Bye Bye Beijing

Wednesday, March 9, the day of our leaving was just as sunny and beautiful as every day in Beijing had been. You will recall that we had not been able to get to dinner with Chen the night before. She graciously asked us to breakfast today and sent her driver to pick us up.

Chen and her husband, along with others of her extended family live in a group of connected buildings very near our hotel. Ironically, we had walked down her street the day before, and I had wondered what sort of homes there might be off this very ordinary street. We were about to find out.

What we found was a lovely home.

Chen was a charming hostess. She put us completely at ease as she talked about her family and her home while offering us a lovely breakfast. We were completely charmed.

All too soon it was time to go. Chen had work to do, and we had a plane to catch.

That's about it, really. I took a few more photos of Beijing as we drove to the airport.

And then there we were. Everything went well, except for the over zealous airport inspector who insisted I remove my nearly empty scotch bottle from my checked luggage. Of course, I couldn't just throw it away, so my memories of our time in the airport and of much of our flight home are a bit hazy. But get home we did. Thanks, Bern, for pushing us to go to Bali. Thanks, Ben, for hosting us in Hoi An and again in Shanghai. Thanks, Amy, for showing us around Shanghai and thank you, Chen, for inviting us to breakfast. It was quite a trip. We had a wonderful time.

Last Day

For our last day in Beijing, our last day in China, and our last day in Asia we opted to continue our theme of no more tours, no more temples, and no more trauma to aging knees by 8 hours of being on our feet and walking around. We decided to continue exploring our neighborhood, the very heart of Beijing, and, most especially, to eat Peking Duck. Apparently it's still Peking Duck, despite the city's name change, and we were very excited to try it. We had been a bit distressed about the difficulty in getting good Chinese food in China. No General Tso Chicken. No Mongolian Beef. You see what I mean. But we were optimistic about the duck. If you can't get good Peking Duck in Peking, then where?

As luck would have it, the place we'd been told to go for this delicacy, the Made in China restaurant in the Grand Hyatt hotel, was within walking distance. Off we went, back into the big streets and big buildings.

Eventually, we came to the Grand Hyatt and, truly, it was Grand.

The restaurant was equally grand. It was the sort of place that makes you glad you came for lunch instead of dinner.

We were initially told it would take 45 minutes for Peking Duck, but were then reassured, after some checking, that a half duck was available and could be ours in a jiffy. Perfect! Very soon the half duck arrived (complete with a half head) along with a chef to carve it.

Next, we got a quick lesson in how to make, if you will, Peking Duck burritos

and then were on our own. It was absolutely delicious and totally memorable. We agreed the most stunning part was the skin. It was crispy and would melt in your mouth. The white stuff in the middle bowl in the above photo is sugar. You take a thin slice of skin, dip it in sugar and then eat it. Amazing!

Eventually all good things must come to an end. With happy tummies we bid good bye to the fabulous restaurant

in the Grand hotel

and were back on the street again. Our goal was to get to Tiananmen Square, or at least as close as we could. We were in Beijing at the same time as the annual meetings of the National People's Congress and the People's Political Consultative Conference. These groups apparently exist to give the appearance of democracy in China and are therefore a very big deal. The Great Hall faces Tiananmen Square which was, therefore, closed off, but we thought we would see how close we could get. We walked on.

It wasn't far from the Grand Hyatt to Tiananmen Square. We passed one big building after another. I decided the architectural style, of the official buildings at least, might be best termed "Chinese Intimidating".

At last we arrived. In the foreground is Tiananmen Square and across that the Great Hall of the People where the meetings of the groups I mentioned above, the NPC and the PPCC, were taking place.

Note the police cars. There were a LOT of police. It made me a bit nervous to take photos. But I did it anyway.

Behind us, as we were looking at the Square, was the National Museum of China. It had just reopened after a massive renovation giving it triple its previous 600,000 square feet of exhibition space. We decided to put it in the same category as temples and save it for the next visit. Note the police van.

It was time to head back. We walked past the Forbidden City,

past workmen working,

and past an old Jaguar with wire wheels, no less. Consummately cool.

Finally we were back at the church

where brides were again, or still, being photographed.

Then just a turn to the right, around the church, and we were back in our familiar hutong, headed to the hotel.

The plan for the evening was to meet Amy Wood's (Ben's daughter's) friend, Chen, and her husband for dinner. We were supposed to take a cab, but that proved problematic.

The street was jammed with four lanes of traffic and there were no empty cabs. Those vertical lights, by the way, actually were strings of lights that "dripped" from top to bottom -- a very cool effect. We eventually abandoned the idea of dinner with Chen and went to Pizza Hut. It was a sad moment.

As a final thing, on our final night, we decided to take the subway out to the Olympic site. That's actually doing two things, learning how to use the subway and seeing the site. The subway was just at the end of our hutong. It was very easy to use and, no surprise, very modern.

It was also very crowded at 10:00 p.m. on a Tuesday night, but both going and coming back people went out of their way to be sure we had a place to sit.

The Olympic site was most impressive. It was cold and windy. There was almost no one present in a space which seemed to go on forever.

We walked in. To our left was the National Aquatics Center or "Water Cube".

To our right the National Stadium or "Bird's Nest".

We hadn't come a minute too soon. Precisely at 11:00 p.m. the lights went out. We went back to the subway which was just as crowded as before.

And just as before, someone took the trouble to make sure we had a place to sit. It was a very nice way to remember our last night in China.

Another Day of Rest

After our marathon tours Saturday and Sunday we decided Monday would be a day of rest. We would just walk around the neighborhood and see what we would see. No temples, no palaces. Perfect.

We walked from the hotel down our little hutong,

turned left at the church and there we were. On the street again.

I never got used to that dramatic transition.

As we walked along the street we came to another little hutong-like entrance. We made that turn, and a whole world opened up.

It was a sort of Chinatown in a Chinese town! I'm here to tell you that Chinatown in China is a whole different experience. Take, for example, these live scorpions on a stick. I wish I had a movie so you could see them wriggle. I presume they got cooked before being eaten.

You really need a better view. Cute, no?

The scorpions weren't the only thing. There were all sorts of cooked bugs.

Here's closeup of the cooked critters.

I must admit, I disappointed myself. I had talked from time to time during the trip about eating a bug or two if I had the chance. Well, I had the chance, and I passed. I guess I would need to be a lot hungrier, and probably at least a bit tipsy as well, to go the bug route. Another day perhaps. We kept walking along. Remember, this is right off the huge, modern street we'd just been on.

These fellows were making candy by banging on nuts, and some other "mystery" ingredients, with huge mallets. The candy was pretty good!

And this fellow had a clever routine to get people to buy hats from him.

Seafood anyone?

These looked really good, but tasted as though they had used cooking oil from the neighboring fish seller.

Eventually we came to the end,

and just that quickly we were back in the modern world.

On our way back to the hotel we walked past some whimsical street sculpture.

As we came to the corner of our hutong we saw a bride and groom being photographed in front of the church, one last bit of loveliness in a perfectly lovely day.

One more day in Beijing and then -- home.