More of the Land of China

Started in the Hutong District today. Very old residential section. Housing is 800 years old here. I took a rickshaw ride tour with this guy. He seemed quite able bodied for a smoker. EVERY man in China smokes. I haven't met one who doesn't yet, but very few women do. I get stopped by lots of younger chinese (20's) who want to practice English and they are very good with it. But I'm sick of getting lassoed into 30 minute talks/walks with people. The younger generation started taking English lessons in middle school, now they start in kindergarten. You have to score very high on your English exams to have any chance to get into a Chinese University now. And all the successful ones speak English. That's nice for us. But back to smoking. I talked to one lady who is a student now, and she said she does not know a single man that does not smoke and drink. She said Mormon men would be "dream guys" here, it's unheard of. She said that women don't want to put their health at risk though and that's why very few women smoke. But she laughed and laughed when I said I didn't drink tea either. They do love their tea. She was also very surprised to hear that I got married at 22 and Misty at 18. It is illegal to get married here if you are a college student. If you do, then you are expelled. So she said it is uncommon in the cities for people get married before about 30. And you get 1 child (anywhere in the country, even farmers) per couple, that's it. Have 2 and you pay $2000 a year until the child is 15, which almost no one can afford. And you lose your job if you are a gov't worker. The lady I was talking about was the 2nd girl born in her family, she was kept secret from the government for 10 years until her father could afford to "pay" for her, and then they had a 3rd child (finally a boy), they all want a boy here. But the 1 baby thing is relatively new. One man I talked to at Tianmen Square was one of 3 kids in his family too, and his father was one of 10 children, but he said only 8 are living, they had so little food and were so poor a generation ago about 1/4 of children starved to death, which is what happened to two of his father's siblings. His father now sells pearls, mostly to europe. I asked him if he had any on him, he said if he did he'd give them to me free, he said they are soooo cheap here they are almost free, but that Americans and Europeans pay a lot for them. So he's in business with his dad. Very fast growing, pretty well off middle class in the cities.

Me riding a bike.

Here is what 800 year old neighborhoods look like. They now have all kinds of wires everywheres for electricity, and huge boxes of electrical equipment in some of the houses (that people don't live in). Until just 2 years ago, all these houses were heated by coal. But as they prepare for the Olympics, they are trying to clean the air up a little. It doesn't seem to be working. I can only imagine what it was like when everyone was burning coal all winter. These long narrow streets were invented to keep stop the spread of fire thru neighborhoods, but they didn't work too well.

You can tell a lot about the original owners of these 800 year old houses by the front doors. The thresholds that are wooden were commoners (metal ones meant gov't officials). The stone carving on my right indicated this man was a merchant, and a rich one. They have VERY strong caste systems. This guy has only 2 pillars above the door and 3 steps leading up to the front door, so he was way down in the caste system. You can only use certain decorations on your house based on your caste.

I'm inside the door, and inside a room. Inside the door above each house has an open courtyard and then 4 rooms (north/S/E/W). Rooms are small, the kids liked least got the South rooms because they were coldest in winter and hottest in summer. North room was for the oldest (like grandparents). This one I'm in is one that actual people live in. They let me in to take a look. But covered up Buddah with a red towel here, you're not supposed to take pictures.

Next I went to the Summer Palace. A HUGE palace area of at least 2 square miles, around this lake for Emporers to spend their summers. The lake is frozen here, I'm standing on the lake. Loots of people were walking all the way across it, but signs said not to so I didn't chance it. I only went out on it about 100 feet. Behind me is a huge incense tower.

Amazing colors on these palace rooms.

Hiked to the top of the incense tower...had a take a little asthma by the time I got up here!

I tried some of the local cuisine today. This was steamed dumplings with some pork stuff in the middle. VERY flavorful. I loved them.

Ended the day at Tianmen Square. A huge gathering place with some monuments and the body of the modern chinese founder (forget his name, you saw his picture on front of forbidden city). His body is open for all to see, and he died over 30 years ago. This is where all those chinese students demonstrated for democracy in 1989 and got killed. Some of you might remember that video of a student who kept blocking a tank here. The square is 1/2 a square mile. It's huge.