Beijing!

Beijing

The government regulates the heat and A/C in hotels. So there is no A/C before May 1 and no heat before Nov. 15. We went to a 7-11 market and bought a few 600 ml bottles of water for 16 cents each. People are selling everything from fruit, socks and various knick knacks from carts and on mats on the sidewalk. Postcards are 20 for $1.

A coca cola display at a local market:



Our hotel is next to a University. In the morning, we took a walk and saw all the students riding bikes to school. Vendors lined the walkways, cooking breakfast for the students.




Here's a picture of the custodian/janitor's vehicle, with his broom in the back:


Nobody, including children, wear helmets while on bikes. The bikes also don’t have lights. We saw lots of bikes and motor scooters were several people on them (including kids standing or being held) and loaded down with various products and goods.

Traffic:


A couple of the many modes of transportation:




85% of Chinese smoke. They call each other “cousin,” even if they don’t know each other. We call the toilet the “happy room” and our group needs to stick together like “sticky rice,” to avoid pickpockets and pushy people. Only the wealthy have dogs. It costs $700 for a one-time dog license. From 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, they can’t take the dog outside. The government limits the number of birds and fish people have, although pigeons and other birds are very popular here. Sometimes neighbors report you if you have 7 fish when only 6 fish are permitted.

The Old Beijing area (hutongs) numbered 3000 only 30 years ago. Now there are about 700 hutongs, or small alley homes being replaced by high rise condos.
A skyline of high rise condos:


We rode on a rickshaw through one of the hutongs and visited a woman in her home.


She served us tea and answered questions. She paints the inside of small bottles and sells them.

Her kitchen:


Tiananmen Square is 60 soccer fields long. What an “ahha moment!” We visited the Forbidden City and learned about the Empress Dowager and her son, the Last Emperor. She had the first Mercedes Benz in China. The first person to eat food to insure that the Empress isn’t poisoned is the CHEF’S SON! Local vendors surround everyone as they walk through Tiananmen Square, selling ball caps, fans, chopsticks, Mao watches, “Rolex” watches, kites, hats, and more.

Forbidden City:



Apartments and condos range from $600-$2000 per square foot. So the average-sized condo of 500 square feet would cost at least $300,000. However, living in the hutongs costs about $300 a month. There are 1000 more cars on the roads each day in China. Only the Chinese government owns land in China. People lease their condo for 70 years. Everyone is cremated now. The ashes are buried for 50 years, then dug up. Or you can pay to keep them buried for another 50 years. Guns are not allowed at homes. Policemen and soldiers are not allowed to have guns, either.

At the dinner at the hotel, one of the chefs carved a duck for us….with the head still on the duck. We saw “The Three Stooges” in Chinese on TV. Most of the time, we only had CNN in English. The hotels were very nice, clean, with lots of toiletries. They provided us with 2 bottles of water a day. Nobody, even the Chinese, is able to drink the water. The hotels don’t have a 4th or 13th floor, due to superstition.


We went to the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. Thousands of senior citizens go there every day for exercising, dancing, playing cards, checkers, and mah jong. The Chinese women retire at age 50 and the men at age 55. The government encourages early retirement so they can have highly skilled young workers. The seniors get government pensions and free admissions and free transportation. They live with their children and often buy their children a condo.

Men playing dominoes (holding the dominoes in their hands) and sitting on hard benches. The women sat on the same hard benches, with no back support, playing cards.


Getting our morning exercise:


Lots of Koreans are doing business in Beijing. They’re buying condos to live in and for investment. The Chinese say that the Chinese are pushy (they are VERY pushy, physically); the Japanese are in a rush, with all their cameras, and the Koreans smell like Kim chee and garlic. They say that a Lucky Man is one who eats Chinese food, lives in a British house, gets an American paycheck, and has a Japanese wife.

Summer Palace. Look at her shoes!


Flowers at the Summer Palace:



Summer Palace outdoor area:


While driving to the Beijing Opera, we saw an overnight “sleeper” bus. It was a double-decker. Passengers were in their individual beds with white sheets and pillows. It looked like a big slumber party on wheels. On the regular city buses, you pay extra for an air conditioned bus. We went backstage at the Opera to see the actors put on their make-up and costumes and to see the props.

Last year was the Year of The Rat which was a bad sign. They had many problems in 2008: Tibet unrest, the huge earthquake, snow disasters, electricity was down, a major train got stuck, the economy and stocks went down. Gas costs about $4 a gallon.

At the Great Wall of China, we saw a group of cars which was a “peep meet” of bloggers and people who met on the internet who met for an outing. Jackie Chan had been at the section of the Great Wall we went to, in the morning. We saw the fireworks set off for him. So, it was extra crowded today. We could choose between the “hard” section or the “harder” section to climb. We took the “hard section.” It was sort of chilly, which was better than hot and humid. It was an “I can’t believe I’m actually here” moment.



We had lunch at a restaurant at the base of the Great Wall. Each restaurant serves one (and only 1) small glass of water, coke, sprite, or beer with the meal. All our Chinese restaurant meals were family style, with a glass lazy susan in the middle of the table.

Wal-Mart seems to be the largest store around, as compared to the mom 'n pop stores that line the streets. Here is a lady catching her own live fish at Wal-Mart:

Wal-Mart also had live turtles (to eat) for sale and massive trays of unwrapped fresh chicken, ribs, or pigs feet so people could pick out the ones they wanted to buy.

We went to the Ming Tombs from the Ming Dynasty. Many concubines were buried alive with their masters who had died. We drove by the Olympic Village and saw the Cube where the swimming events were held, and Birds Nest, and the Olympic Park. We went to a Kung Fu boarding school for kids aged 3-19. They put on a demonstration show for us and we gave them gifts.



I asked about typewriters and Chinese characters. You type in the English letter that starts the word, such as an “M” and then up pops all the Chinese characters that start with the “M” sound. You pick which Chinese character you want to use.

We went to a Cloisonne factory and a Jade factory. We bought some Jadeite earrings, which is the best quality jade.

70% of the babies are born through C-sections. They whistle and the baby pees. A man in our group went to a public restroom. He saw a Chinese man lift up his son to the urinal, blow a whistle, which prompted the boy to pee. If the baby becomes silent, it probably wants to poop. They constantly check the baby for pooping and peeing because they rarely use diapers. If they do use diapers, the opening in the pants makes it easy to change them. The baby’s pants are completely open in the crotch area. Moms and Dads are walking, holding their babies, with their bare bottoms sticking out. The new mother doesn’t bathe for 30 days after giving birth. The majority of Chinese are Hans and they have a one-birth per family policy. The minorities and rural people can have 2 children. If you get pregnant by accident, abortion is legal. If you have more than one child, you may have to pay a fine or hide in the mountains. You’ll probably lose your job and you can’t get an ID card for the second child.

Next time….Shanghai.