Beijing Day 4: Hutongs, Tea House and the Beijing Opera

In case you were worried, no, we didn't leave China after only a three day visit! Although the photos from Day 4 have been uploaded for over a week now, work has kept me busy, and I haven't had a chance to give you any details until now...

This was the last day we would spend with Jane and Hong - a day exploring and experiencing some of the older neighborhoods of Beijing.

We began with a tour of one of Beijing's hutongs - the old traditional alleyways and courtyard homes which once covered all Beijing. This cycle rickshaw proved to be a great way to navigate through the old narrow streets.

Along the way, we stopped at a traditional family courtyard home - a building complex formed by four houses around a quadrangular courtyard. We were welcomed in by a lovely woman who gave us a tour of the layout of her home, and invited us into her art studio, where she and her husband do papercutting.

In the courtyard, there was a caged bird, who called out "Ni hao!" - hello, in Chinese!

Peppers drying.

With our hostess and the rice-paper cutting, affixed to a silk scroll, that we purchased. This dragon and a phoenix design - created by she and her husband - has exquisite detail!

We walked along some of these narrow streets and enjoyed the variety of doorways that we encountered - both old and new, simple and intricate.


Bicycles are, by far, the most common form of transportation. We were amazed by some of the things we saw - a parent with 3 children riding along with them - the variety of materials pulled on carts behind - and even someone peddling down the highway, with cars flying by alongside them.

And after a chilly morning of walking around - which included stopping at a Prince's palace and museum - we stopped at a Courtyard Tea House to experience a Chinese tea ceremony. Having personal tour guides was wonderful. This tea house stop was not on our original itinerary, but they were so willing to accommodate us in any way!)

After lunch, we were officially exhausted. Three days of waking up at 4am, with no hopes of adjusting our internal clocks, had taken its toll. We decided that an afternoon nap was in order before our evening at the Beijing Opera.

(Funny story here. There was construction going on just above our hotel room. We requested a move, and the only option was a room with 2 twin beds. I was absolutely NOT going for it, but Mark insisted that we needed the rest. Still, sleeping in separate beds for the remainder of the trip? Admittedly, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that these twin beds were extra wide. We managed to comfortably sleep together in one of them for the remaining few nights;)

The Beijing Opera was quite different from its western counterpart. The various scenes contained a mixture of heavily costumed performers, mime, acrobatics and stages martial arts, and singing in higher pitched tones accompanied by traditional Chinese instruments. Take a moment to share our experience.