Day 64 – March 20 – Beijing, China – Leaving Ship for overnight in Beijing

The day started with the sail into Tianjin, the port for Beijing, China.  This is a huge area believe developed as both a port and an economic development zone.  They are reclaiming large portions of the sea to add land to the area.  As you might guess, the air quality was not good as well as it was cold, windy and cloudy.

Our company, Tina, from U China Travel Limited) and driver picked us up right on time from the brand new cruise terminal at the Tianjin Home Cruise Port.  We were a little delayed because the Chinese officials wanted all of the disembarking passengers off before the in-transit passengers.  However, one of the destination services staff was getting private arrangements off as soon as she could so we were able to leave just a bit before some of the others did.

The car was very comfortable, our driver great, and our guide, Tina, very good.   It is a 2 hour drive when traffic is good from Tianjin to Beijing.  All along the new streets within the port as well as along the “interstate” highways, they are planting or have planted hundreds of trees.  In the spring and summer, this will be a good thing as the rest of the landscape is factories, huge high rise apartment blocks and still some agricultural land.

The first thing we did was to stop and get some local money.  Then we went to visit a Hutong, some of the last areas of traditional housing in Beijing.  This is where the government officials lived in the time of the emperors.  The visit included a pedicab ride and visiting a local family who has opened their home for visits.  The daughter spent some time explaining how life was in the hutong.  She didn’t speak English but you could tell she understood a little, so our guide interpreted.  This family had open their home for homestays during the Olympics and were very proud that the family staying their was the family for one of the medal winners in swimming…I don’t remember which country.!   The designed is a central courtyard surrounded by several buildings.  One of the buildings was 700 years old but the others were built in the 1950’s.  This family had owned this home since 1948.

There are several of these areas around the center of Beijing.  Some of the Hutongs are being restored and saved while others are being destroyed.  One of the unique factors is that these homes are privately owned, including the land.  Almost all land in China is owned by the government and you only lease the land under your factory and/or home for 77 years.   After the visit, we were driven around the area, which was close by Qianhai Lake, one of the series of lake on the east side of the Forbidden City.  Along the lake were lots of small bars, shops, and restaurants where people were walking and enjoying the Sunday afternoon.   At night, they said, it was a busy place.

Then we went to visit the Summer Palace.  This is a very large area surrounding Kunming Lake.  It was built by the Ming Emperors in the 1700’s for an escape from the summer heat in Beijing.  There are quite a few buildings to visit and you could spend more than a day here.  Since it was cloudy, windy and a bit cool, we visited several pavilions including the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity and the Long Corridor.  There is a large complex of Buddist temples on the side of the hill which we did not visit.  Tina, our guide, had it well organized so we did not have to walk all the way back to the gate where we entered but could exit from a side gate.

There had been some confusion about lunch.  Our program had said we would have lunch with the family in the hutong, but Tina didn’t know that so we skipped lunch.  Instead we went to the area of the Bell Tower and The Drum Tower near another hutong.   Inside the Bell tower, we visited the Bell Tower Tea House where we tasted several very good teas.  Jan purchased some of her favorite and Fred some of his.  

By the time we finished with the tea house, it was about 4:30pm and traffic had become very heavy.  If we went to the hotel now and then back to dinner, it would cause a lot of problems for the driver.  And, since we had skipped lunch, we went early to the Dadong Duck Restaurant which is a very large and beautiful modern restaurant.  Leo had pre-ordered for us.  We had an interesting trio of appetizers that I have no idea what I was eating, but all were good.  Then there was a plate of wonderful stir-fried brocoli.

The duck was brought to the table side and was carved right there!  We had 1/2 duck but he started with a whole duck.  What precision!  He first took the strip of skin down the back of the duck and put it aside.  Then he proceeded to carve very small pieces of all 1/2 of the duck and arrange them on a plate that had lettuce on it.  He cut every piece one at a time and arranged them in a circle that grew until all the meat from the 1/2 duck was there.  Then he took 1/2 of the strip of skin from the duck and cut it into very small strips and laid it on top.

We had a condiments plate on the side that had sugar, minced garlic, small matchstick-size pieces of onion, celery, and a couple of other vegetables I didn't identify, ho sin sauce, and one other thing I'm not sure what it was.   The waitress brought the pancakes and prepared the first two for each of us.  The first one she used a piece of the duck dipped in the hoi sin sauce to spread it on the pancake where she placed a small amount of duck, and onion threads.  Then she folded the pancake around it using only chopsticks.  She said this was the traditional preparation.  I was going to try and pick it up with my chopsticks and she motioned that is was ok to eat with my hands!  Then she prepared another one with the hoi sin, duck, garlic, and celery threads.  She showed us how to eat the small slices of duck skin.  You dip them in the sugar...the combination of the crisp skin, fat and sugar was amazing and melted in your mouth.

We enjoyed eating the entire 1/2 of the duck.  Desert was fresh fruit served on a plate that had dried ice underneath so it was a beautiful presentation.  As we left the restaurant, it was very crowded and busy so we were glad we had gone early.

We then checked into the China World hotel which is a huge complex.  Our luggage had been sent by the ship and was in our room when we checked in.