4.21.7 Saturday - Pt I

Beijing Day 6 - Part I
Museums and Pandas and Hutong’s, Oh My!.

“Ahhhh S#!%”
“What did you do?
“I'm not sure but I think I just blew all of today’s pics!”
“YOU WHAT!!!, Tell me you're kidding!”
“Nope… I think there gone…”
“What did you do.”
“Well… I wanted to check how much memory was left considering all the videos we took at the TOH and this thing popped up and says ok or cancel so I said ok… I think I just reformatted the memory card… Oh welllllll, we'll just have to go back tomorrow early and I'll run through and retake what I need for reference and try to get some kids too”

That was yesterday… just before we went to Lunch and the Dragon Lady was breathing fire. I calmed her down as we entered Xian Hen restaurant for the second time for a lovely lunch, I whispered in her ear… “after the rude awakening last month and the upcoming radiation and chemo… this is just another speed bump in a truly blessed life… I have finally learned not to sweat the small stuff.”

Soooooo…. Today, after icing her knee all night, we head out to find an ace bandage for Illy’s swollen knee…Speaking of Ice…when in Beijing, and you ask the front desk to send a bucket of ice to your room, make sure they understand or you'll get what we did, a plate of ice cubes. When we tried to get the room service waiter to get a bucket full we got a firm, “we don’t have”. Of course at 1:00am I didn’t think we’re gonna get anywhere, I think it may be because potable water to make the ice is in a great shortage. Restaurants don’t serve it even if you ask for it and all water is bottled… so I tip him lightly [bad attitude] and begin to crush the ice with a walking shoe and refreeze the remains.

Before we head to the TOH to make up the missing pics we find a pharmacy, not your typical CVS or Walgreens, sort of a combination, Target, Walmart and Walgreens with independent holistic healers lining the aisles prepared to cure your every ill or write a prescription. We head upstairs to the medical supply dept and find they don’t have an ace bandage but do have an elastic knee brace… in or 5 or 6 styles. We choose the best one for her injury and ask if I can have her try it on, and were told only if she came up to do it. So back down to the car to bring her up the escalator and wonder of wonders… XL Chinese style is a tad too tight for her, understand the average Chinese leg is much slimmer that our Western beauties and we had to cut the top band in several spots so she could get blood flow.

With the knee brace in place we head to the TOH where I wear Teng out as I do the Chucky power walk though the park snapping pics as we go. We stop for a family who I had just snapped the kids pic who wants me to hold the little girl for a pic with them. They give us the peace sign and we’re off to finish pics in the temple display room that had most of my reference material and dates, and back to the car, stopping to film a fellow doing a solo Tai Chi paddle and ball routine.

We surprise the Kung Fu driver who apparently didn't expect us for another half hour, where as Illy thought we would have been back sooner… the stop for the kids and videos of feathered foot cock kickers [say that one fast three times after a couple tequila shots] slowed us down.

And we were off to the Capital Museum. Talk about a big place… multi floors of exhibits and artifacts and lots of pics with out flash… surprisingly the little cannon digital is putting out some good stuff…most better without flash than with… not much to say about the Museum… seen one - seen ‘em all… just the local cultural stuff changes.

From the Museum we headed to what our guide touted as the best dumpling place in mainland china.. which apparently is that good as it is now a small chain. He is right… best I've had in 7 continents... side dishes of chicken w/veggies very flavorful...soup a bit watery but good flavor but OMGawd those dumplings...good beer and a ****+ rating .

Then we're off to the Beijing zoo where Chucky shoots a roll on just the Panda’s that were quite active in the water spray as it was a warm day, making a very high gurgling sound, almost as if to say, “silly humans… look I'm cooling off and you are in the hot sun”, A stop for a tchotchke for my God-Daughter [can you guess what it might be?] and were off to the Hutong tour.

Next Stop,the “Beijing Number One Carpet Factory”
China’s top silk carpet factory, some of whose work is in the Forbidden City. We learned such facts as:
It takes one worm just one night to weave 1800Yds of silk thread in a tight cocoon that he slips in side and morph’s into an insect. 1800 yards in one night… very busy fellow.
All dyes are all natural vegetable dye. No chemicals and the colors are vibrant with the following showing where the colors come from.
Acorn = grey
Gardenia seeds= sky blue
Henna = black
Peppercorn = Violet
Cypress bark = light yellow
Lacquer tree = bright yellow
Feather Leaf = dark red
Saffron =orange
And of course the blending of the primaries to get the desired hues.
Silk on silk is the best rugs with the best having 2500 knot per/sq in and is more suitable for hanging displays but it is not as strong for heavy traffic as silk on cotton with 625 knot/sq in or very dense100 knot/s sq In. Again we avoided the Factory tour hustle as we looked at the nice silk rugs but declined to buy. so we're off to the Hutong Tour.

We start the Tour at the Drum tower built in 1272 and rebuilt in 1297 and was followed by the bell tower rebuilt by the Qing’s in 1746. We pick up an English speaking local guide, “Wang Jun” who calls himself David for the foreigners, who proceeds to take us up the 110 very steep steps [how steep was it? Like a 30 degree up incline] to the drum room and great balcony from where you can see the Forbidden City. [Did I tell you Chinese like walls… well they like steps too…talk about needing an elevator?] The drum tower and the bell tower are on the central axis of the city running from the Forbidden City north thru the drum and bell tower. The view was spectacular, a sharp contrast showing the blending of ancient China from the Hutong’s below, off to the modern high rises in the distance. We took pics of all of Beijing from the drum tower and then witnessed a drumming performance. Only 1 of 25 original drums survived decimation by various dynasties. Each drum head is made of ox hide. We didn't get into the Bell tower…she had had it with stairs and the knee was starting to bark. We did find out that the bell weighs 63 tons and is 5 meters tall. The bell was rung every 2 hours beginning in the morning and the drums beat in the evening to signal time that was determined by either, sundial or water clock, of which an elaborate one was displayed in the drum room.

We head down to the rickshaw ride [actually a pedi-cab] through the Hutong’s which originally meant “Water Well” but now means “small lanes” and walked with Huang to the gate marking the beginning of the Hutong area where pics galore began.

I'll leave it here and finish the Hutong Tour later. This is actually being written on the 2nd day in Xi'an and I need to crash. We must leave the hotel at 6AM since tomorrow's flight to Hangzhou has been moved up to 8AM.

再见朋友
Zài Jiàn Péng-You
Chuck and the lame but still very game
Dragon Lady.