HuTong Tour

Today we started with a Hutong tour at the entrance to the Drum and Bell towers. The Drum & Bell towers were used long ago to tell the non-imperials what time it was. Instead of every hour, it was every two hours. The work day started at 5 a.m., and finished at 7 p.m. They used drums in the morning, and bells at night (or vica versa).

We climbed the 69 steps to the top of the Drum tower, and with great timing, got to watch a loud, big drum show with minutes to spare. We then took a short tour around the balcony. Apparently access to it has been severely restricted due to an individual who brought a short sword up there and killed a few tourists and then jumped off - back during the Beijing Olympics. All of which the guide explained to us, and now Mason wants to know why someone would kill themselves.

Back at the bottom we jumped in the back of two rickshaws, and got a street level Hutong tour. Hutong means narrow alley way. It was explained to us that we were in the "real" downtown Beijing, and that 10's of thousands of these used to hook up to each other until the government destroyed most of them (800 left?) to make Beijing more modern with the high rises. We were told that some rich people still live in these areas, and you can tell by the expensive cars parked on the side of some of the alleyways. By living close to the earth, with a courtyard, one can expect longevity, etc. The people living in the high rises are lost and soulless. Everything you could want is within walking distance: groceries, medical, school, etc. However, the alleyways were in rough shape, with a lot of people selling whatever they could, and looking for recyclebles. But beyond each courtyard door - who knows what one could find.

We ended our Hutong tour with a walk inside someone's home. This must be something he does on the side. The owner of the house is a kung fu master, and was very proud to show off his sons working in the States (as kung fu teachers), pictures on water bottle advertisements & calendars. He gave us a business card that was basically a picture of a local ABC news station interviewing his son in Texas. I asked and he said his family has been kung fu masters for 4 or 5 generations. I believe his brother either taught or was taught side by side with Jet Li as boys. Very cramped rooms, the tiniest kitchen in the world, an amazingly thin but perfect window aquarium, and furniture that would put Ikea to shame -- it was still very lovingly decked out and peaceful. They aren't kidding about fung shui.

After the Hutong tour we went to the Summer Palace. We walked through the long corridor and climbed the stairs to see the Tower of the Buddhist Incense.

After walking through the park for a bit, we enjoyed a snack on the dragon boat, before it took off to take us across Kunming Lake. Mason was getting upset, but after finally accepting a chocolate laced granola bar, he was raring to go. At the final bridge & island he kept mentioning how hot it was and we bought him a bottle of Sprite. The kid practically glowed. "Hey mom, you know how crazy I'm going to get now?"

Very enjoyable, somewhat short day. Mom took a nap at about 2 pm, while I uploaded photos & video to our home computer and Mason watched a movie on my phone. After the movie was over, and he ate leftover spaghetti, we both closed our eyes for "just a quick nap", and ended up being awoken by mom at 6pm. I didn't want to get up but forced myself to, and we could not get Mason to wake up. He screamed bloody murder, and eventually we gave up and let him sleep. Heather and I called it quits for the day and ordered some room service for supper. I'm hoping we can oversleep our way through this jetlag.

We leave the hotel at 11:30am tomorrow, and fly to Kunming at about 2pm. Arrive 3 hours and 20 minutes later.