Blog 10

Blog 10

Good morning tagalongs. We are winding down our trip.

We had breakfast and left at 8:30 to visit a Cloisonne Factory. Watched them demonstrate how they make Cloisonne. Also inquired why the workers didn’t wear respirators or masks while they worked. Was assured that it wasn’t dangerous. When I asked about silicosis, the reply was “Oh no, the only danger they face is cuts on their hands.” I’m happy that the men retire at 60, the women at 55.


Our bus driver is a calm man. How he can remain so calm in such a stressful job is beyond me. I asked our local guide Steve, if bus drivers retire at 35. He told me that our driver might be 35 but he has a heart of a 55 year old with the stress of driving. When you sit up front you see all the near misses of cars, pedestrians and bicycles. There are always cries from the people in the front seat of our bus. We rotate each day, but as the days go by fewer and fewer people want to sit in the front seat.

Back to the Cloisonne factory. The prices are exorbitant. The quality is good. I think might have to take out some of my old cloisonné jewelry to wear. I can’t believe the prices here. I think it is cheaper in the states and yet I am amazed at the people buying. Most of them are from small towns across America, so their exposure is limited. I guess the reality is that I’m too cheap to spend that kind of money for trinkets. Do I really want a 4” cloisonné Elephant for $300 or a candy dish for the same price? It may, however, be a good way to cut down on affording to buy candy.

After visiting the Cloisonné Factory we headed to the Kongfu School. They put on a special show for us Grand Circle Travel group. This is a boarding school for the future Jackie Chan and Bruce Lees. They are accepted (both boys and girls) starting at age 5. The summer students were there. I shot film of the show and took a few pictures. The kids are adorable.

We then came back to the downtown part of the city. Beijing is huge and takes forever to get around with all the traffic. Some of us were planning to take the Hutong tour and a lot of the group was suffering from Western Food withdrawal, so they begged to be taken to a MacDonald’s. We went to a MacDonald’s (which is a big thing here as is KFC), but Nan our tour guide and I opted out to eat at a nearby noodle restaurant. Had a wonderful meal there. The folks who went to MacDonald have found the burgers spicy.

After MacDonald stop we went for the Hutong tour. Hutong are small houses in the downtown area of Beijing. They were being torn down and replaced by tall apartment buildings, but the elders objected. They had lived in these communal type houses for years and like the sense of community, which is lost in high rises In1949, the government took over the Hutong Properties and forced the owners out to bring in the military for housing use. A few years ago, when the government decided to stop destroying these hutongs in the downtown area, it made provision to those people who could prove they originally owned the hutong to return them. Those people who still had proof of original ownership moved back and the government gave money for them to fix up their small places. A Hutong is usually small and there is a communal bathroom and shower with your neighbors. Younger people have no desire to live in them, but the elders do. The values of these properties are way up. A hutong usually is a center house with rooms for about 8 families. They are small It reminds me of the gentrification of town houses and/single room occupancies in the slums of NY, which became high value neighborhoods. There are some people who were able to claim the whole Hutong and others who have bought whole Hutongs for over 3 million American Dollars and have fixed them up. They hutongs are built along alleyways and the way we toured them was to go by Pedi cab—the modern rickshaw—bicycle driven.


We were hosted to tea by a Hutong owner who inherited her small house, which belonged to her grandfather. He had originally owned the whole property, but was only able to prove ownership of the one room. It is small, but neat and clean. It has a kitchen, but no bathroom. Our hostess uses a communal toilet and shower, but she likes the sense of community of her neighbors.

After the tour, we got back to the hotel in the late afternoon. I’m too tired to go out and after my large noodle lunch I’m not hungry. It is now after 8 PM and I’ve spent the last 4 hours on my computer downloading photos, etc.

Tomorrow we go to the Summer Palace and visit the Panda Bear. We will then have a Western Style Farewell Dinner.

The next day we leave at 5:30 AM for our flight to the airport.