Monday, 26 September 2016
China: Day 14 - Beijing
The day started with a visit to the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. This is a national institution that performs medical and scientific research. One of the doctors in this academy won a Nobel Prize for discovering a treatment for malaria.
Our next stop was an optional tour, the Hutong Life Tour. Here we traveled the Beijing Alley District, in the center of Beijing, and beside a small lake. We had the opportunity to visit a local family home, which remains much as it did several hundred years ago. The home was composed of a small central garden courtyard, surrounded by sleeping quarters for various members of the family, along with guest quarters, the kitchen and seating areas. I found it very interesting that the homes/courtyards in this area are the few remaining privately owned pieces of property in China. All other land in China is owned by the state.
We also learned that the doorways to each courtyard were adorned with different "posts" above the doors and small statues on either side. Each of these signified that the person living there belong to a different class or employment, from military to government, etc.
We ended this excursion with a rickshaw ride (in the rain) back to where our bus was parked.
After lunch we had free time to wander around a nearby modern shopping district, complete with new shops with designer style goods, and a kiosk where you could view and perhaps order a new Tesla. Yes, they had one on display. On one of the side streets were a number of new market style establishments, serving such delicacies as deep fried scorpion, seahorse, and what appeared to be rather large larvae (perhaps silk worm??).
This was our last day with our wonderful group of new friends we traveled with on our tour.
