Hou Hai and the Hutongs

In today's post, we revisit old territory.  We have been to Hou Hai before, back in February when it was about 20 degrees and we had been here for 2 weeks.  Today, we had a high of around 90 and were able to take advantage of the boats and other types of summer fun available in the Back Lakes district of Beijing -- although we did not swim there as many Beijing residents apparently do!.  Hou Hai is the largest of the 3 man-made lakes in this region.  In the winter, you can go ice chair skating here while in the summer, the area is filled with teahouses, bars and cafes where you can sit al fresco and enjoy the lake breezes.  The area also has a large swatch of well-preserved hutongs, which are now filled with shops and even restaurants.  We had lunch at Hutong Pizza, a pizza joint that was indeed located in an old courtyard area.

Since it was a lovely day in Beijing with good air quality, there were tons of other people also enjoying Hou Hai.  Once we managed to park our monstrous beast of a car (always the most challenging part of any excursion), we had a very nice day here.  I highly recommend it for visitors to Beijing since, whether in winter or summer, there is plenty to do here.  Chris and I like to browse the many shops lining the hutongs, but the kids not so much.  There are several preserved Imperial Palaces in the area where you can get a sense of how the wealthy families lived in pre-communist China. You can also hire a bicycle here and tour the hutongs on bike. Chris and I have this on our agenda for a day when we do not have the kids along. Mostly because there are many, many other kinds of traffic -- including cars in places one might not expect them -- and I wouldn't feel good about every one's safety.  It was perilous enough walking through the streets.  We were all a bit twitchy as we listened for the honking of a horn or the almost-silent sound of an electric motor.  You can easily get pedicab rides of the hutongs here as well.  We chose a boat tour since it was high summer and we thought it would be cooler. We hired a boat that came with a pilot, but you can also pilot it yourself.  The crowded lake resembled a bumper car venue in some places since there were lots of inexperienced boat captains trying to squeeze through narrow channels. 

This chicken was right outside the pizza restaurant.  We didn't touch it;)

The Altar of the Fire God is a daoist temple located right by the lake

The boat provided this giant duck to lure us in....