September 7 (Monday) – Beijing

Today we are on our own, starting at the Silk Market (to a shop recommended by the flight attendants) where I bought lots of pearls while Paul sat round looking bored. The prices were right on target with what the flight attendants had told me…about 30% of the tag prices (70% off). No bargaining required. Besides Christmas presents and a triple stand of fresh water pearls for Mom, I also got a lovely strand of sea water pearls for Chloe for when she gets married (in 20 or so years) and another strand for Josh’s first daughter’s wedding day (assuming he has a daughter). I was going to get me some but decided I’d wear the granddaughter’s pearls until they were ready for them.
Our first sightseeing stop was the Lama Monastery where we spent about an hour wandering the grounds and going through the buildings. The Buddha was about 80 feet high, carved out of one piece of sandalwood. It would have all made more sense if we were Buddhists but it was still interesting. There were a fair number of tourists and a lot of worshipers burning a lot of incense.







 


























Then we were off to a drum tower and bell tower. There were some interesting exhibits about time pieces (the drums were used to toll out various times) including a water clock. We got so see a short drumming demonstration by five drummers…it was a highlight of the day (after pearl shopping).


   Video in new window of Drum Tower

Next we headed to the bell tower. The views were great from both towers. Beijing has some very interesting modern architecture mixed in among the old style buildings.












An area of hutongs was immediately adjacent to the two towers so a walk through there was the next part of our outing. The hutongs are very old neighborhoods that consists of narrow, winding lanes that were once the city’s dominant passageways. These were in danger of being torn down to make way for modern high rise buildings until it was discovered that they are a perfect tourist destination. Many of the buildings have no central heating and no running water, so each neighborhood has a well/water tap and local bathrooms. The area was adjacent to a large, picturesque lake with dozens of Pedi cabs touring the area. Actually getting to walk the area was difficult as every three feet or so we had a Pedi cab driver trying to talk us into letting him take us around.

 



 




















Being totally foot sore after all the walking we gave the hotel card to the taxi driver with plans for a nice rest in the hotel. Instead of ending up at the hotel we ended up back at the Silk Market…Paul had given the driver the wrong card. So, we went back in and I bought more Christmas presents and a ring for me (a girl can never have too many pearls).