Another weekend packed full with family field trips that left us pleasantly exhausted.  We are having a blast… though we’re not without our Chevy Chase moments (Art walking us down one Beijing alley after another as he is determined to find the hutong where Zhao Ziang was placed under house arrest in 1989, after the Tiananmen Square massacre; turns out they’ve torn it down)…  and not without the occasional unhappy kid… but mostly great times.  So far, China has been an easy country to travel in with kids.  I’m not in constant hyper-alert mode (except when on crowded subways), and feel relaxed wherever we go.  Maybe because it’s still early, and not yet tourist season, so there haven’t been any crowds?  In any event, Art’s been leading us on a lot of fun fieldtrips.

He’s made it his job to ensure that we eventually see everything in Beijing.  We’re saving some of the “big” sites (like the Great Wall) for better weather in a few weeks, but on Saturday we went to Wangfujing: the famous shopping area of Beijing (closed several weeks ago when Chinese authorities thought there was going to be an uprising…).  If you live in China but want to pretend that you really live in Chicago or New York, this is one of those areas where you would be perfectly comfortable.  You can stay in really swanky hotels, and get anything you desire in several high end malls that offer everything from Tiffany’s to Bally, Givenchy and Burberry, to Coach, Prada, Max Mara, Birkenstocks and Nikes… to every single brand name of every single thing you can think of.   All very expensive.  We hit the fun part (for kids) which was not the malls but rather the shopping district outside with alleys full of unusual sights, lots of souvenirs for sale (think Chinatown in LA, but on steroids) and curious food stalls with things like live scorpions and big crunchy bugs on sticks… waiting to be fried and eaten (which we did not)… and another alley with a “steamed stuffed buns” restaurant where we ate really well.  Also stopped at the famous Shengxifu hat shop and the foreign language bookstore where we finally found maps to hang in the apartment…

Afterward, we walked through several hutongs, and took a tour at the former hutong/home of one of China’s most famous writers: Lao She.  He wrote a number of books, translated into dozens of languages over the years.  I’ll see what I can get on kindle.  For my mom and anyone interested, check out: Rickshaw Boy, The Teahouse, Four Generations Under One Roof…

He had a hard life (who didn’t in the China of 1899 through 1966), but with many bright spots (esteemed career, wonderful artist wife, four kids).  Sadly, he killed himself by drowning, at age 67.  Suicide is the official story, but he had been marked as an enemy of the party and was marched into the streets of  Beijing and publicly beaten… so there is that to consider on top of the official story…

On Sunday morning we took a taxi out to Fragrant Hills, an enormous park beyond the Summer Palace and sort of off the beaten path of Beijing… up and around narrow, winding streets (similar to the south side of Pittsburgh).  There was so much to see that in nearly 5 hours we only grazed the surface, but chalked up another temple: the Azure Temple in the Clouds, and another cable car ride.  The temple was wonderful… originally built about 900 years ago, it went on forever (dozens of buildings) and culminated in the Vajra Throne Tower.   Too much to write it all here, but these impressions: how did they move/cut/carve/stack all that stone 900, 700, 500 years ago?  Hmmm.  That’s what I’m thinking…  Also, very little incense at this temple.  Instead there are red ribbons with prayer wishes which can be tied throughout the grounds and inside the buildings and halls near various deities.  Loved this.

Also in the park itself are trails and paths winding for hours.  We’re planning a return trip later in the spring to hike those trails…

The cable car ride was another story.  I used to be so fearless; now I am completely freaked out by these kinds of things.  Really.  This was a longer, higher cable car than the one we did in Kunming… also (seemed to me) more ancient and rickety.  Terrifying.  On the return trip I rode with Elle who was getting a kick out of me hanging on for dear life.  Halfway down she told me to close my eyes and imagine something peaceful, and so I did.  OK, I said (eyes shut)… I’m at the beach and this is the wind in my hair…  Then Elle starts hollering: “We’re going down, Mom! We’re going down!” … laughing her head off.  Where did that come from???

Good days both.  Back to school today (Monday).  I will never ride another cable car.

Emerging from the subway is this part of Wangfujing. Probably the most famous avenue in Beijing... from behind me in this picture it goes for a mile or so before passing Tiananmen Square...

Further along and beyond the high end malls things open up... more foot traffic and people outside...

Off the main drag are these shopping alleys crammed with people and souvenirs. We bought slippers for the girls, and postcards... (whoo hoo...)

Wangfujing tchotchkes...

A light snack... you know, if you like eating scorpions...

Enormous bugs on sticks, as food. I don't think so...

But the corn was good!

Here we are... wandering down another alley...

Look for the sign...

Love this garage...

Hutong doorways run the gamut.. from really, really rustic to chic to somewhere in between. These are ancient neighborhoods and I imagine "hip" places to live for lots of young people, but peering into some of the open doors, it looks like many seem to have not had a change in occupancy in the last 50... or 100 years. Love walking around here...

Hutong doorway 2

Hutong doorway 3

Hutong doorway 4

Hutong doorway 5

Hutong doorway 6

After the hutongs we stumbled into the Dynasty Hotel where we stayed in 2005 (memories!). The hotel sits next door to St Joseph's church. Churches of any denomination are a very rare sight in China....

[note: posting this incomplete and 9 hours after I wrote it as I can’t get photos to load; will continue when full speed internet kicks in again…]