Yin and Yang on the Yangtze, Part Two
Our activity for the afternoon was a trishaw ride through Beijing’s old Hutong neighborhoods where we would have tea in one of the Chinese homes there. When I saw the trishaw I was to ride in, I knew that my troubles that day weren’t over. The step up to the floor of the vehicle was very high for my bad knees and even with a boost, there were no sturdy handholds to pull myself up. But the nice driver scavenged the area where all sorts of building projects were going on and built me a set of steps from some stones. Later, after we finished our home visit, I found our driver had managed to pull up near a curb of sorts and I was able to climb in easily. Despite the arduousness of their ‘profession’ (three or four trips a day), we found the trishaw drivers to be a very amiable group (even without any English).
That evening we had our welcome dinner in a very nice restaurant in the hotel. The food was served Chinese style around a central Lazy Susan. The main course was touted as a special Peking Duck dinner. However, after showing us the cooked ducks, the waiters served us shredded duck meat on lettuce leaves, not exactly what I expected. As would be the case for many of our Chinese meals, we only had chop sticks for utensils. We also were told by our guide that desserts in China are not always the sweet treats that we like, but they are big fruit eaters. This was not unwelcome news, since I had pledged to myself that I would not overindulge and return home ten pounds heavier.
The second morning we took off for a two-hour drive to the less crowded Mutianyu Section of the Great Wall of China with a police escort to get us through the increasingly heavy holiday traffic. Our access to the Wall was via a cable car. The crowds on the wall were heavy and the steps were steep in places with no handrails, so I parked myself on a bench on a platform overlooking the wall and enjoyed watching all of the activity while I had a more panoramic view of the wall than those actually on it. It was a gorgeous sunny day, unusual for the Wall, we were told. The plans were for the group to walk down to the parking lot, but because of the crowds and sometimes treacherous steps, everyone joined me on the cable car return ride.
After the Wall visit, we toured the Beijing Enamel Factory, a cloisonne factory, where we saw the step-by-step process required to manufacture this beautiful art ware. I purchased my first souvenirs of the trip here — a lovely music themed Christmas tree ornament for my son’s music room, and a small two-faced owl for my own collection of owls from around the world.
Following lunch at the Palm Terrace of the Loong Palace Hotel in Beijing where we enjoyed a mostly Chinese buffet, we visited the Summer Palace, once a retreat for the Forbidden City emperors. The grounds cover over 700 acres with temples, shrines, ceremonial halls, bridges, and extensive gardens bordering Kunming Lake where the group boarded a dragon boat for a lake cruise and palace views from across the water.
Our guide told me that once I began the tour, I couldn’t turn back until the lake cruise was over. Since the lake was at the far end of the tour and we would be walking quite a distance back to the bus from there, again I opted not to go. Don told me later that there weren’t many places to rest until the boat. It seemed to me, after two days in Beijing, that the Chinese want you to ‘look but not linger’ in their tourist venues. We returned to the hotel and later dined at another of the hotel’s restaurants.
The next day was our last in Beijing. We spent the morning visiting the 15th-century Temple of Heaven, a round, three-tiered wood structure that is intricately decorated with gold leaf and colorful designs. It’s considered one of China’s best examples of traditional architecture. Access to this site and its surrounding park was not a problem for me. There were places to rest outside of the temple area itself, although I had to use my cane seat once inside the area because there were no seats, just steps. The People’s Park (as the locals call it) that surrounds the historic buildings was bustling with all kinds of activities — vendors, traditional and ballroom dancers, singers, kites, etc. One Chinese gentleman kept asking our women to dance and then had someone take a picture of them dancing. He said he collected pictures of his dancing with women from all over the world! Don joined another man in a traditional Chinese ball tossing game. Then the man tried to sell him the game. After a quick lunch at a Beijing airport hotel, we boarded a plane for a one hour 45 minute flight to Xi’an.
