times, would make a perfect breakfast or brunch or lunch or light supper for a family. With rice and some green vegetable (brocolli or something similar) it would be filling family meal. I am not saying anything mroe about this dish until I learn how to cook it myself.

Heavenly Temple

Beijing, July 7
Tian Tan Day, a trip to the Temple of Heaven, parts of it anyway.
My host told me this particular site is about half an hour walk from my hotel. As usual she was right. It was a reasonable walk considering the temperature and the blazing sun today. A blazing sun in Beijing is a good thing, it means the air is relatively clean.
Towards the end of the walk, as I got to the intersection of Qian Men and Zhushikou I found I could not get there from here. I could see where I wanted to go but I could not walk directly from where I was to where I needed to be. (That happens fairly regularly and unpredictably here.) There was construction which completely blocked the sidewalk for several dozen metres. There was no way to get passed it directly without walking into traffic. I had to go in the wrong direction along Zhushikou a little, use a raised pedestrian walkway and then figure out how to get back to Qian Men so I could cross over it and continue to Tian Tan. Either the streets had moved a little or the the scale of my map does not allow the amount of detail I required but I did not find exactly how to get where I was going. But I was not on a schedule and I knew what direction I had to go so I followed the traffic and found my way.
On my way back to the hotel I discovered I could not cross Zhushikou from south to north. There was a barrier separating east and west bound traffic. I decided not to run across five lanes, jump a barrier and then run across another five lanes. Again there was an elevated pedestrian walkway provided. Again it required I walk east for a little while in order to cross over and then walk west back to Qian Men.

If you come to Beijing, visit this park and historical site. First it resembles the North American idea of a park more than the other historical sites I have seen. It has lots of grass and other low growing green stuff. It has thousands of trees, mostly cypress and pine, but many other types. You cannot and should not walk on the grass. Like me, you will be a guest here, so follow the rules. It has flower gardens. There is a wonderful collection of roses that were nearly finished flowering in early July (unfortunately for me). China is the home of the tea rose, one of the main parents of modern Hybrid Tea roses, sold to millions of people every year in North America. The entry fee is Y30 and there are some special parts of Tian Tan that each require another Y20 to enter. I stayed within the "basic" part of the park.
More than the other areas I have visited, Tian Tan felt to me like a family or community park that happened to have historical monuments in it. Before I get to that, I remind you what I said about The Egg: the Beijing City government likes to do things on a grand scale. That was even more true when there were emperors in Beijing. The Temple of Heaven was the centre of worship for the entire country. People believed that what the emperor did here determined harvests and prosperity for the entire empire. So it was a very important place. (If you rent the audio guide when you come you will hear some of the stories.) Because it was so important emperors would add, renovate, rebuild parts of it from time to time. The current Tian Tan park is four times the area of the Forbidden City. When the audio guide said that I thought my legs would fall off. However most of the space is open, very little has buildings on it. The various worship spaces are extremely impressive, and built on the same "bigger is better" principle that rules in the Forbidden Palace. While you are always aware of those buildings they do not dominate, I found it easy to relax and wander, no pressure to make sure I had seen everything there was to see.

I think because of this relaxed atmosphere, which is greatly aided by the cypresses and other trees, the park seems to be the home of many amateur performing groups. People get together to practice (perhaps) or show off (perhaps) or just to enjoy various minority folk dances and songs as well as various groups of the dominant Han sharing their songs with the open air and anyone in ear shot. By the way I assume these were all amateur groups, but it is possible some were paid to show up and perform. I saw line dancing for fun and exercise, folk dancing and singing, dance groups practicing routines. I heard Peking Opera in several places, I heard what looked like a spontaneous group singing either folk songs or revolutionary songs. I saw middle-aged women dancing with multi-coloured ribbons and enjoying themselves immensely. I think I would visit this park a lot if I lived here and lived close enough to it to visit.
After more than three hours wandering around on concrete and stone I decided to go back to the hotel area for some lunch and some air conditioning.

The Egg

Beijing July 6,
Another day not full of exciting events or places, partly because my host was working today and will be for the next several days. (Other people have to work even though I am on holiday) Also a quieter day because of the heat and the air quality.

I knew before I came there would be days, perhaps the whole trip, when the air would be thick here. Today was one of those days. The TV said it got to 31 today but I was outside at noon, it certainly felt much hotter. The Weather Channel Internet site says it is currently 29 but with the humidex feels like 38. That I believe. It also says it is currently hazy. That's a polite way to say the air almost has body. However there is supposed to be up to 5mm of rain overnight. That should wash some of the junk out of the air and make tomorrow more comfortable.

I spent a few hours this morning marking and then went for a walk. I started out going west since I thought I had not been that way before. The next main street west of the hotel has many musical instrument stores and stores for calligraphy supplies. One day I will be in the market for the proper instruments to write characters. But I am not going to buy things that will sit in the closet for years gathering dust. And since I do not play an instrument and don't want to carry one home on the plane this part of the street was not particularly interesting. So I turned and went north, crossed Qian Men Jie, one of the widest streets I have encountered (six lanes of cars each way plus two lanes for buses, taxis and other vehicles each way), and kept going north.

As I was walking I noticed a large round silver building. As I got closer I saw it looked like a silver ball someone pushed down on to make the main diameter wider. It was surrounded by lots of green space. When I got to the green space I discovered another thing in Beijing that is free. The first thing that is free is the public toilets (very civilized), the second is the part around the National Center for the Performing Arts, also known as the Opera House even though many other kinds of performance happen here. I am beginning to think perhaps all public projects in Beijing have to be huge. The park is quite large, although, as always, stick to the paths, stay off the grass.

According to Wikipedia the Center itself holds 5,452 people in three performance areas and is nearly 12,000 square meters in area. It is 212 meters east to west, 144 meters north to south and 44 meters high. The building itself is surrounded by water. The entrace is down a wide long set of stairs. From the lobby I could see that at least parts of the interior space are open directly to the water. So it must feel like you are under water in those areas.

The construction took about six years and cost over Y3.2 billion roughly $530 million at current exhange rates. Not only were the construction costs supported by the National and Beijing government the enormous operational costs are also constantly subsidized by both governments, a matter of some discussion at many levels in Chinese society. Looking at the building, either from inside or outside it is clear the building is a major achievement for the city of Beijing. I am not sure if I like the look of the building but it is a lot more attractive than many "modern" buildings I have seen and the inside looks fabulous. I think it is extremely important there is continual government financial support for the arts. I think the people of Beijing should be proud of their government for taking on such a project.

The Forbidden City

Beijing, July 5

Just like Qian Men and Tian An Men Square and the Great Wall there is no way to be prepared for the Forbidden City. It's official name now is the Palace Museum. It is not forbidden at all to anyone with the price of admission and it is a museum, there are some static displays of artifacts in quite a number of buildings. However the word "museum" carries with it for me the sense of one building or perhaps a few interconnected buildings. The Palace Museum is truly a city that has been preserved on site. It is not one palace the way we might think of Buckingham Palace, but a vast array of palaces and audience halls and pavilions and gardens. There are some small, specialized buildings and some enormous palatial buildings and all sizes of buildings in between. This is the first thing I wanted to show in the pictures I selected for this article: the scale of this historic site is incredibly large. For example there are three gigantic gates and three immense courtyards to go through before you have to pay admission. As I said to someone today, one could easily spend at least half a day taking pictures of these areas and probably still not capture everything there is to see, and these are just the preliminaries.

The second thing I wanted to show with the pictures I selected is the astounding beauty of this city. In the six hours I wandered around I took about two hundred pictures. I wanted to be reasonably selective and I wanted representative material since I knew I would never remember all of the names of all of the places where I took pictures. From what I saw people doing today there are cell phones all over Beijing with hundreds of pictures of the City all taken during a three hour tour. I did eventually go into the Treasures area where there are priceless items used by the emperors of mostly Qing (about 1640 to 1911) but also Ming (about 1350 - 1640) dynasties. Bowls and cups of jade, crystal, jasper, gld, silver, cloisonne, and other materials, miniature gardens made with jewels, Ancient inscriptions on stone "drums", over two thousand years old, Imperial seals, a couple of collections of material for the last emperor. They are dazzling. But there is magnificent beauty in the architecture and that's what I wanted to show in my photos.

Third I wanted to show how much I enjoyed my time in the City / Museum. For that I need to tell a couple of stories. People want to take my picture, they especially want to have pictures of themselves or their children together with me. And I have always been pleased to do so. Today I decided that I would also ask them if I could take their picture, if that seemed to be a polite thing I could do. In one of the big courtyards a man asked if he could take a picture of me with his son, who appeared to be about four or five. I agreed but we both had to encourage the son to stand close enough to me so that it looked like we were together. Then I asked to take a picture of the two of them, and he agreed. You can see the son is much happier to be beside his father. About an hour later we saw each other again, this time there were two women with them. I readily agreed to a few more pictures.

Later on in the afternoon, perhaps 1.30, I sat down on the edge of some building to take a rest. I sat down about two meters away from a little girl who was sitting beside a woman (her mother perhaps). After some minutes and with considerable persuasion from the woman the little girl reluctantly agreed to look at me long enough for me to look at her in what I hoped was a friendly way. After a few minutes we even waved a little at each other. Then two more women and two more kids showed up (sisters? cousins?). The women asked to take pictures of me with the kids and I agreed. Then I took three of my own. I uploaded one of them is here. Then I remembered I had some Canadian coins in my bag so I gave each kid their own coin from Canada. That was a big hit with the women anyway. Then the little girl in the picture brought me a gift of a Chinese flag. A few minutes later they gathered up all their stuff and went out across the courtyard.

There have been many little times like this. I don't have a common language with almost everyone in Beijing but many people make an effort to communicate with me. Almost always we have a good conversation despite the language barrier. It is usually a short conversation, but I have generally been treated with courtesy and respect. I have had the occasional "dirty" look on the subway, but that happens in Toronto too.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. It would be nice if it brought cooler weather and some rain, if the rain lowers the humidity. However I don't think that is going to happen until next week, looks like mid to high 30s with little or no chance of rain until at least next Monday. I will keep drinking lots of water and finding air conditioned spaces.

Getting Around Beijing

According to something I read somewhere before I came here (do you like the accuracy of my citation?), there are more bicycles in Beijing than cars. I do not for certain if that is true. I do know the absolute number of cars and the number of cars per capita has been increasing for years. One of the ways the Beijing government tries to discourage car ownership is with car license plates. The number on the plate determines which days of the week the car can be on the street. It is something like this: If your license plate starts with A you can drive your car only Mon, Wed, Fri, if it starts with B you can drive Tue, Thu, Sat. The system is a lot more complicated but that's the basics.

Certainly if the term "bicycle" in the census figure I read means any vehicle with two or three wheels there are certainly many more of them than cars. And there are many parts of the city where a car cannot go but two and three wheeled transport can. There are both human powered and motorized two and three wheel vehicles. I have even seen a couple of funky three wheeled cars, I don't know how they are classified. Two wheeled vehicles include pedal bikes, mopeds (motor assisted bikes), electric bikes, scooters and motorcyles. Three wheeled vehicles include pedal trikes and powered trikes. Some of the bikes and trikes look as if they predate the cultural revolution and were possibly built during the first or second Five Year Plans. I took a good look at the drive setup on an old powered trike this afternoon. It is very very simply: the battery drives the motor (which only goes around, no fancy gearing, transmission or differential), the motor has a pulley which holds a belt running to the back axle. What could go wrong that could not be fixed either with a replacement or a quick welding job?

Some of the three wheeled trikes are essentially powered rickshaws: people carriers, taxis from an earlier age. One person drives and gets paid, one or two or more sit on a bench seat behind the driver and enjoy the ride. Most three wheeled trikes are the pickup and delivery trucks for much of the city. I have seen immense loads of plastic on these trikes, as well as sheets of plywood and drywall and other contruction materials. They carry workers and their tools to and from job sites. They deliver anything that fits in or can be tied to the open area behind the driver. They are also used to transport families from place to place and pick up the groceries for dinner. Throughout the city there are reserved bike / trike lanes (also used by pedestrians and by buses and taxis from time to time). Anyone in a bike lane has the moral right apparently to ignore almost all traffic signs and signals. And that is why I am telling you about these various vehicles that are not cars. You have to be aware of them any time you walk anywhere. If not you will cause an accident -- and then you will pay.

I have talked about the subway system here more than once. It really is a great system. All route maps are in Chinese and English. There are route maps in the ticket areas, on the platforms and maps with little lights in them over the inside of every subway car door. The lights indicate each station as the train follows its route. If you know where you are going, it only takes one station to figure out if you are going toward or away from your destination. The lines are well linked together. It is easy to transfer from one line to another, easy but not always fast. Some of the transfers require considerable hiking and stair climbing. I think the city government wants everyone to have strong legs. However the signs for exits and for transfer directions are very easy to follow, again in both English and Chinese. As I write, a ride on the subway, any station to any other station, unlimited transfers, costs Y2. Do yourself and your bank balance a favour if you visit Beijing. Get a Beijing Transit Card, dump some money into it and enjoy the ride. If you use up your first amount, put some more on. I don't think you can get the leftover money back so give the card to someone else when you leave Beijing. You can also use the Transit Card on city buses although most foreigners avoid buses. I have been on one bus ride so far. It was Y2 for over an hour of travel. The ride was safe, clean, odour-free and everyone had a seat. Crowding on city buses, especially during working hours is significant, but that is true in every city I have been in.

Want a hutong with that?

Beijing, July 4

I have used the word hutong a few times in these notes but I have not explained what a hutong is. Everybody in the central areas of Beijing is very familiar with hutongs. It seems to be a word that has multiple meanings. A hutong is a particular architectural style. There are hutong districts and streets are named as "ABC Hutong" and other meanings probably exist. Traditionally a hutong is a style of residence, a way of building a place to live. Like all houses, hutongs come in different styles. For example a bungalow is simply a house built on one floor, what other features it has depends on the design. The same is true of hutongs. A hutong is a courtyard houses. Instead of having the green space of a house around the outside as is done in North America, the green space is in the middle.

Think of a square. Now cut a square (or rectangular) hole in the middle of the square, the hole should be about 50% or more of the total area of the square. Cut a narrow pathway from outside to inside in the centre of the south side of the square. That's the basic floor plan. Hutongs were orginally used as dwellings for multi-generational homes. Once the square had supporting walls along the edges of the remaining part of the square, and a roof to protect the inhabitants, the space between the walls could be divided and sub-divided in many different ways. Every home, every room would have access to a view of the internal courtyard. Rooms might also have a door to the courtyard or they might not. Every room would be protected from the elements, especially the wind, and from bandits, by the strong outside walls and roof.

Now we will move to a view of a hutong district. Think of each hutong house as a building block (I know there is no hole in the middle, but ignore that.) Arrange the building blocks in orderly rows so each front door faces south. If you imagine it correctly or use enough building blocks you should get a pattern of rows of blocks that goes from east to west, each row has a little space between it and its neighbours. Those spaces are the alleyways, the "streets" of the hutong district. Every once in a while there will be a narrow alley running north and south so it is possible to get from one "street" to another without having to go to the end of the row. Quite often there will be a public toilet at the intersection of the east-west street and the north-south alley. (You are never far from a public toilet in a hutong district.) They are cleaned regularly, top and bottom. In days past the human sewage was taken to the fields outside the city and used to fertilize the crops being grown to sell in the city. This is a very practical arrangement that saves an enormous amount of water compared to developed countries use of flush toilets. I don't know if that still happens.

Many hutong dwellers in cities converted part of their living space, often the south side since it had an outside door, into commercial space. Some of these stores in hutongs are very narrow, two meters perhaps. The owners can touch opposite walls with their hands. Not all are that narrow but public business gets done in spaces North Americans would consider medieval. Probably because they are so small these shops tend to specialize in one or a very few products, tofu shops, noodle shops, children's clothes, hats, shoes, etc. Some shops, like the tofu shops, hand out what they sell to customers through a hatch or over a half door.

If you live in a hutong, even temporarily you should walk around a lot, get to know your neighbours, both residents and commercial operations. You may discover several noodle shops for example close to where you live. Prices tend to be very similar so people go to the one they like. Their next door neighbours may go to a different one based on personal preferences. On the fringes of a hutong district, along the big main roads, the buildings are often higher, two or three or four stories. In these cases the bottom floor of the building is usually the commercial space and living quarters are above.

Da Zha Lan Xi Jie, the street the hotel is on is much wider than most hutong alleys. I suspect a number of hutong dwelling were removed to make it. The colourful bright street view picture is Dazhalan Xi Jie with the usual morning traffic. You could drive two cars down it side by side as you might be able to see in one of the two pictures. Many hutong alleyways are barely wide enough for one car at a time. Many take only two or three wheeled traffic and pedestrians, cars do not fit. The other picture is a more typical hutong street in a residential neighbourhood: a gray painted outside wall with a couple of windows and some bikes and trikes parked against the wall.

Beijing July 3

It is Sunday, a day of rest so I took a day of rest - part of one.
I went to church this morning at the Congregation of the Good Shepherd (cogs-bj.org). They meet on the third floor of an athletic facility in an area north and east of where I am staying. I took the subway and a cab and arrived about half an hour before the service started. After service I got a ride to a different part of the Beijing subway system, a part I had not been on before. So I had a bit of an adventure reading the subway maps and making two transfers, from Line 10 to Line 1 and then Line 1 to Line 2. By not reading the map at the transfer point I got on the Line 2 train going the wrong way. So I got off at the first station, crossed the platform and got going the right direction. Atter getting out at Qian Men station I took a bit of a walk around another part of the "neighbourhood" and eventually ended up at the hotel about 1.30 I think.

The air conditioning in my room was nice so I stayed in the room for a few hours. Outside it was 33 - 34 all afternoon, although the humidity level seemed somewhat lower than yesterday. It was also a very clear day so the sun was quite bright, and there is very little shade in most cities, especially in the downtown areas. Beijing is no exception to that.

My host called about 4.00pm. She had finished her late lunch with a friend and wondered what my plans were for the evening. I told her I had some more marking to do but would call her back when I was ready to leave. An hour later I called back. We met at the subway station close to her place and spent the afternoon and evening together wandering through a part of the hutong that is her neighbourhood. About 8.30 we stopped for supper. I don't know if she had eaten at the restaurant before or not. However she had been told that it is usually a good idea to eat the standards in an unfamiliar restaurant. So we had Ma Po Tofu, Eggplant with Tomatoes and Sweet Peppers, Kung Pao Chicken and Fried Rice. While we were eating there was a cooking show on TV. If we ever ran out of things to talk about we could talk about food (again). We did talk about food and cooking, and about shared experiences and individual experiences. We discovered we both have a weakness for Chinese children, particularly little Chinese girls. If either one of us ever had to teach junior kindergarten or nursery school to a group of Chinese kids there would be no discipline. Both of us melt when faced with cute little Chinese girls. And neither one of us has any idea why.

Despite the conversation or because of it, or simply the art of the cook, the food was wonderful. Some of the best eggplant I have ever eaten. The kung pao chicken was well balanced, neither too bland nor too spicy-hot. The Ma Po Tofu was cooked differently than what I have had before and it was great. Even the fried rice was good, a nice background to the rest of the food, just a little salty which was needed with the other dishes. I say even the fried rice was good because it is so easy to mess up something so simple.

I got back to the hotel about 10.15pm having had a great time. I toned up my legs some more, and I managed to purchase a couple of things to take home as gifts. I could have spent a lot more than I did, there were so many attractive and interesting things available.

I was in taxis twice today and I did some walking in the hutong which means encounters with motorized vehicles of various kinds. I was reminded that taxi drivers are not the worst drivers on the road, as some comedians seem to think. And the two drivers I had charged exactly what was on the meter, no "extra" charges. They also took me to my destination quickly and with a minimum of fuss.

One correction I need to make. I wrote that BeiHai Park mean "White Lake / Sea Park". It does not. (I am surprised no one corrected me by e-mail.) It means "North Lake / Sea Park". And it is the most northern of a short chain of lakes (seas) near the Forbidden City.

No picture for you today. I took only a few in my host's neighbourhood before it got too dark for my camera. For camera buffs, my last two shots were at 1/30 and f3.2. If the Drum Tower happens to be in focus and visible I will consider myself very fortunate indeed.

Beijing Day 3, July 2

Today was the day I planned to visit BeiHai Park. Sometimes plans have to change.
The name Beihai park means "White Sea Park" and it was built for one of the emperors of China long ago. There is a lake in the park as you can see in one of the pictures. Why it was called White Lake I don't know. Thursday when I went roaming north of my hotel to go the Square I simply walked east to Qian Men, north on Qian Men and walked across twelve lanes of traffic (six each way) and through the outside gate-tower. Today, no way as in there was no way. Metal barriers were put up either Thursday night or Friday night. So I had a choice. I could either go into the underground passage, come out at the Tian An Men Square entrance and wait long long mintues to go through the security check and then hope to find my way across the Square and then hope the way off the Square was barrier-free or try and walk around the square on the roads. I ended up doing some of each. I walked past most of the Square, went into an undergroun passage and came up close to the north edge of the Square. Then I was able to cross another main street and continue north to BeiHai Park.

I walked and walked and walked and walked. I asked police officers for directions. They all sounded very much like "go to the light, turn left, walk that way", although sometimes it was not a light just a corner. The essence was "you are going more or less in the right direction, just keep going." When I got across the road from ZhongShan Park, I thought to myself, that park is on my second priority list of places to visit but I am here, I am tired I will go in. Entrance fee: Y3. (Hint: If you visit Beijing assume nothing is free.) What a delightful park. The only thing I did not like was all the walking was on hard surfaces, usually cut stone. Hard surfaces make sense if you are in a wheeled cart or being carried in a sedan chair, but soft surfaces make more sense for walking and for absorbing rain. The park features beautiful naturally carved stones, wonderful trees and other vegetation and a stream that turns into a big pond for peddle boats and even low powered motorboats. There were quite a number of couples taking advantage of what they seemed to think were quiet or private spots. If I could see them they were not that private.

I talked to my host at noon while I was still in ZhongShan Park. A few words from her, plus an apple and some rest and I decided to try to find BeiHai Park. The worst that could happen would be I would get really tired. Then I would get on the subway and come back to the hotel. So I walked and walked and walked and walked. I asked police officers for directions. They all sounded very much like "go to the light, turn left, walk that way", although sometimes it was not a light just a corner. The essence was "you are going more or less in the right direction, just keep going." (Sound familiar?) Once place I stopped for help was a government installation of some kind. The guard told me I could not go any closer. But he was quite willing to help me with directions. After consulting with the map in my pocket a few times I eventually ended up across the road from the entrance to BeiHai Park. Entry fee: Y20, except in the winter or if you have a Beijing Residency card (which they check carefully).

Two things I learned from today (which are really corollaries): 1) everything in Beijing is further from where you are than you can possibly imagine 2) everything in Beijing (public works anyway) is bigger than you think it could be, much like the Great Wall. Beihai Park is enormous. I have no idea how big it is or how many buildings it has. It is ginormous, humongous. There is an artificial island at one end of the sea linked to the shore by a stone bridge. I visited the island. It covers perhaps 1/5 of the water's area. It took more than one hour to walk around the outside of the island with only a few stops for picture taking. It is going to take several hours to skim the surface of the whole park. No wonder someone in Toronto recommended I visit Beihai but I was not told what to expect. All the walking was worth it. This is a truly wonderful place.

(Aside: My host's roommate added a third corollary: everything takes longer than you are told and that you expect.)

I did learn a little today as I said. When I left the park, I took out my map, discovered there was a subway station "not too far" to the west and started walking and walking and walking. I turned at the right street, saw the station, had to walk a few meters back to the crosswalk and then went down and got on the train. I am really proud of the trip back to my neighbourhood. I negotiated the Beijing subway system including a transfer from one subway line to another without outside help and without going the wrong way in either case. I admit I have been using the subway system here for a couple of days, and I admit the station names are in Chinese and English both on the maps in the station and the special lighted maps over each train door. Still, I think my fast and safe trip is a tribute to me as well as to the designers of the Beijing Subway.

Now I am off to my host's place for a home cooked meal. Who is cooking has not been decided yet.

Beijing end of Day 2 July 1

Top: Climbing one of the steeper parts, although not the steepest

Middle: Scenery near the corner of a watch tower

Bottom: View east through a watch tower window almost back to where we started

I avoided Tian An Men Square completely today. Why go where there are even more people than usual, especially since I had something more interesting to me to do. Today was Great Wall Day. When the alarm went off at 7.00 this morning I was not ready to wake up. However I obeyed its call and then heard the rain coming down. My window opens into the space between two buildings, about 2 metres of space. And it is a completely enclosed space. To service the utility connections (which is all that seems to be in this space) one must go through the hotel and come out the back door. What would the rain mean for the intended trip? I would have to wait to find out.

After I got ready to go out I walked across the street to the Dia Market and bought an umbrella, my first umbrella. It is a lovely (?) blue and greeny-gray tartan collapsing umbrella. Anyway, it kept my dry in my walk for some breakfast. Going West along DaZhaLan I heard the calls of one restauranteur trying to bring in business in the rain. Of course she was doing the same thing yesterday in the heat and probably in January in the cold. This place is another example of commerce taking over living space. The steamer was set up outside on a charcoal stove on one of the steps out the front. The restaurant consisted of five tables with four chairs each. I had ten bao zi for Y7. It cost me more for a cup of tea at the hotel.

The rain stopped sometime around 9.00 - 9.30. My host her friend and I arranged to meet at the DongZhiMen Bus Terminal about 30 minutes away from the hotel. We then travelled on what I would call an inter-urban or inter-suburban bus to pick up a fourth person. Then we took an unlicensed cab to the MuTianYu village access to the Great Wall, after negotiating a price for the trip. The driver asked if we wanted him to wait. We said no thank you, there were lots of drivers eager to take us if he left. It turned out he did hang around, or at least he was around when we finished on the Wall, and he even waited for us to have a late afternoon lunch and then took us back to the fourth person's neighbourhood.

The Wall is Great in every sense of that word. Even in its current state it is truly a marvel of human endurance and engineering. Quite recently some civil engineers discovered the mortar holding the bricks together is reasonably ordinary mortar except for the addition of sticky rice to the mix. It is not visible from space, a myth apparently started in the 1930s according to the Lonely Planet Guide to Beijing. It is not only a marvellous engineering marvel it is also exceedingly picturesque. In the days when it was a military fortification there would have been no large vegetation within many kilometres of the Wall. Now the vegetation grows in the cracks between the bricks. Even in the short section I walked the incline and the depths of the steps change dramatically, sometimes within a few metres. Some places had a low incline and steps only a few centimeters deep. One particular section had steps set about 75 degrees of slope and about 50cm high (more than half way up my leg to my knee). I had already managed to do considerable climging and my knees were screaming at me. So I let the other three climb up that section and go on to at least the next watch tower.

In order to get to the access point for the Wall one has to go up, since the Wall was built on the highest parts of the land. There are two ways up and three ways down: cable car and chair lift (the same as ski hills) are both up and down. For the more adventurous there is a toboggan ride down. We wanted to see the part of the Wall that the chair lift when to, so we took the chair lift. About ten seconds into the ascent I wanted to get off. It re-activated my struggle with heights. I either cannot go near the edge of a high place or I am afraid if I get near the edge I will try to fly off. I know it is all mental and I can control it somewhat. Seeing the ground drop away as I rode on a wooden seat with a few metal rods holding me in nearly made me loose my control. Fortunately I was with someone I could talk to and our conversation helped me a great deal. I went down on the chair lift with my host, who has a similar problem with heights. We both survived although our legs were a little shaky after we got off. The other two took the toboggans down. The toboggan slide is an arc of a metal cylinder which winds its way down from the top. The user sits on a plastic with a brake handle between the legs. Next time I will go to a part of the Wall I can walk to and walk away from.

After the "walk" on the Wall, we had a late lunch at a Western -style restaurant in the village. It is called The Schoolhouse and is recommended in at least one guide. It is worth going to if you are in the neighbourhood. I had pumpkin soup and cold noodles with juliened cold chicken and vegetables in a creamy sesame sauce. It seemed to me to be the dish on the menu closest to Asian cooking. Others had risotto, fish and chips and club sandwich and chips. The chips (french fries to some) were wonderful. I had only one and wished the leftovers had stayed on the table for another few minutes. There was a wonderful appetizer in the Chinese style: little (2-3 cm diamater) biscuits with shredded seaweed in the dough accompanied by garlic pickled in black vinegar and oil. The idea was to split the the biscuit, put one or two garlic cloves inside and then munch on this miniature sandwich. I could probably manage to pickle garlic but it would take me a lot of practice to make biscuits anything like what we had today.

After lunch we picked up our driver who took us back into the suburb of Beijing where my host's friend lived. He picked up the remnants of his belongings and came with us on the inter-urban bus. He was meeting friends for a good-bye party tonight, then doing a two week tour of parts of China before heading home to Scotland. He said he is ready to go home.

We had a quiet ride on the way back to Beijing, I took the subway back to QianMen station and walked to the hotel. On the way I picked up some tea and some water to make tea. My supper tonight was a few fried fava beans, a Fuji apple and a few cups of green tea.

Now I will find out if I can upload the notes for today and the earlier ones to the right place: professortravels at blogspot dot com. And I need to select a few pictures from my growing collection just in case I have access. Tommorrow Bei Hai Park and / or Jing Chan Park. My host is working until 5.30pm so I will explore on my own, carrying a map and the cell phone in my pockets just in case.

Beijing End of Day 1 (June 30)

I knew in my head that July 1 is the anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and that 2011 is the 90th year since the CPC started. The enormity of the event did not strike home until I managed to get to Tian An Men Square this morning. I picked up breakfast in a couple of places, had some high priced Best Quality Oolong in another place and found you tiao in one of the alleys around the hotel. Then on to Tian An Men but first find the right way get across six or eight lanes of traffic. The best way is to insert yourself into a tour group and walk with them. It was a little slower than I like to walk but much safer. I had a second you tiao standing by the Gate. Then I let myself be persuaded by a city volunteer to enter the Gate and visit the exhibits. Lots and lots and lots of history. And I found I started to confuse the names of the various gates. The current gate is not the original. Like many things in East Asian architecture it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times in its history. Has it always been rebuilt as it was before? The displays I could read do not say.

After my tour of the Gate I went into the Square. Again I followed the crowds, and there were thousands of people moving into the Square. The Square will be the focus of the Beijing celebrations. It was from the Gate that Mao announced the establishment of the PRC on 1949 Oct 1. The party was first established in Nanjing (I think) so there will be celebrations there and all over the country tomorrow. It is a national holiday, I wonder if that will affect our travel plans.

In order to get into the Square I and my bag had to go through a security scan - just like at the aiport, except the people running the system did not seem particularly concerned about their tasks. The Square is enormous. It took me at least ten minutes to walk from one side to the other, that suggests it is at least 1/2km in each direction. And it is essentially a long flat concrete plain. If you want anything to eat or drink or whateveer you have to bring it with you. And it is hot under the sun, there is no shade whatsoever.

Shortly after noon I got a call from my host. I received directions about taking the subway to meet my host so we could have lunch and visit that neighbourhood. There are six interconnected subway lines in the city plus a route from the centre of the city to the airport plus another one which I couldn't figure out where it is. In order to get to the place where you buy a ticket bags have to be scanned. It took me a little bit to figure out the ticket vending machine. Once I found the button for English it was easy. The subway ticket costs 2 yuan and gets you anywhere on the subway system. Travelling on the Beijing subway system is very easy for me as long as I know where I am getting off and if I have to transfer from one line to another. All of the station announcements inside the subway cars are in Mandarin and English. And there are illuminated route maps over the exit doors that show the route and the location of the train you are on. I am amazed. My host treats this as normal.

Once we met we had lunch at the smallest restaurant I have eaten in. We sat at a table for four. There was a table for maybe three against one wall and a table for perhaps two against another wall. We had jiao tze (dumplings) and biao tze (stuffed buns) and congee and with noodles and green vegetable. (The noodles must have been long life noodles, one or two at a time made a mouthful.)

We went the afternoon at my host's apartment (in another hutong district). It was a lot cooler than being outside. My host tried to get the necessary registration done to connect me to the Internet service she uses. Unfortunately that did not work -- yet. So this message will end up on the blog I hope tomorrow or Saturday. But for now you get it by e-mail.

Arrival Day: June 29

The Air Has Flavour

Images: Top one is Qian Men: The Gate looking up / north along Qian Men Street.
Bottom one is the outside of the hostel / hotel where I am living: 365 Inn on DaZhaLan Street.

Once of the first things I noticed as soon as I left the building at Beijing Capital Airport was the air. Not only was I suddenly in 29 degree heat with accompanyng humidity, the air here has almost a solidity to it that only happens for a few weeks of the year at most in Toronto. This morning I think those particles have settled in my nasal passsages and the back of my throat.

I arrived in Beijing about two hours after the scheduled arrival. There was some maintenance issue in Chicago - O'Hare. It had either to do with the plane or the luggage carousel or both (we were told two stories by the crew of the plane while we were still on the ground). We left Chicago two hours late and did not make up any time despite the length of the trip. While I am tempted to speak more of the trip, this note is about first impressions of Beijing, not O'Hare Airport and United Airlines.

I have been in a few airports and they are essentially all the same. Beijing airport felt empty when we got off the plane. I think perhaps ours was the only flight, although there were more people moving around than could be attributed to just one flight. Still it did not have the feel of Pearson Airport on a weekday afternoon. Once outside the differences started to show. There were two lines for taxis, organized by the passengers with the help of two airport employees. A group of cabs would pull into various designated slots, individuals or groups of people and their stuff would be loaded into each cab. Then all the cabs would leave. Then the next group of cabs would pull in. Very efficient.

The ride into the city felt long, but the ride from Pearson to downtown Toronto can be long. There were traffic problems in a couple of places. At one point we saw about six or eight men trying to push an old double-high bus backwards along the expressway. This was directed by a police officer. They seemed to know what they were doing but I predict there will be several trips to the doctor for muscle strains and tears for those men.

Nothing, not my words, not the guide book, nothing, prepares you for Tian Men: the Gate of Heavenly Peace. You can read how high it is, how wide it is, how long it took to build. Until you see it it is difficult to imagine. We drove past on the way to my hotel. In those few short moments I could not really get more than a few glimpses at it. But it is magnificent and powerful and cannot help but be a focus of life in this neighbourhood. AS we drove past the gate I tried to imagine what the walls that used to be attached to it looked like. If they were anything at all like the gate it is no wonder Westerners destroyed as much of Beijing as they did as often as they could. The gate is like a dinosaur, or perhaps more appropriately a dragon. Coiled strength and power inside an impervious beautiful shell. Bang on the outside too hard and the dragon will wake up.

The hotel where I am staying is a youth hostel with private rooms upstairs. I am on the second floor in a small room with a double bed and a private bath. The hotel is on a street called Da Zhai Lan in the XuanWu district. It is about ten minutes walk south of the gate and the famous Tian An Men Square. The Square is directly south of the Forbidden City (the centre of power for the emperors). So my hotel could not be better located for people who want to immerse themselves in the history and culture of Beijing and of China. DaZhaLan is one of a series pedestrian-only streets in this part of the city called hutongs. They are something like alleyways, although the "pedestrian only" sign is at least as often ignored as it is obeyed. The entire street is paved with square black stones, it would be slick when wet I think. My host said the prices on this hutong are somewhat higher than on others, probably because of the number of tourists.

For supper we had three dishes in a small restaurant down the street: ground pork with pressed tofu sheets and shredded green onion (an imitation of Peking Duck), green vegetable and noodles and Western-style green beans. Western-style meant long beans with dried chilis and Szechuan pepper, not what I expected from the name on the menu.

The shops on the street were mostly quite specialized. There is the Beijing equivalent of a dollar store, a couple of hat stores, a couple of shoe stores, a grocery store, a couple of pharmacies, a few places selling candy and drinks, several restaurants, a bookstore, at least two calligraphy supply stores, a couple of clothing stores. And I am missing several because it took nearly ten minutes to walk to the restaurant and very few of these shops were more than 3 - 5 metres across. You could live your whole life on this one street and not have to go anywhere else except for banking and the post office. There was a blacksmith / machinist / bicyle repair shop as well, a kind of shop that disappeared from North America many years ago. The owner is a worker in iron and steel, metal rods and coils and other shapes all around, a fire on the floor, and a broken trike out front waiting for repair. In a city where two and three wheeled transport outnumbers cars this is an important shop.

Next stop: breakfast, then wandering, then to Tian An Men Square, my first attempts to go somewhere and back without my host. I have a cell phone with my host's number preprogrammed, the first one on the list. If I get truly lost and cannot get help, then I can call.