Day Next

Today dawned spectacularly clear, crisp and beautiful in this city of necrotic lungs. I can now see mountains around the city from our hotel. Breakfast this morning was unlike the day before thankfully. Coffee was plentiful and the food was more available but not of the quality of our former hotel. Rested with full bellies we were ready for another day of hard work.

In the Temple of Heaven gardens we saw the Chinese engaging in their daily ritual of Tai Chi. Hundreds of locals were in groups of ten to thirty each doing different forms of exercise in the park. Ann tried the Tai Chi with the locals. Yes it was hilarious. I tried another form of exercise using something like a large ping pong paddle with a trampoline like fabric inside the frame. Using the ball I attempted to do various movements while rotating the paddle 360 degrees in long arcing movements keeping ball in contact with the paddle. As with Ann this must have been a hilarious sight. I thanked the lady who let me borrow her paddle and ball. She tried so hard to instruct this spastic American to do something so simple but I made her fail in her teaching.

Next we visited the Hutongs of Beijing. These are the very old residential housing around central courtyards on narrow streets in the center of town. There we all rode rickshaws to a family home to have a lunch cooked and served by a family in the Hutong. This was a typical meal of families in Beijing. It was good and beer was served also! Then back on the rickshaws to another family home to talk with the man of the house asking whatever questions we wished. I must say this was an enlightening experience. Ann and I were both very uncomfortable with the entire process. I am not sure what the motivation was for this outing sponsored by the China Tourist Agency. Many in our tour were also quite uncomfortable. I am at a loss to explain this.

Although the food was good and the families nice, the houses were not well kept – generally a mess of such proportions that I could not imagine inviting anyone to my house with it looking like that. This was a far cry from the forests of modern high rise condos in the suburbs of Beijing. There is still a lot to do to improve living conditions in this emerging giant of a country.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at what Joy had called the Nordhoff Shop. It was to my surprise that after hearing this for two days I found out she meant the Knock-off Shops. Pirated Nike, Polo, Ralph Lauren, all manner of electronics and the usual shlock you find in all large American Chinatowns were available on five floors of this building of individual cubicles. Each space 10 feet wide had a seller who accosted us to buy as we walked along. So this accosting occurred every 10 feet! The idea is for the seller to price the object outrageously high and come down to a reasonable price (for poor quality fake Coach purses, Rolex watches, etc, that is). Ann got something for Miss Eloise that was offered at 250 Yuan. Ann got her down to 80 Yuan before buying it. Joy told us to be SURE to wash it thoroughly before giving it to Eloise so the chemicals won’t kill her. Ah, China.

So far I have resisted buying a “Rolex” watch for $3 from the street sellers.

Tonight we visited the Beijing Opera. A trip across town that should take 1.25 hours took over 2 hours. Traffic this Monday evening was horrid. We missed the first 30 minutes of a partial opera of one hour. It was short but sweet. I did not have time to become bored. Chinese “opera” is a combination of atonal music, acrobatics, stylized acting and movements, bright outrageous costuming and juggling. Yeah, interesting but it was not my cup of Chinese tea. Traffic was still stop and go at 9:45pm on the way home. The traffic has not disappointed me. It is amazing.

Thought for the day: Tai Chi requires an expertise I don’t have but I don’t mind looking like an idiot trying.