August 12, 2010 Touring Beijing: Liulichang Street, Temple of Heaven, Hong Qiao Pearl Market, Shichahai

Fangfang picked us up this morning and we took the subway to Liulichang Street which is an old traditional shopping area adjacent to a Hutong neighborhood.  We strolled down the street popping into the shops to check out the wares.  One of the shops was a very old, long standing Tea House where we were seated and served Beijing Jasmine Tea in the traditional way.  There is much ceremony involved in serving, savoring and enjoying hot tea in the Chinese culture.  It was very relaxing and we all enjoyed it thoroughly.  

 

At the end of Luilichang Street we took a left and explored the Hutong Neighborhood which is the old style communal residences that were historically inhabited by government officials.  Now the Hutongs are protected by the government and are somehwat a window on the past. For the most part, they are now privately owned and mostly occupied by an older generation.  These are the folks that enjoy sitting outside in the communal areas or along the very narrow streets playing cards or just chit-chatting about their day.  The government provides monetary incentives to refurbish the homes.  Tomorrow, we will actually have a tour of the area and get to visit a local family's home in a Hutong Neighborhood.

 

We then took the subway to the Temple of Heaven which is a beautiful, huge temple.  The size, beauty and detail of the temple is overwhelming.  It was built in 1420 as the altar for the Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties to offer sacrifices to heaven and pray for a bumper harvest.  It is located in a beautiful park like setting...but today was super hot!  The sun was scorching and there was no breeze...kind of like Memphis!  There was a fitness park on the outskirts of the Temple of Heaven Grounds and Caroline had a great time playing on the equipment.  We also enjoyed some gelato which was about the only thing we could find to cool ourselves down. 

 

Then we walked across a very big and busy street to the Hong Qiao Pearl Market.  This is a huge 5 level shopping center that has booth after booth of very agressive sales people all wanting you to buy there wares.  Fangfang had told us that we should never pay full price in here and that a good starting point was at about 20 to 30% of the asking price.  I bargained pretty hard and bought several Chinese dresses.  There was so much stuff...you could have spent days just looking through each floor.  We then headed to the upper level where the finer jewelry is located and sold.  Mom and I spent some time looking at pearls and finally decided on some very beautiful necklaces and earrings.        

 

We had to hop back on the Subway to get to the area where we had dinner.  It is an older Hutong area called Shichahai and it is located along a beautiful lake.  We had traditional street food for dinner at the 9 Snack Restaurant.  Here you walked around and picked up various snacks from vendors cooking all sorts of things from dumplings, to noodles to donkey sandwiches and bat on a stick!  It was very traditional local fare.  Some of it was yummy.  We loved being in the restaurant as it was really loud and full of locals.  No one spoke English except for our group.  It was neat to really feel immersed in the culture.  Again, Caroline slept through this dinner.  The second dinner in a row!  Her little time clock in her body is just not on Beijing time yet! 

 

We took the subway back to our hotel and on the way from the station to the Holiday Inn, we stopped at the grocery to get Gailie's favorite dessert...peanut M&Ms!!  We also had to get some extra bottled water since we can not drink or brush our teeth with the tap water.  The grocery store had the music blaring and Sean and I found it so humorous that the song was "Rhinstone Cowboy" and it appeared to be looped since it continued to play again and again!  So funny!