Hutong Tour

After waking up brutally early this morning, we had a relaxing day, and did a Hutong tour. Hutong means "water well" in Mongolian, and derives from the need of the Chinese people to dig their own wells when they rebuilt the residential areas burned by the invading Mongols. Hutong now means twisty, narrow street.

We took a hutong tour on bicycle rickshaw, and ate at the house of some hutong residents which was very cool. Rachael had the highlight of her hutong tour when she saw a dog doing it's business in the hutong, and she kept on saying, "Dog... poop... pee!" Finally, something she could relate to!

It was interesting to see the change in perception of Kayla, who'd been pitying the hutong district residents in their apparent squaller. However, when we got into a courtyard home, she saw how they had made their home in this ancient place, and it was comfortable, clean and well-cared for. Truly, they'd made a house into a home, and she remarked, "You can't tell a book by it's cover." How true!

The hutong food was traditional Chinese food for Beijing residents and good: rice, pickles, cabbage, roasted peanuts, fresh tomatoes, dumplings, etc. It was delicious, and also had a lot of variety. We had a good discussion with our hosts, with the aid of a translator, and talked about Chinese adoption and our experience, and the influence of the NBA in Chinese culture through Yao Ming.

Our hosts also had a Plexiglas cricket training setup which is apparently common, as we found out that cricket fighting for wagering is popular, and is similar in nature to cock fighting. They had a cricket scale for classing the crickets into weight classes for the fights, as well as tools for feeding, cleaning and training the crickets, including a tiny brush made of mouse whiskers.

We ended the hutong tour with a cool, refreshing walk along a lake in an area that's turned into a pretty tony bar and restaurant area. It was very nice to feel the breeze and experience the charm of the area... very picturesque. After the hot tour and sun, standing along the shoreline in shade and feeling the breeze was very welcome. Did I mention the nice, welcome breeze yet?

As we emerged from the hutong district, we found a Starbucks, and Kayla and I had a Starbucks treat. Her chocolate frappacino was quite delicious, but my iced caramel moccachino was bitter, though still refreshing at the end of a hot morning. The patrons of the Starbucks were a mix of Chinese locals and foreign tourists, with many countries represented, and it made for an interesting experience.

After the hot day, we decided to have a relaxing dip in the pool, in the rather impressive healthclub facilities. We had to wear swim caps, but not that strange once you got used to it. Rachael had lots of fun jumping into Dan and Becca's arms, counting, 1, 2, 3, 5, jump! (We're working on 4).