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Today was a beautiful sunny day after a couple of humid muggy days. The day started with a visit to one of Beijing's hutongs which apparently means narrow alley and is a Mongolian word.
We were dropped off by bus and immediately boarded a rickshaw (pedal powered) in pairs. It was a bit hairy at times due to the narrow alleys and the fact cars go up and down along with bikes, mopeds and pedestrians. Nobody ever gets ratty though.
We stopped at a couple of places so the tour guide could explain certain things and then we were taken to one of the residences where we all sat round the table in the courtyard and did the following activities:
Paper cutting - we made masks that are used to decorate windows when there is a wedding
Calligraphy - we started with simple characters and build up to complicated ones but it was great fun and we all seemed to be pretty pleased with ourselves
Mandarin - our tour guide Lisa gave us a quick lesson in certain phrases and also anything else we wanted to know.
Following these we boarded the rickshaws again and were taken to the drum tower where we watched a drum performance. I videoed it and hope it has uploaded to the site.
We were then taken to another residence for our lunch where we had some fabulous food. We were introduced to the chef whose great grandfather made the veggie "meatballs" for the last emperor and which we had as part of our meal. They were delicious. His wife showed us how to make dumplings and then he told us a bit about himself. Then we could have our photo taken with him. He was so lovely as are all the Chinese people we have come into contact with.
After lunch we were taken down by the lake. We all got a bit excited when we saw the water!! This was in the middle of a huge range of little shops. We had free time to wander for a couple of hours. It was actually a bit too hot by the end of it.
We then visited the bell tower which had a beautiful bell but also amazing views of the city. It is massive on a scale I've never encountered before and the view showed the inner city with the hutongs and then looking further afield you can see the modern skyscrapers and then the mountains in the background. We were so lucky that it was such a clear sunny day to be able to see all that.
Our final activity was to the tea shop in the bell tower and to do some tea sampling. The lady in there was very informative and we sampled four teas and then as is custom they try to sell you their wares. It was an amazing place but I think we had all had enough shopping and the tea was so expensive. I could have bought any number of tea sets - they were all spectacular - but I refrained!!
We then set off for the restaurant and for our final outing of the day.
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