"Midnight In Peking"

 For Book Club last month we read "Midnight In Peking" by Paul French.  It's a true murder/mystery of a young Englishwoman that took place in Beijing in the 1930's.  The author made a podcast walking tour that takes you to the actual scenes from the book.  The hutong where she lived, where most of the foreigners lived, the "badlands" where she was murdered.  The area had a real "old China" feel.  The book was okay, but the tour was great!! 

 

 

 

Starting out at the Beijing Train Station

 

 

 

A Hutong is a narrow alleyway where you can find traditional courtyard homes.  This is the way most people used to live, but are harder to find today. 

 

 

 

The Fox Tower.  There was a wall that was built to surround the old Ming Capital Peking.  Part of the wall still stands today.  The Fox Tower was a watchtower to one of the passageways into the city.

 

Just look at that gorgeous blue sky!  See -- it's not always "foggy" here :)  It was a beautiful day!

The wall was built in the early 1400's.  It's 600 years old!! 

 

 

 

Food along the hutong for sale: Buns and Jiaozi (dumplings)

 

 

Fresh meat anyone??  There are actually many fresh meat markets all over Beijing.  I haven't quite been able to buy meat at an open market yet though.  There's just something about buying unrefrigerated meat in a dirty building that I can't get over.  Even though the little supermarket where I do buy my meat probably buys it from that same market :) 

 

At the end of the tour we stopped at a random small noodle place and ate some noodles.  $2.50 a bowl!  The menu was in all Chinese and no body spoke English.  It was a great chance to put all those hours of learning Chinese into practice!  These are the types of places and experiences we are missing out on by living in the suburbs.  So it's fun to experience it every now and then.  Hopefully we can do more things like this!  I had a great time!

 (Check me out eating soup with chopsticks!)

#Forksarestilleasier

 

 



Shanghai

During the Spring Festival (the week off after Chinese New Year) we decided to go check out Shanghai.  The kids and I hadn't been yet, and we heard rumors that there was a Krispy Kreme donut shop there :)  And sometimes it is all about the food :)  Plus, Shanghai is a bit warmer than Beijing this time of year.

We hopped on a short flight there and rode the famous Maglev train from the airport into town.  The Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) is a high speed train that uses magnets to lift and propel the train, so you're kind of floating along the track.

We went 300km/hr (about 186 mph).  Although I read that it can go even faster than that.  Fun!

In front of the Jing 'an temple.

Donuts are the one treat the kids (and Rob) have missed the most. There are some places in Beijing that try to make donuts, but so far we haven't been able to even finish one of these imposters!  I'm pretty sure we ate at least one donut a day while we were there!

 

 

 

We were able to meet up with some friends of ours from Austin who moved to Shanghai just a couple months ago.  It was so fun to see them!! 

 

 

AND to make things even better we happened upon a Stubbs Bar*B*Q restaurant!  An Austin, Texas original!

Street shopping for Tibetan treasures.

Hmmmm...that panda looks a little familiar...

My favorite place in Shanghai was an area known as the French Concession.  The atmosphere here was so quaint and inviting - I could have spent the whole day here if the kids would have cooperated.  They were ready to go swim at the hotel, go figure.  But this area was full of small shops, restaurants, cafes, and small narrow roads that you could wind your way through all day long.

We had some crepes with Nutella at this little cafe (although the kids said my crepes were better). And the cheesecake was amazing!

"The Bund" is Shanghai's most famous mile.  Here we walked along it and you have a great view of the skyline.  Shanghai is a cleaner, more modern city than we are used to seeing in China.

Yes, fireworks are still going on.  This was the view out our hotel window at midnight.  I wish I had taken a panoramic photo because this was just one side.  You could see several more firework shows throughout the city looking the other direction.  I can't believe the kids didn't wake up!  It sounded like a war zone!

 

 

My favorite photo of the trip - snuggling at the hotel :)

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Chinese New Year!

The Chinese New Year is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements.  This year it fell on February 9.  There were celebrations for a week leading up to Chinese New Year, Chinese New Year itself is a week-long celebration called the "Spring Festival", and there were still fireworks and temple fairs for a week after that week.  China takes a whole week off and the week of Chinese New Year is meant for the Chinese to go to their hometowns and visit family. 

We had originally planned on taking a trip out of China because of the crazy crowds, but because of poor planning and procrastination we didn't book early enough. By the time we sat down to book our trip, flights were expensive and hotels were all sold out!  So we decided experiencing Chinese New Year in China would be a fun way to spend our break.

 

During Chinese New Year all the temples hold "Temple Fairs."  People come to worship and celebrate.  There is food, shows, and lots of arts and crafts...but, it's cold!

 

 

We chose to go to DONGYUE TEMPLE in Beijing.  We heard that it was family friendly, so we bundled everyone up and drove into the city.  The Dongyue Temple was built in 1319 by Taoist Monks.  It is the largest Daoist temple in northern China.  Daoism believes that life is generally happy but that it should be lived with balance and virtue, and needs a peaceful and harmonious environment.  "The Dao" means "the way" - but cannot be defined because it exists beyond all forms.
Taoism is an ancient Chinese religion also called the water course way, for it believes that life flows in much the same way as a river. And like the river, though we are able to have influence over our lives, we are never able to take total control.

 

 

There were two fenced-off statues of horses that people were walking around and touching.  My friend Hilary and I figured it must be good luck so we touched the horses too :)

There were games for the kids to play.  For this game you buy these "special" tokens and try and throw them through the hole.

 

All the kids wanted in on the action!

 

There were also Chinese acrobatic shows.  It was fun to see but hard to enjoy for too long because it was so cold standing there!

And of course we always enjoy sampling the local food choices.  I can't remember what these were called, but they were like balls of funnel cake, with sugar to dip it into.  And then the meat on skewers.

 

 

 

Afterwards, we stopped to warm up at Burger King, and finish off the days entertainment by taking pictures of ourselves in this funny mirror :)

Chinese New Year wouldn't be Chinese New Year without FIREWORKS!  They were everywhere.  We stood outside Friday night and it honestly sounded like a war zone...for hours!  There isn't just two or three big main firework shows hosted by someone in particular like our 4th of July celebrations.  But everybody does their own huge firework show.  I walked out on the balcony of our second floor at one point that night and heard explosions all around me close and in the distance.  I also saw about 8 different firework shows at one time!  I wonder how many fires they have during Chinese New Year?  It was interesting to watch the pollution index that evening too -- it spiked off the charts around 1 a.m.

Of course we had to participate in the fun too!  The boys love Roman Candles.

 

And fireworks here are super cheap.  They look just the same and are even sold in little stands along the road :)

XIN NIAN KUAI LE