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We had planned to have our morning free to recover from jet lag. We had slept exceedingly well in the comfortable, quiet room, but I woke up with a
dehydration headache at around 7 a.m. I drank some water and went back to bed. At around 8:45, I decided to take a shower.
I really wasn't feeling very well, and hoped that would help to refresh me. When I got to the bathroom, I vomited several times. I took a long hot
shower. The showerhead was
a rain shower head and the water was hot and the pressure was strong.
After my shower, Craig got up to take his, and I went back to sleep. Craig had been a bit worried about how he would fare on this trip since it is the first really big trip we have taken since he was hospitalized for multiple sclerosis a year ago. There would be a lot of walking and we didn't know how well he could handle it. I was feeling so lousy this morning that I was beginning to wonder if these trips were getting to be too much for us as we got older. I didn't even want to think about it, since travel is such an important part of our lives. So much for eating the complimentary breakfast at the hotel or trying to go to the bank before meeting Alice this morning. It was already 10 o'clock, and we were nowehere near ready to eat or venture out by ourselves. Craig came back from showering and shaving half an hour later. I got up and felt very refreshed and much better. I was incredibly relieved, and ready to start our Chinese adventure. Craig was feeling surprisingly well considering the jet lag. We got dressed and got a day pack ready for the day. We met Alice at the lobby at 11:30. She apologized and said that the driver was going to be late. We asked about going to the bank and she immediately said, "Let's go." We walked the short distance to the Bank of China and we went inside. Alice took a number and we waited. She asked if we wanted her to change the money so we wouldn't have to fill out as much paperwork. Another benefit of her changing it for us meant that we could exchange more than the $500 per day limit imposed on foreigners. That was very nice of her, and we took her up on that offer. It still took about 45 minutes to do the whole bank transaction, but we the time went quickly. We enjoyed chatting and getting to know Alice. A Chinese lady in the bank found us very interesting and stared at us for quite a while. Although the itinerary had originally called for us to go to the Forbidden City today, Alice told us that it was closed on Mondays at this time of the season. So she would adjust the itinerary accordingly to make sure that we could still see it. The Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square are usually paired up because they are right next to one another. But she also found out that tomorrow, Tienanmen Square would be closed for government/military mobilization. So we would do Tienanmen Square this afternoon and the Forbidden City tomorrow morning. This is only one of the reasons we love to have a guide, because we never would have known these nuances on our own. She was able to juggle the itinerary so that we still got to do everything we had wanted to do, and she did it seamlessly. The driver still hadn't arrived, so Alice hailed a cab to take us to the Yu Shan Restaurant for lunch. She was very adaptable and could change plans on the fly to handle whatever circumstances arose. There was a lot of traffic on the ride, but there were lots of things to see while we were stuck in traffic. We hadn't expected to see all of the international luxury brands represented in a swanky shopping district. This isn't your parents' Communist China. We arrived at the government-run restaurant, and went upstairs to the dining room. The restaurant was quite busy, but we were the only foreigners there. We attracted a lot of attention. People walked by our table and waved. When we waved back and smiled, they would go get their friends and bring them over to say hello. Their friendliness was infectious, and we felt very welcome. Alice ordered lunch for us, picking some typical Beijing favorites: eggplant in a nice sweet soy sauce, a chicken and peanut dish, egg with green peppers, beef, and rice. There were sesame buns and Alice showed us how to scoop out the center and replace it with ground beef. Yum! We got a liter of Sprite to share, and had jasmine tea. It was all very delicious and really hit the spot. We crossed the street to visit the Temple of Heaven. The weather was beautiful - it was sunny with blue sky. The temperature was cool but the sun was warm, and the air quality was fantastic. Hardly the Beijing you hear about, with pollution so thick that you can't see several yards in front of you. We were very lucky. While Alice was buying our entry tickets, a Chinese couple came over to us and asked to get their pictures with us, first the wife and then the husband. And not for the last time - we would prove to be much in-demand for photos during the course of this trip! There were large groups of Chinese tourists waiting to enter the temple grounds. All of the tourists had color-coordinated baseball caps to help to keep them together. The tour leaders carried a flag to be easily seen, and some had microphones for vocal amplification to be heard by the whole group. We felt very lucky to be only a group of two rather than a group of dozens! Alice came back with the entrance tickets, and we went in. The Temple of Heaven was built during the Ming Dynasty between 1406 and 1420. It was built by the Yongle Emperor, who also built the Forbidden City, as a place to pray for good harvests. The complex and surrounding park encompass 2.73 square kilometers. When you first enter the temple complex, you pass through a gorgeous park with stone paths winding through beautiful, lush, green lawns and trees. Alice took our photo in front of a lovely colorful garden with a topiary shaped like the Prayer for Good Harvests, which also included cute statues of a happy elderly couple enjoying tea together. She said that hopefully it would mean that we would grow old happily together. As we walked through the lovely gardens, we saw many people enjoying the beautiful afternoon in the park. A woman was singing, Karaoke-style, with a microphone, and three couples were ballroom dancing. We could see the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest peeking up from behind a wall. It was gorgeous - with a deep blue conical pleated roof and a golden finial on top, shining in the sunlight. The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is one of China's most iconic buildings. It is circular, 3 stories tall, 36 meters in diameter, and 38 meters tall. The foundation is marble and the rest of the construction is wooden. No nails were used in its construction. In 1889, a lightning strike burned down the originsl building, and it was rebuilt in its current form several years later. Symbolism abounds in the architecture. Its blue color represents Heaven, as does its circular shape. It is situated in a round walled-in section of the complex. But the rest of the park is square, representing earth. The Temple of Heaven complex is actually bigger than the Forbidden Cty, since Emperors were not allowed to build their private residences larger than the esrthly representations of heaven. The architecture was beautiful. Brides and grooms were having their wedding photos taken on the marble terraces (Altar for Grain Prayers) in front of the temple. Some wore white Western style wedding gowns, but most wore red Chinese traditional dresses and posed with traditional props such as smoking pipes. The beautiful setting combined with the perfect weather must have resulted in some lovely wedding photos! We were able to peek inside the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, and saw that every surface was elaborately painted in blue, green, and gold with dragoon motifs. THe Hall of Prayer fro Good Harvest is connected to its sister building, The Imperial Vault of Heaven, by the Vermilion Steps Bridge (or Danbi Bridge), a 360-metre-long raised walkway. The Imperial Vault of Heaven, built in 1530, looks very similar to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. It looks like a miniature one-story version, and was used to house the tablets of the gods used during the Ceremony of Heaven. There are steps leading up to it, with a carved frieze between the staircases. We peeked inside and saw urns for burning incense. It is surrounded by what is known as the Echo Wall, which gets its name due to the fact that it echoes sounds over long distances. Behind the Imperial Vault of Heaven is the Circular Mound Altar, built in 1530 by the Jisjing Emperor. The Emperor prayed for good weather at the center of the altar, where there is a round slate called the Heart of Heaven or the Supreme Yang. The altar was rebuilt in 1740. This is surrounded by nine concentric rings of stones. The first ring consists of 9 stones, the 2nd consists of 18 stones, and so on up to 81 in the outermost (9th) ring. The Emperor would perform a scrifice here during the winter solstice in the Ming and Qing dynasties. We had a clear view back at Beijing, and could see a nice skyline including a Ferris wheel. We saw the so-called "70-year-old door" in the surrounding wall near the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. The door was constructed in 1779 so that ailing Emperor Qianlong could have a more direct access route to the Ceremony of Heaven. However, the Emperor didn't want his successors to be complacent and take advantage of this convenience, so he decreed that the door could only be used by an Emperor when he reached 70 years of age. None of his successors reached that age, so he remains the only person in history to have used the door. The "firewood stove" was a circular oven made of bricks which were glazed a jade green color, and adorned with decorative tiles. At the start of ceremonial worship of Heaven, a washed and shaved calf was burned in this oven as an offering to the God of Heaven. Then all scrolls and ceremonial artifacts were burned as well, while the Emperor looked on. In a line radiating from the firewood stove stood 8 iron urn-shaped fire pits. These were used to burn offerings for the first eight emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911). They cast intricate shadows on the stone-paved patio. Alice pointed out some 300 year old cypress trees. Touching the cypress trees is believed to give long life. A pair of elderly women stood on either side of the tree, extending their arms in an embrace around the tree. The tree trunk was so wide that they were not able to hold hands. There are also trees which will give you many children. But with the one child policy, now those trees are believed to give you a son if you are pregnant. It is interesting to note how these beliefs evolve over time; keeping the same underlying theme, but varying in specificity according to the zeitgiest. After seeing all of the sights, we exited the complex. A man was writing calligraphy with water on the paving stones. Such a Buddhist activity...impermanence in action, yet therapeutic nonetheless. Alice said that she wanted to buy us a little gift from her travel agency, but that she didn't want us to go with her because we would drive the price up as foreigners. Alice doesn't mince words, but we found that endearing. So we waited out on the street while she went to a little shop. While we were waiting for her to return, another couple stopped and asked for a photo with us. Alice returned to see this and joked that we should charge money. She gave us the gift she had bought for us - a nice Beijing postcard book. Our driver Mr. Chou arrived to pick us up and drove us to Tienanmen Square. We had to run our bags through a security scanner before being allowed to enter. The scale of the place is so huge. It is the fourth largest city square in the world (440 square km or 109 acres). It can supposedly hold 1 million of Beijing's 23 million residents at one time. The Tienanmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) separates the square from the Forbidden City, and was built in 1415 under the Ming Dynasty. Chairman Mao's portrait, larger than life, overlooks the Square. (The portrait is said to weigh over 3000 pounds). In between the gate and a tall flagpole flying the Chinese flag stands a resolute guard on a podium. We saw the outside of Chairman Mao's mausoleum and an obelisk bearing Chinese characters which is the Monument for Eternal Heroes. There was a huge flower basket that was still decorating the square from the recent National Day. It dwarfed all of the people around it, and its scale was fitting for this huge public space. It was such a beautiful, sunny day that many people were enjoying the afternoon wandering around the Square. Families were pushing babies in carriages, people were buying lunch at a food truck, and couples strolled past the enormous flower basket. People approached us, asking to take their pictures with us and we smilingly obliged. I told Alice that I felt famous. As we walked back to the car, we passed a guy on a motorbike who was delivering packages for amazon.co.cn. We walked by the National Theater, a very modern glass oval building which, like most other things in China, is very huge in scale. At 4:00 p.m., we left for the hutongs (old neighborhoods). "Hutong" is a Mongolian word meaning water well, but has become synonymous in the Chinese language with narrow streets that don't fit cars, densely packed houses of traditional architectural styles which may lack some modern amenities, and which share a common courtyard. Our hotel (Red Wall Garden) is on the edges of Shijia Hutong. The residences in Shijia Hutong do not have indoor plumbing, so there are some modern public toilets right around the corner from the hotel that the residents use. After driving in some traffic, we arrived at a hutong tour office where we met a local guide who would take us on a tour of one of the hutongs. Alice and the driver stayed back at the car. Craig and I got into bicycle rickshaw #42. Immersed in a culture which is obsessed with numerological significance, we couldn't help but think that this was highly appropriate. The rickshaw driver navigated us through the narrow sreets of the hutong. It was a pleasant ride and reminded us of the rickshaw ride we had taken through the Old Quarter of Hanoi last year. We drove past many hookah bars with outdoor seating and live music and a lake view. It is obviously a very hip area for nightlife. The driver dropped us off next to Houhai Lake where a local man was fishing with a long pole, and people were cruising around in pedal boats. Our local guide met us and we walked into Beiguanfang Hutong. He explained that currently 1 million of Beijing's 23 million residents live in hutongs. It is not as popular with the younger generation, who prefer more privacy and want to live in high rises. But for many seniors, they prefer the traditional hutongs due to location and convenience to the farmer's markets, etc. Although in general hutong streets are too narrow to support car traffic, this one had some wider roads and there were cars parked along the edges. The tires had pieces of wood leaned against them, and the guide said that this was to prevent "dog peepee". We walked through the narrow streets. Passenger pigeons, a common pet, flew overhead, looking resplendent in the late afternoon sunlight. The first house we visited belonged to a man who does traditional papercutting artwork with a knife. We sat with the gentleman as he explained their lifestyle. He is the 5th generation in his family to live in this house. The government owns the buildings in most hutongs, but this particular house is privately owned. The government, however, owns all land in China. This household has indoor plumbing and modern appliances, though some hutongs lack these conveniences. They heat their home with electrical heat. It is subsidized by the government in an attempt to prevent people from using the cheaper but more polluting coal. Then we went to his papercutting gallery, where his art was on display. This was of particular interest to me, as my mother enjoys various crafts and used to practice papercutting art herself. His work was so amazing...some of it was almost unbelievably intricate. Many of the most elaborate designs were monochromatic. But the multicolored pieces are what really caught our eyes. They were so vibrant and striking! There was no hard sell here at all, and they had items at many different price points. We bought two multicolored pieces mounted on silk. One had a crane motif, symbolizing long life, for my parents, and one had dragon and a phoenix, symbolizing husband and wife, for us. It was a very nice visit, and we noticed the family's pet turtles in a bucket by the door as we said goodnight. We passed three orange cats sitting photogenically on a tile roof, looking down at us. We walked past an old school motorcycle and sidecar on our way to another home where a man and his sister cooked us a delicious local meal. They had a large fish tank separating the kitchen from the dining room. The kitchen had modern appliances. The guide ate with us at the dining room table. We enjoyed chicken with mushrooms and cucumbers, egg with tomato, dumplings and vinegar, potatoes, onions, and carrots, rice, and tea. Everything was cooked in soy oil and was very delicious and flavorful. It was really nice to be able to try such local food, and we really appreciated the hospitality of the family. After dinner, we walked back to the lake to meet the rickshaw. The three orange cats on the roof had been joined by a fourth, as well as two white ones. We took the rickshaw back to the office and reunited with Alice and Mr. Chou. On our drive back to the Red Wall Garden, we passed Snack Street. This is a famous area of Beijing where exotic foods can be sampled, and from what we have seen on TV, it is not for the faint of heart. We realized that it is very close to the hotel, and Alice said that we could go there together on our last night before heading south. We arrived at the hotel at around 6:30 p.m. We loaded the day's photos onto my computer, texted Steve, and wrote in the journal. It had been a busy day and we were still suffering a bit from jet lag. We were happy that dinner had been on the early side, and we went to bed at 8:30 p.m. Temple of Heaven Tienanmen Square Beiguanfang Hutong |
 At the Temple of Heaven in front of a topiary  First glimpse of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests  Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests  Imperial Vault of Heaven  National Day flower basket, Tienanmen Square  National Day flower basket, Tienanmen Square  Craig and Alice, Tienanmen Square  Bicycle rickshaw #42  Houhai Lake  Beiguanfang Hutong  Entering the home of a papercutting artist, Beiguanfang Hutong  Courtyard of papercutting artist's home, Beiguanfang Hutong  Papercutting artist, Beiguanfang Hutong  Papercut of phoenix and dragon, Beiguanfang Hutong  Our hostess and cook, Beiguanfang Hutong  Delicious home-made meal, Beiguanfang Hutong 
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