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After leaving the Mutianyu restaurant, we drove to a traditional Tea House in Beijing. We then enjoyed different types of tea made for us by a professional tea girl.
We tried Oolan tea with Gensing, Jasmine tea, Black tea, Lychee and Rose tea. They all tasted wonderful and it was clear from the whole setup that this is a very serious business for the Chinese. Interestingly, the tea house was also a government run institution and at the end of the tea ceremony, it was clear that the intention is to help you buy as much tea as possible to take away with when you leave.
After enjoying a free 30 minute tea ceremony however, it is actually very difficult to leave without buying any tea. Especially, when the tea girl is glued to your side showing you all of the different types of tea that you might like to buy. Having said that, we did really enjoy the tea, so we've now got a few small boxes to take home with us.
After the tea house, our driver Sam took us to the Hou Hai lake area of Beijing. The journey was once again, eye opening. At 5pm, Beijing is at its busiest, with cars, push bikes and mopeds seemingly moving in all directions, wherever there was a free spot in the traffic jams, which to be fair, wasn't very often.
As soon as we arrived at the lake area, another old lady was on to us, asking to be our guide. We declined and about 30 yards later she got the message. We seem to be getting the hang of this now!
The first shop in the lake area is a Starbucks so we decided to go for a latte. After sitting by the lake for around 30 min, enjoying the scenery and giving me some time to update the blog, we wandered down to the restaurant area.
We found a table right beside the lake and had the best Chinese meal I've ever tasted - 'beef in hanging baskets'. Not dissimilar to beef Cantonese style in the UK but SO much tastier and it smelt gorgeous too. I also ordered some 'purple potato soup' to go with it. To be honest, I can't recommend that, bland and stodgy, I have no idea what it was, but I definitely won't be ordering it again.
After we'd eaten, we decided to stroll further down by the side of the lake, towards all of the bars.
Soon afterwards the music started, all of the bars playing their own songs and many with live musicians. We decided to stop and have a beer before we went back to the hotel and choose a bar with plush red settee's outside and live music was being supplied by a guy on an acoustic guitar and a female vocalist. It was all very pleasant, a very enjoyable atmosphere whilst watching all sorts of different people walking past - for the first 20 minutes.
It wasnt long before another guy with an acoustic guitar started singing live in the bar to our right. Then a woman started her own thing in the bar to the left - all were micked up nice and loud, all playing acoustic guitars and singing their hearts out. Individually, they were all pretty good....if only they'd have gone one at a time!
Before we knew it we were in the middle of Beijings very own 'Battle of the Bands' - what a rackett!! Boy did we did laugh :))
All in all, a wonderfully successful day in Beijing for our 20th wedding anniversary. Great company, great sights, great food, a great musical extravaganza.... And some great memories. Looking forward to tomorrow already.
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