* Sorry it's taking so long to update this travel log. We didn't get into Fuzhou as planned so we were racing to the train station for our trip to Guangze. We hope to be caught up tonight. We have a good internet connection here in Fuzhou so feel free to email!
3/10/2004
We had a leisurely morning at the hotel before heading out at 11:00am for a tour of one of the twenty five Hutong areas now being preserved. Hutongs were the traditional neighborhood structures in Beijing. We shared a rickshaw for our tour. Dou Dou and our Hutong guide whose American name is Cindy shared another. We rode through the Hutong (alleyways) stopping several times for explanation from Cindy. Historically, you could learn a great deal about a family’s stature in the community by simply looking at the entry-way to their home. Some might indicate if the family was a government official or military official.
We got out of the rickshaws and walked around some alley streets along a river. One of the small shops I looked into was selling snowboards and climbing gear! Today the wind was really starting to pick up. Our guide in Guangze (Ruby’s home area) would later tell us that he read of sand storms (a problem due to deforestation) in Beijing that day. We assume that we didn’t experience the worst storms that day, but it certainly was a windy, cold one! We stopped in the Hutong to have lunch in a local family's home. The man who prepared our lunch was a chef. It was the best lunch we have had to date in China. We bought a painted bottle (designed using the "inside painting" style) from the daughter of our host family. We’re told that not a lot of people learn to do this style of painting. It’s pretty impressive and would require a ton of patience. The bottle we bought only took her 3 days to make. More complicated bottles took up to 10 days.
After the Hutong tour, we visited the Llama Temple where we saw the 26 meter tall Buddha – the tallest. It was pretty cool. The next stop was Hong Qiao Market (a last minute plan) for browsing and two purchases. We bought a pink silk outfit for Ruby for Y25, bargained down from Y160. Also bought a kitschy clock, but we can’t share the description now as we don’t want to spoil all of our surprises. Grandpa Don would have really enjoyed the bargaining on the four floors at Hong Qiao. We moved on from the market to the Temple of Heaven. Approaching the Temple via a covered walkway was especially interesting as we saw lots of retired people engaged in a variety of leisure activities. Never before have we seen a group of people in their 50’s (and possibly 60's) playing footbag (a.k.a. hackey sack). They were quite good! Older Chinese people appear to, as a group, be far more physically fit than their American counterparts. A man was also doing some “water calligraphy” on the concrete pathway using a jumbo-size calligraphy brush. Next to him, another man was belting out a song. Dou Dou says it was Chinese opera material that he was performing. Many dozens of people were grouped together playing cards and Mah-jong. Dinner was our final stop before heading for the airport. We were not at all impressed by the food at this meal. As we have probably already mentioned, our dinners in Beijing were not nearly as enjoyable as the lunches.
Our plane to Fuzhou was to depart at 8:15pm. We learned at 8:00 that the flight was cancelled. This was a big disappointment. We quickly followed the group of passengers from the cancelled flight to a shuttle bus that took us to a hotel near the airport. We had to assume that our luggage would meet us in Fuzhou later (and it did!). I (Julie) found the hotel to be pretty creepy. It was also a night of shivering cold. There was very little English spoken there and we were not able to get help finding the number for the hotel in Fuzhou – the only number we didn’t have - to let them know that we would not make it in that night and to tell them not to send a car for us. Dan ended up getting the number from Schell, our guide in Fuzhou for the next leg of the trip. Dan had several interesting conversations trying to communicate our change of plans.
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Start of our Hutong tour |
| Doorway in the Hutong |  |
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Windy day in Beijing |
| Small shop in Hutong |  |
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Dan and guides in Hutong |
| Lighting incense at the Llama Temple |
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At the Llama Temple |
| Walkway at the Temple of Heaven |
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Footbag at the Temple of Heaven |
| Temple of Heaven |
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