Thursday May 27 - Natl Center for Performing Arts, Tiananman Square, Hutong, Deshengmen Gate

There is only one more day left of this tour, not including today. Everyday has allowed me to experience tangible aspects of Chinese history, relics of the past I would not be able to experience just by reading books. I took some photos of the front of the Ritz-Carlton Beijing for memories.

Our first stop is the headquarters of Tong Ren Tong, China's most famous pharmacy for Eastern medicine. It appears to be their 341th anniversary. We were given a lesson in Eastern medicine, with a brief consultation with China's most famous traditional medicine physicians. Their level of skill are astounding; the old physician took one look at my tongue while taking my pulse, and quickly diagnosed me with chronic indigestion and allergies, which is totally correct. I have been having very bad allergies while in Hong Kong, and I do have chronic indigestion. The downside to this consultation is that they persuade me to buy their very expensive pills, which are $21,000RMB total for a year's worth of medicine. Not wanting to be ripped off, I politely declined.

A smiling Buddha in the lobby of Tong Ren Tong

a large bowl of koi!

 wood-carving of an old man

statuette of all the vital points used for acupuncture and many other things

a huge lion outside Tong Ren Tong

Today, we will also be visiting the National Center for Performing Arts, the one of the largest performance halls in Beijing that feature both Chinese opera and Western opera. The security is very tight in this building, and I was made to drink my bottle of water to make sure it is really water and not explosives or something.

a beautiful statue in the Nat'l Center for Performing Arts

the spacious halls of NCPA

one of the beautiful costumes used in the opera, Rigoletto (?)

the entrance

The highlight of the day is a trip to Tiananman Square, the site of past protests and the famous tanks picture. My dad and I were so busy taking pictures that we lost our tour group in the crowds of the Square. My dad, in his quick thinking, showed our American passports to a policewoman passing by in a small car, and asked her to call our tour guide. The policewoman was so courteous and helpful; she quickly called the central police station to ask them to call our tour guide. In the meantime, she let us sit in the car and chatted with us, telling me to come visit China more often. After finding our guide, we hung around a little and then went off to lunch at China's most famous Peking duck restaurant.

all of a sudden, they start marching!

me in front of the famous flagpole

chef preparing the Peking duck

the restaurant entrance

After lunch, we got a rickshaw tour of the hutongs, small alleyways that lead to the houses of palace officials and wealthy merchants. The ride was bumpy and relatively quick, but we got to see the main attractions, which were the buildings. Each entrance has two small statues on either side; a lion signifies that an official lived at that building, and a round drum signifies the house of a merchant.

rickshaw tour

one of the buildings

When we got out of the hutongs, we reached the Xicheng District, where there are many bars and quirky shops. The Yinding Bridge is just in sight, but it started raining so the floor was very slippery.

large stone near the bridge

it's rare to see a qilin statue anywhere besides the palaces

The Reggae Bar, home to a Bob Marley shrine

We stopped by the Deshengmen Gates, a beautiful ancient gate that still stands along with its barbican, the building that we will be visiting. It is said that the Chinese government could not tear down the Deshengmen Gates during the Cultural Revolution, because of the great feng shui of the area. We could not use the left stairs to go up the gates, according to superstition that it is unlucky to use those stairs in the Year of the Tiger (The word for 'tiger' can be read as "fu", or hardship).

Deshengmen Gates is a huge transportation center

For dinner, we stopped by the Xibei 99 Yurts, a Mongolian-style dinner in a Mongolian-style hut. The inside of the yurt smells like sheep and goat, and numerous leather decorations adorn the walls. A Mongolian performance complete with a welcoming song and bowl dance begin before our meal, which consists of mainly huge portions of goat and sheep, and numerous kinds of meats. I was completely full after dinner.

the yurts

one of the waitresses; many of them come from extremely poor families in the villages of China, and they have come to the big cities to find work and send money home

performing the welcoming song

the huge goat leg portions which we eat by hand

the main singer

the string musicians; the first guy is very cute :)

the Yurts sign at night