Day 5 Hutong to “Vuitton”

We got to sleep in this morning to 6:30, as we need to be on the bus by 8:30.  Our first stop was the Temple of Heaven which is surrounded by the Tian Tan park, where countless Bejingers were up bright an early playing badminton, hacky sac (bags that have feathers on them) and even ballroom dancing and line dancing!  We had a Tai Chi 101 lesson from Mr. Wong….until some loud pop singer complete with amp and speakers bullied us out of our location…..I guess that’s where he usually sets up and had an entourage of older (older than us) women who dance to his music.  It was a pity because we were the morning’s entertainment for a group of seniors giggling behind their hands at our clumsy attempts at the graceful art of Tai Chi.

We then proceeded to the Temple of Heaven, a beautiful round structure in the middle of the park.  All the while Pam had her eye on her GPS…another cache was within reach!

Temple of Heaven

Next to the Pearl market to hear about pearls and spend a little money.

Then on we went to the hutong.  A hutong is a neighbourhood of old buildings behind a wall, narrow streets, about 4 or 5 communal bathrooms for each hutong.  There is also a central court yard where people were gathered for activities. Hutong is the Mongolian word for well so that each hutong was built around a communal well. We were in the Lingdang hutong.

When we got there, rickshaws were awaiting us…. a short ride, 17 rickshaws snaking through the narrow streets  to the family that was waiting to serve us lunch.  Our group of 34 was divided into 2 groups….. squished around 2 tables in each room…..and the dishes started coming….delicious dishes of vegetables, meats, dumplings and rice all made by a gentleman who was a chef for 30 years and his wife, made in the smallest of kitchens (2 burners, a small counter and a small sink). Our guide for the tour was a young girl, Yoyo, who translated the hosts entertaining stories.   Then off we went again through different streets in our rickshaws back to our bus. 

Hutong Rickshaw

Next stop was the Beijing zoo to see pandas....we are seeing Pandas later in our tour so more about them next week.

We opted to go to the night’s optional entertainment of acrobats…..that’s before supper, tailor appointments, optical appointments and a knock off purse/watches sale in one of our groups rooms.

The acrobats were great….the first act was called “Silk Suspension” a group of young men who did an act on long climbing ropes,  “Ball Skills“ was a young women balancing and juggling balls, “High Chair Modeling” was a ladder act, “Across the Table” young men tumbling across the tables though rings, were a few….but our favourite was “Motorcycle In”….a huge ball that 4 full sized motorcycles raced around in and “Play Plimp” the narrator clown who showed up for all the acts!

Then back to the hotel where Carol, Mo and Pam raced across the street to get Beijing MacDonald’s  and Barb to Beijing Pizza Hut.  Then up to the knock off sale in the 11^th floor hotel room then back to our room to compose this day’s blog with wine and cookies while awating the optical man to deliver Mo and Barb’s new glasses.  A full day.