November 20th - Touring Beijing (by Eric)

I ended up tipping over around 8 or 9pm, which I noticed on my laptop was about 5am. Finally the banging from downstairs commenced aroudn 7am, and it seemed like a good time to start the day. No wonder my body felt all wacked out. We ended up having a great adventerous first day in Beijing. Our guide William was very attentitve and knew a significant amount of history of the city. For the portion of the Rickshaw riding, we had an additional guide, Yong who was also very knowledgable about the history of the Hu Tong area we were wandering through.

This is a picture of Lily and Yong walking towards the old home we toured. It was about 200 years old. It was built around a small courtyard and had specific purposes for each set of rooms. The northern rooms were the largest and usually held the main family. The east and west rooms held other family and the south room was for servants, now used as a reading room.


From the Left - Susanne, Joy, William (our guide), and Allen as we walked through a narrow alleyway connecting the main road in Tu Hong to the Kindergarten we visited.


This was a merchants road that in the old days sold tobacco and opium products. Today we were manhandled by folks selling Chairman Mao and Rolex Watches. I didn't realize I could pick up a Rolex for $5us. We walked along this merchants row for about 10 minutes to get to the Drum Tower.

This guy was bulding a wire rim from scratch, when we walked by him again on the way out he was nearly done. What I didn't stop to get a picture of was the 3 guys to his left which had an open campfire going under the gasoleen tank of a truck. They were trying to unfreeze it? I don't know, but we didn't linger.
All manner of motorized vehicles were in use. Some are aused for hauling things, taxis and just getting around. I will toss some pictures up of those today if I get a chance. The cars surprised me a little. Not a lot of older vehicles. Lots of 5 year and newer cars on the roads. So I figure, you either have the funds to get a good car or you travel another way.

A guy giving his pooch a ride around the lake.

The Bell tower viewed from the base of the Drum Tower.

Home Depot on wheels. Notice the toilet on the first one and the supplies on the second. There was a thrid one with building materials right in front of those two.

The weather has been great. It's brisk, about 0 celcius, and was sunny and not windy. By the afternoon at the summer palace, it was quite pleasant. There were a lot of changes made to Beijing in preperation for the Olympic Games. First off, they planted tons of trees all over to help with how things looked and to reduce the polution. They didn't transplant little trees, these things are fully grown trees. Crazy, but they did a beutiful job. If the trees live and thrive, it will improve the cities feel, that's for sure. They also completed a series of subways, and over the next 7-10 years, plan on a new line every year so that there is a subway station every Kilometer. The level of growth and industry here is significant.

Quite a few other observations to make, but it's time for breakfast and to get started on another day of touring. Lily and I will post some comments tonight if we have an opportunity.

Cheers - Eric