Once again we begin the day with the breakfast of champions, watching John knock back at least 2 omelettes and waffles with chocolate sauce. Not my choice of meals, but hey. I had arranged with Lily to get in touch with someone regarding a tour of the Hutong (Mongol for Water Well) region of Beijing. Lily had organised everything for us and our new guide, Jessica, arrived at the hotel just before 9am and with a new driver as well we once again braved the reckless and slightly terrifying streets of this city. The Hutong region was established by Kublai Khan when he occupied Beijing, and this area was without drinking water so the Mongols sunk a number of wells for the locals, hence the name. The start of the walk was by the massive Drum Tower, linked with the also impressive Bell Tower (still containing a 17 tonne bell) and both of them are still used during festive occasions. The main access through the Hutong is east-west, with the north-south alleys being small and dingy. The original setup of each of the housings within the area was for one family to live in a walled enclosure, with a central courtyard surrounded by 4 buildings. These eventually became filled with 4 families, and are now up to accomodating up to 10 families per enclosure. Expensive? How about $60,000 per square metre. Seriously. No wonder that most families are now trying to move out of the area of stay with their parents; the house prices in Beijing make Sydney appear cheap.
We walked into the Bell Tower and had a formal tea ceremony performed for us. We started with an oolong tea, followed by a black tea with jasmine flowers added, then onto a tea from near Yunnan, which is packed into tight disks and then stored for at least 8 years. The one we drank was from 2003. Quite enjoyable. From here it went downhill, with the tea becoming more fragrant and fruity until we finally had one of mixed fruit and a scattering of tea leaves and was served cold. Of course, at the conclusion came the hard sell. You buy tea, cups, pots, sets.... Enough already.
We had a rickshaw tour through the Hutong with Jessica pointing out the bits of wood placed over the tyres of some cars (to protect your wheels and tyres from being peed on by the local dogs), discarded and crumpled bicycles being left to mark someone’s spot. For their car for when they returned.
We were invited by Jessica to visit a family in the Hutong for lunch and we were served yet another Kung Pao chicken dish, as well as a dish of egg scrambled with tomato and one of green capsicum stir fried with thinly sliced potato. This was finished with a big bowl of noodles with soy beans and Chinese greens. Very, very nice.
For the afternoon we decided to do a bit of shopping. Hmm. Ok, 30% chance of raining; it was bucketing down. “Not far”, said the concierge and she gave us directions. We walked. We got soaked. We did find the shopping mall and what a mall! The best brands were out in force! Piaget, Tag Heur, Omega, Calvin Clein (one store for underwear, one for female jeans, one for other female items and one for male clothing), Dunhill, BMW clothing, Tiffany’s, Louis Vitton etc, etc, etc!!!
We did take advantage of the store with Todd and Ben buying the newSony Walkman ($300 compared with $1600 in Aus), John got a wireless Bose speaker and I bought a camera. We were looking for a pair of gloves for Ben. Didn’t find any. As it was still raining we spent the next 49 minutes we tried chasing down a taxi, until outside of the Grand Hyatt, a private limo offered to drive us back to our hotel for the equivalent of $10.
Dinner was a quiet and subdued affair with us going to the rooms early to pack as tomorrow is the start of the rail leg to UlaanBaator and Mongolia.