How could I have forgotten the freshly severed tail in Hong Kong! That was another classic moment on our trip. Having just arrived in Hong Kong tired and hungry, we got bowls of noodles for dinner. While cleaning up I picked up what I thought was a noodle off the floor. Once in hand, however, I could tell it was most certainly not a noodle. I shivered in disgust as I looked it over and showed it to Justin. It looked to us like some animal had just lost its tail and it had been an oddly clean cut. What animal it belonged to remained a mystery to us.

Yesterday we trekked to the Temple of Heaven. The Temple was built in 1421 by the same Emperor that built the Forbidden City, ambitious man he was. The Temple was only used 3 times a year and only by the Emperor. He marched there from the FC to pray for a good harvest. There was much ritual surrounding this event and the processions were taken very seriously. A bad harvest was reason enough to dethrone an emperor.

Frankly, after seeing the FC, the Great Wall and the Summer Palace we were a little historied out and the Temple, although extremely impressive in its own right, failed to match the majesty of the previous destinations.

We needed a break from ancient architecture, so lucky for us a crazy Chinese market was just across the street. Alex warned us that we should pay no more than 20% of the quoted price. She set us loose and we were to meet up in an hour. What an hour it was! We all walked away with what are most likely counterfeit goodies, but good deals nonetheless. Ugg’s, True Religion jeans, Ferragamo, Calvin Klein, etc. Sure enough, if we remained strong and convincing in our willingness to walk away, we got away with an 80% “discount”. Truth be told, their first prices seemed like bargains to us. Even Elle got in on the action, she walked up to a watch counter, pointed at a Barbie watch, and asked the lady “How much?” The lady responded and Elle said loudly “too much” and walked away. She was just being silly and it was hysterically funny. One hour was more than enough as the sellers are very aggressive, often blocking your path, grabbing your arm and forcing their goods on you. We were ready to go.

Alex took us to a Thai restaurant for lunch, the best Thai I’ve ever had. In general, I do not like Thai or Chinese food. But apparently, I just do not like American Thai and American Chinese food, because our meals here have been delicious.

The last part of our day was a visit to a hutong. Hutong are typical Beijing narrow alleyway living quarters of 20% of the population. There used to be over 2000 hutong neighborhoods in Beijing and now there are only about 200. Many have been razed to make way for highways and highrises. The remaining hutong are now protected by the government, but the way of life in the hutong is disappearing as young people move to highrises for modern comforts. Alex arranged for a tour of the hutong by rickshaw, and surprised us by telling us that she herself grew up in a hutong. The rickshaw tour was fun, but we weren’t able to see a lot as most of the homes are in courtyards behind walls. Occasionally the doors were opened and we could see inside, it reminded us of Fiji quite a bit. The children played in the alleyways, often with not much more than a pile of dirt and makeshift shovels.

Alex had also arranged for us to meet a local hutong family, go inside their home and to learn Chinese calligraphy from the matriarch. The word hutong likely derived from a word meaning “well”. The houses were clustered near wells so the water could be shared by neighbors. Even today the dwellings do not have modern plumbing. All families go to public restrooms/showers that are arranged throughout the neighborhoods. The lady we visited said that at night they use a pot for urine and empty it in the morning. And in the winter, they go to her son’s apartment building to shower because it is too cold in the hutong. Her home was very spartan, but clean and obviously her family took pride in it. We were a little wary of the tea she served, however. Elle loved the caged bird that sat in the entry and said “Ni Hao” and several other Chinese words. She also loved the big bowl of candy placed in front of her, until Alex started reading the flavors to her, butter, beef or rice hard candies.

The calligraphy lesson was awesome. We each got specially lined paper, a paintbrush and ink. She guided us through writing Chinese numbers and then taught us to write China and USA. She also taught Elle to write her own name. We all had great fun.

Another full, fun and exhausting day.