Saturday, May
9, 2009
WHAT A GREAT DAY!
Hi everyone! We had quite the
exciting day today – we took a tour of the area that best
represents old China – an area called Hou Hai, which includes
both the hutongs as well as a lovely area called the Ten Temple
Sea. Hutongs are alley-ways, and behind the doors off of the
alleys, there are court yards, or quadrangles, with one-story
housing built around the court yards. It’s fairly typical for
tourists to take rickshaws through these areas – a rickshaw is a
carriage for two pulled by a man on a bicycle. We did just that
– we took a rickshaw, stopped in at a local market, then visited
a local gentleman who lived in a hutong courtyard home and who
was kind enough to cook an absolutely awesome meal for us.
Before the rickshaw tour, though, we stopped to see the city’s
Bell Tower . In olden times, before they had watches and clocks,
people listened for bells to be rung and drums to be beaten to
tell time. In the morning, the city opened at 5am to the sound
of the bells, and it closed at 7pm to the sound of the drums,
all rung or beaten by designated bell-toll-ers or drum-men. We
climbed to the top of the Bell Tower in the morning to find an
absolutely massive bell which was over 700 years old (though the
tower was only about 300 years old, since earlier towers all
burnt down).
Hutongs are like their own neighborhoods, and we traveled down
quite a few of the alleys. While some looked very gray and
plain, a couple we walked through had very modern stores and
were quite contemporary, including some Seattle like coffee
shops, and other restaurants. There were also several hutongs
being re-built with new courtyards being reconstructed, and some
were becoming very fashionable. We learned a great deal about
what different door styles signified in times long ago. At the
end of the tour, we came upon an area called the Ten Temple Sea,
which is built around lakes and canals and surrounded by
walkways with restaurants and beautiful stone bridges and stores
and willow trees – it reminded me a little of Amsterdam….but
with rickshaws and people on bicycles ringing their bells and
screaming at each other in Mandarin.
It was a wonderful day, and we both saw and experienced things
we never could have anywhere else – and that alone makes it
amazing.
We had to skip Bei Hai park because of both rain as well as
general fatigue, but we’re very excited about the Great Wall
tomorrow. We’re going to leave out Emma’s Corner tonight, but
stay tuned for the update of a lifetime for Mother’s Day!
Lots of love, Dawn, Gregg, Emma and Ethan HuiHui. |
Emma and Gregg in the Rickshaw
Local Market - Spices
Hutong Area Walking Street
Mr. Leung’s Courtyard |
