Dad's birthday weekend trying to find the Christian Carver

Bri had some Mandarin studying to do over the weekend (it always hangs over his head, poor guy!), but before he hit the studies, we ran to a shopping area in the city where we were told we would find the "Christian Carver."  Before we left, we noticed it seemed like Thomas had grown overnight again, and did some measuring and took some pics to document the growth.  He passed up Savannah last year, but here we are seeing a pretty tight height difference with dad.  Thomas is gaining on him!

And now I feel like a shrimp with these two!  I never thought 5'7" was short!

After wandering a little while, popping into different stores, we finally found the Christian carver.  We only had a pin that dropped us in the area, but things change so quickly and so much in Beijing, that you never know if a store will be in the same place for very long.  Sadly, all that was in the store is all he has left.  A lot of the LDS art that other expats have bought like the Tree of Life Vision were gone.  I was hoping for a nativity set and a Noah's ark, but there were only a few arks, and the quality was poor.  I almost bought a little folding nativity board, but the cost of $70 turned me off.  We walked out empty handed, which was a huge disappointment for both of us, especially because I was hoping to get something for Bri for his birthday and we've been talking specifically about the Christian Carver.  The Carver said that the factories are closed down because the workers wanted higher wages.  Let's hope something changes with that in the next three years that we're here!

We left the store, and wandered into some other interesting places.  This store in particular was full of Tibetan Buddhist items.  There was a lady in the store as well, so when I started asking questions, everyone was quick to answer them, through Google Translate of course.  It was an interesting conversation about what the items were and how they fit into Buddhism.  A lot of afterlife discussion.  I took screenshots of some of my google translate screens, but I think they got deleted. :(  I think we may have bonded, because before I left, he handed me two bananas.  Of course they were yellow!  From the decor of the store and this man's clothing, I think his favorite color is yellow.  Rhea would get along great with him!

We left our Tibetan Buddhist friend and wandered more streets of this hutong.

Some allyways.  Houses and living spaces are mingled in with the shops.

A few kids were playing basketball using a hole in a tarp porch covering as the basket.  Hard to say whether the hole was already there or the basketball made the hole.  ;)  When we passed by them, a few kids that were sitting on steps nearby bravely said hi to us in English.  We turned around and said hi and then continued to try and speak with them so they could practice their English.  These kids were sitting on some steps on some electronic device.  Seems like people from all walks of life of all income levels have their devices and love of them!

Some interesting stores.

I loved all the broken or old pottery on the outside steps and in this shop floor.

And the pottery pieces hanging from the light fixture.

This guy was in the store with us and told us about a little art museum he was in charge of on the other side of the street and he was excited to show it to us.  So we went.

The first thing we did was put on old Beijing Opera costume hats.  I was surprised they let us try them on, but it was really cool since Bri and I had recently seen a performance.

Some mosaic art

This mosaic is about attacking the Coronavirus and the pandemic we've had this past year and a half. 

I love the furniture here!  I wish I could have a house full of all of the interesting furniture I've seen. This kind man let us up the stairs so we could have a view of the hutong on top of the building.

On a nearby store front.  Everything has to have a mask these days.  ;)

Making leather accessories.

At the end of the shopping, Bri had to buy a few of these dessert pastries, followed by us eating some very spicy hot chuar, and then our favorite Magnum bar to cool our mouths off.  A perfect way to end our window shopping!