We have decided a guardian angel is watching over all of us on this trip! Things have been so terrific and fallen into place, even though sometimes we're making it up as we go along.
Yesterday we met Andy, one of the guides from CCC and the last weekend Datong trip, at the KFC for our tour. It was a private one, just the four of us, for the group price! We started out in pedicabs touring through the hutong area that is being preserved by the government (it's actually OWNED by the government but the woman whose house we visited has lived there for 63 years - she is 82.) These narrow streets show the really active life of older Beijing. Pat and I rode together and I wondered whether the old guy pedaling would be able to move us, but it turns out there was a little electric motor he switched on as he went along so he didn't do much of the work.
They let us off and we spent about an hour with this lady in her 2 room plus bath home. It was about 625 sq. ft. and she pays about 500 RMB ($75/month) including elec., water, heat, gas. She has a son and a daughter - we asked her which of her children visit her, spend more time with her - she says definitely the daughter! The daughter had done a beautiful looked like a painting of peonies but was really a cross stitch hanging, given her a big flat screen TV, digital picture frame, etc. The daughter has a son, who is currently studying in a California state school, and the son has a daughter. The woman had worked as an accountant for the government and been given a chance to rent this home. It can pass to her children with no increase in rent and she doesn't have to worry about being displaced by urban renewal, like so many had been to get ready for the Olympics. We asked her how she kept in such good condition and she showed us some of the exercises older people do (she used to do tai chi but her knees aren't good enough, she said). She loves living in her old neighborhood where all of her friends live, even though probably her children could set her up in a high-rise flat!
We then walked around the neighborhood, trying lotus root (yummy!), peanuts, and a delicious kind of egg/veggies pattie. We had Andy write the names down in Mandarin and pin yin (our alphabet to help pronounce!). We passed several children and of course stopped to take their pictures, always making their grandparents (usually the caretaker) proud!
Then the pedicabs picked us up and dropped us near a main street near Tianamen Square. Andy added to our tour by taking us to this very old but updated and famous in China pharmacy, where many people were filling prescriptions. He inquired and I purchased two medicines, one for my drippy nose and one for general (to help my sore throat). We then walked down the newly renovated pedestrian way, with an old trolley (used to be many of them in B.) running down the middle. All this area (near our hostel) has been completely renovated since my 2005 visit. It is such a great location to be staying!
We walked the largest square in the world (Mao had to make it bigger than Red Square!) as Andy pointed out the Hall of Justice, different reconstructed old gates where the original city wall had been (was torn down by Mao to make the first ring road) and headed toward the Gate of Heavenly Peace, with Chang'an Rd. going by. Huge picture of Mao hanging (you've all seen the picture) We went in the first of many gates to the Forbidden City (built by the Ming dynasty around 1500s and continued to be lived in by Qing, the last, dynasty from 1700 - 1900s. Pu Yi was the last emperor (see the film The Last Emperor) to come there at 3 and lived there until about 26, when he was pushed out, by the warlords around the time of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, revolutionary leader around 1920s. Pu Yi was lucky he wasn't just done away with. In the meantime, the powerful eunuchs, who were the workers in the FC, had squirreled away most of the treasures. Then they set a fire to cover up their theft. So mostly the FC had been stripped by the time WWII came around and no one lived there. Many of the buildings have been beautifully restored!
We went to a side restaurant where CCC had ordered another delicious banquet for us - sweet and sour chicken, chicken and peanuts, pork shredded, etc. When you see our pictures you will swear we ate our way through China! On my first trip here that year I always told people (not here, of course, but at home) that the food and the banquets were my LEAST favorite thing about China but that has changed. It was all been delicious!
Of course, the generous, helpful, cheerful people still continue to be my FAVORITE thing about this country!
After lunch Andy gave us the history and took us to a couple of side museums (ceramic and jade) that I'd never seen, and then the standard Hall of Harmony, etc., etc. It wasn't near as crowded as when I'd been here two other times. Andy agreed.
Outside almost at 4:30 cab drivers and pedicabs were waiting to rip off tourists to get back to the start of Qianmen stop but we hopped a bus with Andy for 2 quai (said instead of Yuan) and we left him back at our subway stop, with lots of hugs, promises to visit us in America, and a huge tip!! Well earned!
Marilynn went with me BACK to Ctrip (5 subway stops and then a bit of wandering but we found it) and paid for my PauPal-cancelled flight from Guilin to Shanghai. I THINK we are finally all set. The girls from before at the desk saw us walk in and I was sure they would grimace, after our long, and sometimes loud sojourn there when we arrived in Beijing trying to straighten our flights out). But they were charming and helpful and we got back in time to meet up with Cecily Deng, my Chinese "daughter" - Lily is her mother and one of the gracious hostesses in Yangzhou, and I tutored her for an English speaking contest in Nanjing my first year here. She is a grad student here and working an internship at CCTV. She wants to be a journalist, but is now job hunting for any kind of a job come September. She will go to Geneva in January for an internship with the UN. She had spent last July and June in DC at Georgetown and an internship but we had only spoken on the phone on her way home from Chicago in August. We visited for a couple of hours (she had already been visiting with Pat and Joyce before we got back). It was lovely to see her, and she went on her way (Qin Hong had called her to try to help me with the ticket thing! She hasn't seen her former teacher for 6 years but that doesn't stop Qin Hong!!! They take such great care of me!!!)
I tried the Chinese medicine but I think Pat's Mucinex was the best help for my sleep. We are packed and ready for Lee (our driver from 2 days ago -Pat called Peter to make arrangements for today) to take us at 9 to the Pearl Market and then the airport - on our way to Xi'an. Marilynn and Pat went out early to see the changing of the guard in T. Square. I've seen it twice so didn't need to go again.
More from Xi'an, the former capital during the Tang dynasty and a Muslim (the Uighur minority group) area of China with the terracotta warriors!
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