Briant had an "immersion week" for his Mandarin classes. Finally a week outside of Zoom classes, using the language on the streets with his teachers. He got to have a different teacher each day that would take him to new sights. It was great because then he discovered all of these fun places for me to see too. On his last day out, he called me about 11am and said that the Railway museum they tried to go to wouldn't let foreigners in, so his day was over early. He asked if I wanted to meet him down in Quianmen Hutong for lunch and exploring. I was in the middle of trying to study some Mandarin of my own with Yang Yang from YoYo Chinese, but I was up for some time out with Bri, especially since he goes back to regular classes next week for a while. So I dropped my schedule for the rest of the day, caught a Didi (taxi), and met him there. There was a lot to take in with different foods, stores, etc., so I just kept snapping pictures. I think they speak for themselves.
This is probably the most amazing thing we've seen here--literally a small octopus smashed into a pancake, and as flat as a pancake!
At first we thought these guys were just "acting" like they were hammering away at the silver to make the jewelry look for authentic and handmade, but a few hours after passing them the first time, we could actually see they had made progress with pounding patterns into the jewelry, and it actually started to look like jewelry.
We had to stop at this bookstore. We bought a Bernstein Bears book in Mandarin!
Then we had to get lunch. We tried out the kung pao chicken at this restaurant, along with a little roasted duck and beef. Not our favorite meal here, but it was good...spicy, but good.
Everywhere you look, you'll find men playing this game. Similar to chess I'm told. I have yet to have it explained to me, but I just love the playing that goes on in public spaces. The Chinese seem to like to socialize and group together in public--maybe they're taking advantage of good weather and air, the openness of outside without home walls, who knows. But I love watching them interact.
And it's amazing how grown men can squat like this guy, feet flat on the ground, balanced and looking comfortable.
Fun life-like bronze statues.
And even some animatronics.
We took a little walk past the drum and bell towers.
This man was playing beautiful music without his sight. We got a kick out of the WeChat QR code around his neck for people to scan for donations, as well as the bucket at his feet.
In this area of shops, we found a lot of paper cutting art. We tried to distinguish between those mass produced and handmade. This store worker said that she was taught by some well known teacher and this was an example of one of her works. We weren't quite sure if she was telling the truth or not, but it makes a nice story. ;)
Bri said that over immersion week, his teachers taught him about the 28 virtues or qualities the Chinese strive to have--things like honor, kindness, respect, etc. As we were leaving the Hutong, we noticed these signs posted up on a construction barrier. They seemed to reiterate the importance of these values and what it means to be "civilized," like not littering, helping the elderly, not cutting in line, etc.
Bri and I were excited to see the "no cutting in line" because we had
heard that it can be really bad here--the Chinese don't realize that
it's rude to cut in line or aren't aware that "cutting" is a thing.
We've been pleasantly surprised in our 3 months here to have had only a
few instances of it. Maybe the posters are working! ;)
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