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Monday, August 6, 2012

July 13 B

...hungry enough to eat lunch in a Jade museum!



Yep, every bit of it was carved from Jade...


...which is what this guy is doing - carving Jade.

Yes, carved from a single piece of Jade.

I kept hearing Nancy talk about how we were going to the Hutong Village after lunch but it didn't really register so I wasn't really paying attention.  On the way, we drove past some landmarks from the 2008 Olympics:

That's the Water Cube ...
(yes, there's a McDonald's right next to it)
...and that's the Bird's Nest in the background. 
I love this picture because, while it says "No Parking,"
in classic Chinese style, we parked our van
...just so the 
tourists
 could get a better view.

These were at the opening to the square that held the Bird's Nest.


Then we got to the Hutong Village.  It was such a cool surprise!  It is an actual working Chinese neighborhood that goes back hundreds (more?) of years -these villages are so old that putting in plumbing has been an issue and the only restrooms are found in the public bathhouses as a result. (In fact, I remember seeing a news report that acres of these were torn down to make room for the, then, new Olympic structures and that the locals were not happy -this was not discussed, at all, the day that we went.)


Tour by rickshaw.


There is a video of us on our tour on my Facebook page -it will NOT load on here (the sound that you hear are the brakes of the bicycle.) Click on "photos" and then on "videos" and finally, "China - Hutong Village."  We are riding through the alleyways that surround the compounds. On the other sides of these walls are rooms that constitute houses that surround common areas.

Here are some more photos from Hutong Village:


This is an example of a traditional doorway from back-in-the-day.


The "pegs" over the door denote the status of the military or civic official.
This one had four. The Emperor had twelve
.










Yep, a bucket of cement. I watched it jiggle as we rode by.




And then, we stopped...













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