After the day out on the Great Wall, we treated ourselves to Peking Duck for dinner. It was terribly cliché but just something that had to be done. All was going well and we managed to get a table at one of the citys oldest establishments, apparently no easy feat. The staff brought the whole duck to our table, then proceeded to slice off the breast and leg very daintily before taking the duck away.
I thought they’d take it away, strip the rest of the meat off and bring it back but ohh no, away went the duck never to be seen again. I was horrified but Euan assured me that this wasn’t the sort of place where you could ask to keep the carcass at the table and pick the meat off it. What a rip!!! The duck that we had was nice but it wasn’t the whole duck as ordered. Once and once only we reckoned and won’t be going there again.
We’d booked tickets in a hard sleeper train the next evening so spent our last day wandering the streets around where we were staying. The old streets in Beijing are called Hutongs but they’re being demolished at a rate of knots to make way for wider streets and housing/commercial developments. The street we stayed on was one of the oldest and most renowned Hutongs, although we only just found this out.
The surrounding Hutong varied from quiet, tree-lined streets to concrete-lined alleyways. There were so many public toilets around and we realised that the residents probably didn’t have private toilets in their houses. We also couldn’t help but notice that the toddlers had crotch-less pants – presumably for toilet training or maybe they don’t use nappies?? They look very funny and you can be walking along and the next minute have some kids bum (or worse!) in your face as he or she are carried off over their shoulder by their parent. No photos of this obviously!
Our wanderings didn’t really have any plan, we just walked and watched and looked. The below isn’t really relevant but I’d never seen pumpkins growing from a power pole before!
This is Houhai Lake which was quite close to where we were staying. You can see how polluted it is, it looks like mist but its not. I’ve read that, at its worst, the pollution in Beijing is equivalent to smoking 70 cigarettes a day. Ugh!
This was quite classic, a mobile sports shop
and there were food stalls in little nooks and crannies in the Hutong. These weren’t cooked yet but were on their way
These are some of the staff at the hostel. Apple is standing next to me and if you’re ever in Beijing, this is a fab place to stay and the staff are just brilliant.
We’d booked a hard sleeper train from Beijing to Pingyao so boarded that at 1700 that evening. Its pretty difficult to get train tickets; for example, the sleeper tickets for the overnight trains from Beijing to Xi’an were booked solid for the next nine days and the couple who wanted them had to fly at four times the price. We were lucky to get (least desirable) top bunk hard sleeper tickets (albeit in separate compartments) to Pingyao which is about half way between Beijing and Xi’an. A hard sleeper is a 2nd class sleeper where you have six bunk-beds per compartment which are door-less and all accessed by a common corridor. Soft sleeper beds are in a private room with a door and lock and only four beds per compartment. The price for a soft sleeper is double that for a hard sleeper and, having seen the soft sleepers, I think I prefer the hard sleepers. Don’t fancy being locked in some small compartment with strangers! It might sound silly but getting up onto the top bunks is a mission and a half. They’re not much wider than we are and once up there, you don’t want to be moving round much. There is less than 50cm between the top bunk and the ceiling and I must have hit my head on the light at least five times. Call me soft but the worst thing was a dozy blowfly that was buzzing around the light near my head (I went nuts in the bunk trying to kill it). Euans just lying there saying “Katie, these are hard sleepers, so get hard”. Not helpful.
Euan managed to teach a group of three Chinese to play Uno. He had Li Rui, Yang Ke Li and Wang Hong Wei or, more easily, Frank, Helen and Erroll (their English names) playing the game really well by the end and I was cracking up when I heard Euan say “no, no, that’s a 2 so you have to pick up 2” and Frank says “WHY?” (that has to be one of the only words that can be said without any accent and with attitude). Then there was the whole saying “last card” when you have one card left, otherwise you pick up one (the “WHY?” came out again) and then Frank got it and says “ahh, punish, punish”. It was so funny and while their English was pretty good what was really impressive was how quickly they picked up new words. We still can’t pronounce the Chinese word for diamond!
I found out what the crotch-less pants were for when I went to put some rubbish in the bin and came across a lady holding her little boy, with his bottom poking out the hole in the crotch, over the rubbish bin so he could do a poo! The toilets were all in use and it was obviously an emergency….
Apple had kindly written out a note in Chinese for us to pass around and a man swapped top bunks with me so Euan and I could sleep in the same compartment. The other option was me in a compartment with five other men. Didn’t fancy that at all so I was really grateful to this chap who swapped.
We can only guess that the top bunks are least desirable due to the climb up there (they’re quite high) but we reckon we preferred them to the middle and lower. Don’t think I’d like someone looking down at me, dropping things on me etc!! The lady below Euan was sleeping with her hand on her head. He didn't drop anything on her :-)
It was all quite humorous, especially watching Euan trying to negotiate his way up the narrow ladder and keep his balance. I’m sure we were being cursed, giggling, taking photos etc but the tables soon turned as soon as everyone else started snoring, coughing, farting… A rather entertaining journey.
I thought they’d take it away, strip the rest of the meat off and bring it back but ohh no, away went the duck never to be seen again. I was horrified but Euan assured me that this wasn’t the sort of place where you could ask to keep the carcass at the table and pick the meat off it. What a rip!!! The duck that we had was nice but it wasn’t the whole duck as ordered. Once and once only we reckoned and won’t be going there again.
We’d booked tickets in a hard sleeper train the next evening so spent our last day wandering the streets around where we were staying. The old streets in Beijing are called Hutongs but they’re being demolished at a rate of knots to make way for wider streets and housing/commercial developments. The street we stayed on was one of the oldest and most renowned Hutongs, although we only just found this out.
The surrounding Hutong varied from quiet, tree-lined streets to concrete-lined alleyways. There were so many public toilets around and we realised that the residents probably didn’t have private toilets in their houses. We also couldn’t help but notice that the toddlers had crotch-less pants – presumably for toilet training or maybe they don’t use nappies?? They look very funny and you can be walking along and the next minute have some kids bum (or worse!) in your face as he or she are carried off over their shoulder by their parent. No photos of this obviously!
Our wanderings didn’t really have any plan, we just walked and watched and looked. The below isn’t really relevant but I’d never seen pumpkins growing from a power pole before!
This is Houhai Lake which was quite close to where we were staying. You can see how polluted it is, it looks like mist but its not. I’ve read that, at its worst, the pollution in Beijing is equivalent to smoking 70 cigarettes a day. Ugh!
This was quite classic, a mobile sports shop
and there were food stalls in little nooks and crannies in the Hutong. These weren’t cooked yet but were on their way
These are some of the staff at the hostel. Apple is standing next to me and if you’re ever in Beijing, this is a fab place to stay and the staff are just brilliant.
We’d booked a hard sleeper train from Beijing to Pingyao so boarded that at 1700 that evening. Its pretty difficult to get train tickets; for example, the sleeper tickets for the overnight trains from Beijing to Xi’an were booked solid for the next nine days and the couple who wanted them had to fly at four times the price. We were lucky to get (least desirable) top bunk hard sleeper tickets (albeit in separate compartments) to Pingyao which is about half way between Beijing and Xi’an. A hard sleeper is a 2nd class sleeper where you have six bunk-beds per compartment which are door-less and all accessed by a common corridor. Soft sleeper beds are in a private room with a door and lock and only four beds per compartment. The price for a soft sleeper is double that for a hard sleeper and, having seen the soft sleepers, I think I prefer the hard sleepers. Don’t fancy being locked in some small compartment with strangers! It might sound silly but getting up onto the top bunks is a mission and a half. They’re not much wider than we are and once up there, you don’t want to be moving round much. There is less than 50cm between the top bunk and the ceiling and I must have hit my head on the light at least five times. Call me soft but the worst thing was a dozy blowfly that was buzzing around the light near my head (I went nuts in the bunk trying to kill it). Euans just lying there saying “Katie, these are hard sleepers, so get hard”. Not helpful.
Euan managed to teach a group of three Chinese to play Uno. He had Li Rui, Yang Ke Li and Wang Hong Wei or, more easily, Frank, Helen and Erroll (their English names) playing the game really well by the end and I was cracking up when I heard Euan say “no, no, that’s a 2 so you have to pick up 2” and Frank says “WHY?” (that has to be one of the only words that can be said without any accent and with attitude). Then there was the whole saying “last card” when you have one card left, otherwise you pick up one (the “WHY?” came out again) and then Frank got it and says “ahh, punish, punish”. It was so funny and while their English was pretty good what was really impressive was how quickly they picked up new words. We still can’t pronounce the Chinese word for diamond!
I found out what the crotch-less pants were for when I went to put some rubbish in the bin and came across a lady holding her little boy, with his bottom poking out the hole in the crotch, over the rubbish bin so he could do a poo! The toilets were all in use and it was obviously an emergency….
Apple had kindly written out a note in Chinese for us to pass around and a man swapped top bunks with me so Euan and I could sleep in the same compartment. The other option was me in a compartment with five other men. Didn’t fancy that at all so I was really grateful to this chap who swapped.
We can only guess that the top bunks are least desirable due to the climb up there (they’re quite high) but we reckon we preferred them to the middle and lower. Don’t think I’d like someone looking down at me, dropping things on me etc!! The lady below Euan was sleeping with her hand on her head. He didn't drop anything on her :-)
It was all quite humorous, especially watching Euan trying to negotiate his way up the narrow ladder and keep his balance. I’m sure we were being cursed, giggling, taking photos etc but the tables soon turned as soon as everyone else started snoring, coughing, farting… A rather entertaining journey.
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