Temple of Heaven

So by now you know our routine….we get up, have breakfast and then we board the bus…kind of like school kids on a schedule….we don’t mind as there is so much to see and do.

Today we started off by driving to a Hutong Neighborhood.  We get out and there are 16 richshaws waiting for us…we travel in two’s the buddy system.  It was originally built around the water, over 80,000 families live in this neighborhood.  It is structured of small low houses with alleys that are the size of a one car lane.  Every 50 feet or so is a door, the door is important.   Depending on the ornamentation on the door and in front you can tell the status of the person.  Military and high ranking officials have lions on both sides of the door and above the door you will find up to 4 round structures….

We get into the rickshaw and begin our journey….the first thing we get to see is an authentic Ming dynasty wedding, the groom is on a horse and the bride carried in a concealed closure (I don’t remember the name) music and dance and festivities all around, we make it thru the crowd and emerge into the streets of the neighborhood.  After about 30 minutes of touring we get out of the rickshaw for a walking tour.  Our guide “Willie” takes us up to doors and explains the significance.  I need to stop here for a minute.  Did I tell you the minute our feet hit the ground we had 4 additional friends….street vendors…two woman, one man and one 4 year old boy.  They decided we looked like we wanted to buy their goods, they followed us for then next hour or two – or lets just say until we got back on the rickshaws.  I have decided my new name is “Bu Yow”.  Do you remember yesterdays blog….Bu Yow means – don’t want….well one lady in particular seemed to be on my all the time…I kept saying Bu Yow…and at one point we got into a Bu Yow match….a little while later she approached me – realized it was me again and yelled at me “Bu Yow”.  This set us into hysterical laughing…so you may now refer to me as Bu Yow. 

The Hutong is very poor and when you see the pictures you will see just what kind of conditions people live in here…ok so now we enter a private court yard….we go thru the doors and get to see inside one home.  It is a courtyard surrounded by 4 buildings.  The north building is for the parents or oldest members of the family, the building to the East is for the son, building to the west the daughter and building to the south the servants.  We find out we are eating in this private home.  Can you imagine Sharon and I eating here – oh we are very very nervous….you will see our pictures shortly – it tells the story.  We enter the sons home which has been set up with small tables and rickety stools.  We sit down squished together.  They bring us beer and coke.  Here you drink this at every meal.  Sharon will be stealing Robert’s beer when we get home, it is now her beverage of choice.  The lazy susan begins to fill with interesting foods, do we dare…….well we do…we have become adventurous – or is it hunger pains telling us to eat, not sure but we do.  Sharon tips one glass over as it has water in it and she is not taking a risk…I laugh…we finish our meal, saying “Che Che” (thank you) and move along….The Hutong was one of the best parts of the trip so far.

You know this trip is with “Sew Many Places”…so far there is no “Sew” and we have seen “many places”.

Next stop – Temple of Heaven, well it is where the emporer goes to pray….nothing to exciting here except we can say we were in “Heaven”.  I will say that we were celebrities again here, people with children wanting us to have pictures with them.  I held a baby boy and he kept touching my cheek, I gave him an american quarter and you would think it was gold, apparently it will bring the boy good luck.  We walked thru the gardens and arrived at a student gallery.  Upon entering we were all wondering why would we come here, within minutes we were served tea and had a lovely student tell us about all the art work….next thing you know we all had purchases, or most of us did anyways.

Now for the Pearl Market….it was much like Silk Alley – hundreds of vendors everywhere, we went to the top where Charlie had arranged for us to go to a good dealer….I was really disappointed prices were not what I thought was a bargain so Sharon and I left the group and went a wandering….guess what we found…..a Dairy Queen, we sat down had a sundae, not bad, we thought…off to dinner now (yes we seem to eat a lot).

Chinese dinner – we are getting to like the food here…in fact we are not hungry at all.  Even Sharon is eating more….:).   We depart the restaurant at 630 and leave for the Red Theater…we arrive to see the 7:30 showing of “The Legend of Kung Fu”.  It was a terrific show.  Now we think for a Happy ending again…..we have massage therapists coming to our room….Sharon and I think what a way to end the day, nice relaxing ending…..

Wait – no we must be in the wrong place…we are not having massages, we have entered into the Chinese Torture chamber…(yes its our room).  The ladies arrive seem nice enough, no english but we can handle that.  We lie on our beds and they begin…now you have to know our muscles hurt more from climbing the wall than anything else…every time they touch us they kill us – they punch and slap and dig into our skin….every few minutes I hear Sharon “Ow, OW”.  My therapist, says “relax OK”.  Now they touch our fingers they seem to be pulling out our finger nails and toe nails…but “relax OK”.  90 minutes later we are free from torture….they leave and we start laughing hysterically, can you imagine we thought it would be relaxing….Chinese massage is nothing like the type we are accustomed to….So now it is very late and we must say goodbye until tomorrow.  Our bodies need time to recover and prepare for tomorrow…….