On Saturday morning we woke up to beautiful blue skies. We met Tang our tour guide who took us to the Hutang district, the old section of Beijing. Tang's on the right. Isn't he cute? He's an English major, trying to earn a little extra money and improve his English by giving tours.
He took us to an old drum tower. At the top of the hugest flight of stairs in the world (~50 steps) is a collection of ancient drums and other artifacts.
We got to watch seven guys do a drum ceremony. Very impressive! You could feel it in your bones!
Here are some of the old incense/timepieces. They would burn through in 24 hours.
Across the courtyard was the bell tower. The bells woke the workers, told them when to report to work, when to stop work, etc. We didn't get to see the bells, but we were invited to see a tea ceremony on the bottom floor. We told them we didn't drink tea, but they let us smell some very aromatic teas and then we drank a delicious fruit tea.
We then met our pedicab driver who showed us the sights of the old neighborhood. As you can see it was a beautiful spring day.
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| Lots of shops |
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| A shoe repair person with sewing machine |
Some of the beautiful doorways along our path.
The stones in front of this door indicate the home of an a military man. The four blue circles mean he was high ranking. I'm so glad they have preserved this old section of Beijing. It has so much more charm than the thousands of hi-rises in the rest of the city.
Finally, we got to walk around the courtyard and charming home of a family who still live in this area.
After a lunch of dumplings and steamed vegetables, our wonderful trip has come to a close.
Back to the subway. Back to the bullet train. Back to life in Qingdao.
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