Being a Beijinger for the Day

August 28th 2017

It's 7.00am and I feel refreshed after sleeping for around 10 hours!

After a quick shower, it's our first experience of a Chinese breakfast. Instead of going for the usual western breakfast, although I did have bacon, sausage and beans, I also had some fried rice, noodles and samosas....

At 8am, we met our guide "Sharon" for our next tour. This was no normal tour, I was about to become a Beijinger for the day! 

First stop, the subway to take us to Jinshan Park....Actually, subway, then bus, followed by a "brisk" walk in 25 degrees at 8.30am! On the way, Sharon asked me if I was a kindergarten teacher, I apparently look like one; she was quite dismayed when I told her otherwise. We finally arrived at the park, ready to do some Tai-Chi as this is what the tour stated. Instead, we ended up walking to the top of the hill for a birds-eye view of Beijing; we were right above the forbidden city as the hill was built to protect it from the wind and dust storms. The park was tranquil and it was amazing to see the "grandparents," as Sharon put it, participating in lots of different activities. You name it, they did it....Tai-chi, playing musical instruments from the Beijing opera, playing "keepie -ups" with a badminton type shuttle cock, clapping...yes clapping, dancing, stretching and generally slapping themselves. Yes, I did say slapping themselves......it is apparently to get the blood pumping though the body again after being asleep all night!

We left the park feeling really relaxed and ready for the jaunt to the local market to buy some fruit and vegetables in preparation for our cooking lesson...everything was really fresh and so cheap; we even bought a couple of apples to eat on the way. Iain also bought a peach the size of a turnip for 30p. As this was part of the tour, our guide paid for it; no cash changed hands, just a mobile phone and a QR-code...we are way behind in the UK!

We then got on another bus to take us some of the way to our next stop; I say some because we had to get a rickshaw to take us right into the "Hutongs" to meet the local family that we were cooking and having lunch with. 

Mr Liu previously worked as a chef for the government and wanted to pass on his knowledge and enthusiasm to foreigners coming to China. He was, as was almost every other Chinese person we have met, extremely kind and curtious. He showed us how to make pork dumplings, chicken Kung po and a dish with celery and egg. We made all of these dishes in his house along with his family before sitting down to lunch; I had a Sprite and Iain a beer (this was my only complaint of the day!).

After lunch, we rented some bikes (they were everywhere and you could rent them using the QR-code!) and rode through the Hutongs toward the Drum and Bell Towers. This was a great, yet slightly scary experience. You remember the song from an earlier post, 9 million bicycles....I can assure you, its a fact!

On arrival at the Drum Tower, we were met by another local family member and he took us to his fathers home to see the famous Peking Opera Masks. On the way, I decided to use a public toilet for the first time.....eeek! I'm not a fan of them at the best of times but I have to say, I was pretty impressed; it was as clean as can be expected, just remember to take toilet roll!

After a short walk, we arrived at Mr Lin's home where he showed us various masks explaining what each of the colours symbolised (Blue = strong, Black =  justice, White = evil...and others that I can't remember!) We each chose a mask to paint and went about our task, along with Mr Lin's help! He was so enthusiastic and it was really good fun. We got to keep our masks and he gave us a little souvenir gift as a present too. He also kept a "pet" cricket as cricket fighting is huge in China.......!

We said our goodbyes and headed towards the main pedestrian shopping street, S Luogo Alley, with our guide. We thought from the beginning of the tour that she was a bit crazy, it turns out she is! She grabbed us, so we could go into an old sweet store and came out with popping candy, a milk chew and some weird liquorice type tic tac. We tried all of them while she giggled away, reminiscing about her childhood. I said she was crazy, but really, she was great fun!

At the end of the shopping street, we said our goodbyes...although, she did mention that she would whatsapp me all the photos she had taken from the day. 

I couldn't wait to sit down, my feet were killing me so we set out to find The Great Leap Brewing Company....

Oh and Happy Chinese Valentines Day.....!