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Boo and greetings, everyone!
This morning, I woke up neither dead nor Dutch. Hooray! I would have missed all the cool sights today if I had, like the Hutong tour!
Now, you may very well ask, “Bill, what is a Hutong?” And I may very well tell you that a Hutong is an alley between traditional courtyard residences, originally used to house families of different ranks, as designated by the number of posts over their doors. Beijing used to be full of hutongs surrounding the Forbidden City in the shape of a water wheel, which is what “hutong” means in Mongolian). Some of them, like the one we visited by the Bell Tower, are preserved for posterity, but many others have been replaced by more modern architecture or much cheaper materials. In short, they’re falling apart, but they’re still pretty neat.
We jumped into rickshaws, and went on a wild ride, accompanied by our guide, Lucky, on a bicycle! She really must have been lucky to get around all those carts, rickshaws, and bicycles when there was so little room to maneuver! She led us from door to door, showing us the rankings of some of the current and former families, and then we stopped for lunch at a local family’s house. The house was tiny and full of so many souvenirs from across the world! They must have had quite an eclectic crew of guests over the years! I would have left something, but all I had was my hat. Hats are very important for avoiding sunburns! Oh! And we had a birthday in the group, so there was a beautiful whipped cream cake topped with exotic fruits to be devoured! I must confess, I sampled a little much for my size. I’ll have to sleep it off on the plane to Xi’An!
Shine drove us back to the airport, complaining that the Chinese soccer team was like a bunch of eunuchs in a harem for all anyone knew how to shoot. I didn’t get it, but I laughed anyway to be polite. After bidding toodle-oo to Shine, we jumped on a plane (no, not literally) to Xi’an, the ancient capital of China!
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Xi’an was one of the great ancient capitals, alongside Athens and Rome. Now, it is a hub for textile manufacture and national defense, but its friendlier specialty is the pomegranate! As we touched down and met our new guide, Frank, we learned that Xi’an was playing host to the 2011 International Horticultural Expo, featuring its mascot, the gleeful Chang’an flower (by the way, “Chang’an” means “pomegranate”).
As we drove along, Frank told us a little about the local architecture. In China, as in many communist countries, when an architect designs an apartment complex, the design is copied and used to construct three or four identical buildings together, which gives Xi’an a science-fiction look. A person can only own an apartment for 40 years in a city and 60 years outside. Unfortunately, since 40 years haven’t passed since the policy came into effect, no one knows yet how exactly everyone will be switched around when time runs out. I like Frank. He seems to enjoy sharing information much more than Shine. Tomorrow, he’s taking us to see the undead army of Emperor Qin Shihuang! I hope that our experience in the Netherlands will make us seem friendlier to them.
Until tomorrow!
P.S. People don’t really seem to follow signs here. There were three levels in the Jianguo Hotel designated for non-smokers. The first thing we saw on getting off the elevator onto our non-smoking floor was a man relaxing on a bench, enjoying his cigarette. Humph!
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