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Miscellaneous Pictures
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Home
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The Office
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Great Wall
The Ming Tombs
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The Forbidden City
Tianamen Square
Miscellaneous
Wheat Drying
Silk Street
Hotel
Street Scenes
Other Shopping
Other Fun Stuff
The Tea House
Empress of
GTTI
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An up-to-date way of drying wheat. These farmers took over one lane of the
highway (in this case, a right turn lane) to spread out the chaffed wheat to dry.
They would keep sweeping the wheat over the pavement, use flat shovels to bang the wheat
heads and to pick up the dried wheat. I guess if they use that section and no cars
have dropped oil on the pavement, it would be all right. Maybe that's why the bread
tastes different over here ! ! ! <snicker>
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Click on the pictures to enlarge.
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About 5 blocks from Tianamen Square is a narrow street called Silk Street. Tiny
shop after tiny shop with each one selling a specialty item. Along the way (left) ES
and Dawn are window shopping. Fred (right) has decided that his daughters in law
need new silk bathrobes.
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But there is a secret in buying on Silk Street.
First there is the asking price, then there is you bid price which is usually about
25% of the asking price. Here, she started out at 80RMB and I offered 20RMB.
Ridiculous you say? Of course she said no way and that I should raise my bid.
Of course I said no and that she should lower her asking price. She came down to
60RMB. I said that was still too much but I counter-offered at 25RMB. She laughingly
advised me that there was no way she could do it, so I thanked her for her time and
started to leave the shop. She touched my arm and offered 50RMB. I said 30,
she said 40, I said 35. Then I asked her what kind of a discount would she give me
is I bought two of them. After much consideration, she said 38RMB each. The
deal was struck, the exact items were chosen and everyone was happy. Then, ES asked
me is I wanted to buy silk scarves here - that set her off again and away we went.
As it turned out, I helped the local economy and she could eat steak that night. A
fun time was had by all.
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Rush Hour
Street Sweeper
Hutong
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No one can explain and no amount of books or video documentaries can really prepare you
for life on Beijing streets.
The sights and sounds and actions are something to behold. Remember the only rule
in Beijing (the one about there are no rules)?
Example: Yielding the right of way. A myth. The most
important part of cars in Beijing are the horn and the brakes. The first one in the
intersection has the right of way. Bicycles don't, people don't. the light
turns red? If you can force your way through, go for it.
How about garbage pickup? Just dump it on the side of the road,
the street sweeper will get it (eventually).
Housing? Been afraid of taking pictures down the narrow alleys
to the small one-room shacks. Picture the raunchiest flee-bag motel you have seen -
this is a palace.
In old China, there was a clear definition for a street or a lane. A 36-meter-wide road
was called a big street. An 18-meter-wide one was called a small street. And a
9-meter-wide lane was called a Hutong.
Most of the hutongs in Beijing are in east-west or north-south directions. That has
resulted from the need for houses to face south so as to take in more sunshine and resist
cold wind from the north. Of course there are also slant hutongs, half hutongs
or " blind hutongs". Some are hutongs within hutongs, and
some are like maze. So to walk in a hutong is a great fun as lng as you are not
afraid of getting killed.
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| Wholesale pearl shopping can be quite an experience and you
should have some kind of expert with you. Here, Dawn has brought along Chinnee
Tong's wife, Leona, to help. About an hour later, with money in hand, Dawn has
finally selected her pearls, watched the shop owner string them together and is ready to
hand out the money. A bargain??? If she were to sell these in the US, she
would probably pay for her entire trip. Cheap?? Let's call it
"inexpensive". |
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What's a boss supposed to do? Spoil his troops? Buy them
trinkets? Send them around the world on Glenayre's money? How about a 30
minute cab ride (one way) to get one his troops something from the Hard Rock Cafe in
Beijing? Yep, been there, done that. |
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Peking Duck
Have you heard of the delicacy dish called "Peking Duck"? Well, when
visiting Beijing - formerly known as Peking - why not try it. After all, it is
famous isn't it?Well, I'm here to tell you that I am not impressed. To much fat,
the Chinese meal is weird, not enough meat.
Fortunately, after carving off the skin and making a kind of roll out of it, the staff
took it back to the kitchen to finish "carving" it. Some of the meat they
brought back didn't look too appetizing. |
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| Really Happy |
Smile for the Camera |
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| And again |
They just Don't Want to Smile At All |
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Foot Massage
After dinner, our host (Henry Tsang from our Beijing office) decided that we needed to
relax. NO, not the communal baths. This was a Reflexology Foot Massage.
Now I'm here to tell you that it sure is different. It is more a ceremony than
anything else, however, through massaging the feet and ankles, these folks are supposed to
be able to tell you what's ailing you. For 80RMB (about $10US), the feet are
bathed for 15 minutes, manipulated for 30 minutes per foot, re-bathed to get the
"medical oils" off you feet, and then you're ready to go. Interesting
experience. Now, Judy, the massaging never got above the knees and I kept all my
clothes on and zipped the entire time. |
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