China Day Four -- The Grand Adventure

Posing in the garden next to our hotel

Today was a day where everything went wrong and yet we had so much fun. These are the types of days that never occur when we are in an organized tour, and they are the types of days that really scare me to think about when I am trying to plan our trip, but when they occur they provide so many memories that we cherish. Today our plan was to go to Tiannanmen Square and the Forbidden City. However things got messed up when all of us woke up at 1:30 in the morning. Most of us were able to go back to sleep, but I didn't sleep at all after that. The crazy sleep pattern made us late getting ready for the day, and that made it more difficult for us to see those two places. The Forbidden City is extremely crowded with tour groups, so if we didn't get there early it would be insanely crowded. We decided that since we would not be able to get there early that we would instead go tomorrow. We decided to take today and really explore Wangfujing in the morning before heading to the Bell and Drum Towers in the afternoon.


 Herman has been dying to find a street market near Wangfujing that we saw on the first day we were here as we drove to our hotel. This is just one long stand of vendors selling fried products of various crazy animals. He has wanted to try this place ever since we saw a youtube video of the place when we were planning our trip. Unfortunately we have no real idea where the place is. Herman got some idea after looking it up online, and he mapped out a subway route to the place. It is not located right near the main area of Wufangjing, so that makes it difficult when asking for directions.

As we headed to the subway station at Tiannanmen Square we cut through a park that was near us. It was absolutely gorgeous. There was a lake surrounded by weeping willows and crossed by some wonderful little bridges. In the park several local people were dancing to some Chinese music. We took some pictures and even danced a little with the locals. There was a school group there that looked to be about Laney and Savannah's age. As we passed, one of the young men in the group started to speak limited English with us. He said that he was studying English a bit. Of course Herman asked if he wanted to take a picture with the girls. The young man was all for that. He and his friend posed with all of the kids. These two young men were dressed in the typical school uniforms that you see around here. They look like track suits. As we prepared to take the picture this young man took off his jacket so that he could look a little more cool for the picture. Herman joked with Laney that he was going to set her up on a date with one of the students for later in the week, so she high tailed it out of the area. It was an enchanting little park. I wish I had something like this near my house.

On the bridge in our little park

Couples dancing in our park

JoJo and his new friend in the park

After our jaunt through the park we headed to the subway station next to Tiannanamen Square to head where we needed to be to find this elusive market with the funky foods. We were crammed in the subway cars today even worse than the last time we rode.  it is literally like being a sardine. I'm so glad we got good practice using the subways in New York before tackling Beijing, or this could have terrified me, but I actually loved everything about riding in the subway. There is such a vitality of life in the chaos. We are virtually the only non-locals riding, so we stuck out. Lots of fun.

Outside a shop at Wangfujing with a live action statue

We got off the subway after a couple of transfers and then headed off to find this market. We headed down the street where it was supposed to be. This was a neat street to walk. It was full of small little boutiques that held all sorts of fun goods. There wasn't really anything that we were interested in purchasing, but it was fun to see all of the local shoppers.  Still we did not find this market. Herman kept asking people where this place was, and everyone pointed him down the road, explaining that it was only about ten meters away. We would walk ten meters only to find nothing. After walking and walking and walking we ended up at Wufangjing -- not where we were heading, but where everyone had been leading us.  We had taken a subway all the way across town, only to walk for about theee hours and end up right back in our hotel's neighborhood. We could have avoided the subway completely and just walked to the street with less trouble.   At this point we were all pretty hungry. There is a McDonalds right there on Wangfujing Avenue, and I have said all along that we have to eat at a McDonalds once in China. But today we didn't want to do that. We spent a bit of time on the street looking at a few stores, but after a few stores I realized that I hate shopping in China as much as I hate it in the US. I was not feeling the joy that some people describe when finding the great bargains on this street.

The infamous hot pot restaurant

We ended up deciding to leave to find a Muslim Hot Pot restaurant to eat at.  We had heard that it was important to eat the hot pot dishes while we in Beijing. This restaurant was right next to our hotel. Hyrum was totally distraught about our choice of restaurants. He had his heart set on McDonalds. On a side note, he had a much better day getting noticed by the Chinese people. He even had one lady say he was a very handsome boy. However he was not a happy camper during lunch. We arrived at the restaurant for a late lunch, having traveled several stations on the subway and walked for hours only to end up eating down the block from our hotel. Oh well!

Adding boiling broth to our hot pot so that
we could cook our meats and veggies in the pot.

Eating at this restaurant was quite the experience. We had no idea what we were doing. I'm not sure why, but when I heard the name "hot pot" I was thinking that it was some sort of Muslim pot pies. No, not really. What it is is kind of like fondue. The waiter brings out a large pot that is heated by coals to keep the broth in the pot boiling. Then we needed to order several different items to cook in the boiling broth. The menu was extensive, so we floundered a bit while ordering. Luckily they had a waiter who spoke pretty good English, so he helped a bit. Finally Herman said "Help me out, Man" because we were at a total loss as to what we needed to order. So we ended up ordering a hodge podge of items. When they brought them out the real adventure began. What were we supposed to do with the stuff?  We knew we were supposed to drop it in the broth, but it seemed to be horribly awkward. Once we dropped the stuff in, it seemed to disappear. We were working to cook it, but it wasn't ending up in our tummies. Everyone else in the restaurant seemed to be having a relatively relaxed and elegant lunch, but the Blau table had food pieces strewn all over the place.  No one else was standing to cook and retrieve their food, but we couldn't do otherwise. It was a complete disaster of a meal. At one point I told everyone not to turn around, but I told them that every other table of eaters was watching our family make a mess of the time honored tradition of hot pot cooking. So, anyway, lunch didn't turn out so well. We ended up coming back to the hotel and cooking some quick mac 'n cheese so that the kids didn't starve. But it was a fun experience for us, even with the mishaps.

Hyrum with a school girl who befriended him on one subway ride.

I had my first real scare with Beijing traffic on the way back to the hotel from our restaurant.  We needed to cross the road to get to the hotel from the restaurant. There was a spot where they can stop traffic to allow pedestrians to cross the four lanes of traffic. We waited until we got the green light and then headed across. Well, in Beijing a red light is simply a suggestion -- not a rule. I was almost halfway across the road when a car came speeding through the light and almost took me out. I'm glad I didn't die right then because the words flying through my head would not have helped me much in any sort of judgment. I was completely freaked out. The girls explained to me that it is not the Beijing way to run across intersections. I needed to walk. That would have kept me safe. I'm not convinced. Absolutely insane drivers.  Erg!

The guard outside the Bell Tower.  Doesn't he look excited?

After regrouping at the hotel we decided that we would try to see the Bell and Drum Towers.  We needed to get there by 4:30 in order to see the drum performance,and it was just now 3 pm. We still needed to take the subway across town to get there. We booked it to the subway station, once again crammed ourselves into the crowded Beijing subway cars, and ended up at the stop nearest the towers. Unfortunately we were still eight blocks away, so we had to speed walk to get there. At this point it was 4:15, so we were in a huge rush. A we walked we would have to regularly yell "Bike coming! Move to the right!" so that we weren't plowed down by one of the many bicycles in the area.  We quickly stepped our way through the hutong neighborhood next to the towers, dodging an armada of pedicabs roaming around. We arrived after 4:30, but we found that we had plenty of time to get tickets. We headed up the first tower that we encountered and collectively groaned when we saw what we had to do. There were at least fifty steep stairs leading to the top of the Bell Tower. After running through the subway stations and then another eight blocks to get there, it was almost to much to ask for us to make that climb. But we did it. It was a neat enough little tower, and the history of the ancient bell there was interesting. The view of the city was really nice, especially the view of the Drum Tower.  It was while I was looking at that impreessive view that I remembered that my Beijing guide books all said that if there was one tower to climb, we needed to climb the Drum Tower. Oh no! We descended the steep tower stairs and headed over to the Drum Tower.

The insane steps to the top of the Drum Tower

We were a bit concerned that this tower would be closed since it was nearing 5:00. However, we found that there was one more drum performance at 5:20. We were in luck. Hurray!  And then we approached the bottom of the stairs and looked up in horror. There were even more stairs in this tower, and they looked even steeper. But we had come all this way, and we were going to make the climb, no matter what. It just about killed us. We huffed and puffed and groaned all the way to the top. It was excruciating, but we made it.  It was actually worth the trek to see the things at the top of this tower. The view of Beijing was spectacular, and there was an interesting exhibit of ancient time keeping devices of Beijing.  But the best part of all was the drum ceremony. There are several huge drums at the top of the tower, and five people come out several times throughout the day to play a cadence on them. It was absolutely amazing!  I loved it a lot. I was glad we took the time to see this. It made the trek worth it for me.

The Drum Tower performance.  Awesome!

However, we still had to now descend the tower and head back to the hotel. Yikes!  That was one scary descent. At this point it was dark, and we had to walk the eight blocks back to the subway. I was not afraid of walking around these neighborhoods at night. I felt totally safe. I think that is because there are so many people milling around. I'm more nervous if there is no one in an area. The worst part was crossing the streetlight before the subway station. It was dark, so I wasn't entirely sure any cars would see us, not that that would slow them down anyway. There were a group of Chinese citizens there, and I have always read that in China you need to make sure that you cross with the large group of pedestrians when you cross the road. Well this group of crazies started across when we had the do not walk sign up and traffic was on the way. And my family group of crazies walked right with them. By the time we crossed the many lanes of traffic I was a complete mess. I had to take a moment to regroup.


We headed back to the hotel on the subway after my second brush with death of the day. Once we got to the Tiannanmen Square station we took a bit of time to see the entrance to the Forbidden City nearby. They have the front lit up at night, and Chairman Mao's portrait shines brightly. This was one time when no one stopped to take our pictures at the same time that we were posing for our own shots. Chairman Mao won the popularity contest here.


We headed back to the hotel neighborhood for dinner, and after exploring some options across the road, we decided to eat again at the little hole in the wall place we ate on our first night here.  Unfortunately we needed to cross the road again to get back. Herman decided to go full Beijing for this crossing and avoid any lights. He just crossed without any signal at all. My poor nerves, but we made it easily. It was great to eat at this place again. Having now eaten there twice, we were almost family. They gave us a seat of honor and cooked little extra things for us to try. They had each member of the family come over and say a little to us, even though none of them spoke a lick of English. But after spending the last three and a half days here we are much better at communicating, and we did a good job ordering compared to the last time we were there.  I really enjoyed this experience of eating there. I really prefer it to eating at the more mainstream sort of restaurants found throughout Beijing.


So after a great but exhausting day we made it back to the hotel safe and sound. We're tired but ready to head back out tomorrow for another Blau Family Adventure. If all goes as planned, we'll wake up early to see the army raise the Chinese flag in Tiannanmen Square then head to the park near our hotel to see the old men do some Tai Chi. Then we'll finish the day exploring the Forbidden City. Fingers crossed!