A friend of hers who joined us for the day and paid for everything today – took a taxi to the Summer Palace, the countryside retreat of the imperial family. The recent bad weather has kept a lot of tourists away from Beijing this Spring Festival. So the crowds have been much smaller than usual, we are lucky. The Summer Palace is a vast park around a frozen lake, with “don’t step on the ice” warning signs happily disregarded by the visitors.
We watched outdoor stage performances , strolled along the “long corridor” – a kind of cloister with individual hand-paintings decorating the entire length of more than hundred metres, played some open-air percussion instruments, and took lots of pictures that kept us mightily entertained.
Hopping in taxis is cheap and easy. So after the Summer Palace shenanigans we hopped in a taxi to an indoor market in Beijing. Here my friend showed her prowess as price chopper extraordinaire, almost leaving the shop assistants weeping. Her ruthless bargaining at the bag shop probably means the owners will be hungry for a week. It’s a harsh world, shopping. Before we left the market we tried the Beijing delicacy called tang hu lu – little pieces offruit smothered in some oily sugary sticky cherries or strawberries on a long stick.
Dinner on this occasion consisted of food from the south-western province of Guangdong. I’m sure it was totally delicious and unforgettably satisfying. We sat at a window seat, where we could enjoy the many impromptu and momentary fireworks displays over the low roofs, and amused ourselves greatly with my friend’s recently purchased headgear.
Continuing down this street we chose one of the many pubs that would be the envy of every one-man-and-his-guitar: Silent drinkers relaxing on couches listening attentively to every word and every note and every meaninful statement coming through the quality sound system.
Anyway, I have now made my debut in not one but two Beijing pubs, singing songs and dancing. All ordeals were helped by the effect of Tsing tao beer.
Qingdao (Tsingtao) China Part 1
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