Temple of Heaven and Pearl Market/Toy Market

Alex very bravely went on a boy scout camp out this last weekend (I'll let him describe the experience in his own post) so Violet, Ethan, Chris and I headed downtown.  The Temple of Heaven is a lovely building and very famous architecturally.  The outing involved a lot of walking and it was close to lunchtime when we arrived.  This means impending doom when dealing with a 5 year old. By the time we exited the temple, Violet was starving, grumpy and sick of being photographed.  We had bought her an adorable little bit of a tourist kitsch hat with beads and butterflies.  It looked very cute on her, but unfortunately made her even more of a target for photographers.  Everybody wanted her picture.  At first, she accepted it gracefully, but then decided she had had enough.  Chris and I don't really mind the picture-taking as long as she is into it.  Once she isn't, we told her that it is okay to say no.  She starting hiding her face when people approached and wanted to photograph her.  Unfortunately, hiding your face or crying can make you even more popular.  Like an elusive Cheetah or something. The hunger and crankiness got progressively worse even after we offered up countless Luna bar snacks.  Fortunately, the park surrounding the temple was a fun kid mecca.  There was a playground/exercise area where she could stop a bit and run around.  There were areas filled with ancient trees where you could play hide and seek. It was a fairly nice day by Beijing standards, which meant that the air was just normal bad instead of crazy bad.  The park was filled with elderly gentleman playing cards, people flying kites, exercising, eating and, in short, having a wonderful time.

After the park, we decided to humor the two kids in tow and headed to Pearl Market to dine at, ready for it?  Ta-dum, McDonald's.  Yes, we are a true cliche in China.  And yes, it was just as bad as it is back home.  Then we strolled through the market where you can buy every type of knock-off imaginable. It was the land of the "lady, you want a Rolex" and "lady, I have Louis Vuitton".  One sad fact about all of our family is that we aren't good hagglers.  I don't enjoy it and I don't want to do it. I really like having a price for something and paying that.  I'm clearly not much of a shopper. That approach doesn't work here because the initial price is always clearly something beyond ridiculous.  You know that if you pay it, you are instantly labelled the stupidest tourist pretty much ever. Having people pushing stuff at me constantly also has the added effect of making me disinclined to even stop and look at the stuff.  Behind the market is Toy Market.  4 floors of "made in China" kid heaven filled with scooters, kites, stuffed animals, dolls, beeping electronics and pretty much every other kid item you can think of.  We did buy a couple of things there.  The prices weren't marked up quite as high and the haggling wasn't quite as fierce. 

We were feeling quite brave at that point and pleased with our management of the outing.  So brave that instead of taking a taxi home (not quite the safe, predictable route you might expect, but I'll post about that later), we decided to check out the subway.  Getting back home involved about 17 stops and 3 connections.  We climbed on a subway and quickly realized that there was no way Violet could manage to stand for that entire distance.  She was exhausted and fading quickly.  So we came up with Plan B.  This involved transferring once and riding a few stops to a mall where we could pick up a shuttle bus back to our compound.  Unfortunately, when the door opened for the subway that we needed to get on it was so packed that there was absolutely no way any of us could fit on there.  So, Plan C.  That involved getting out and walking to a large hotel in the area where we managed to hail a cab back home.  Whew!

First day out and about.....

So, after spending our first week safely enclosed in our little expat enclave, we decided to venture out to the big city yesterday. We live about 30- 40 minutes out and we don't have a car yet. That means the city is either a long metro ride or taxi ride away. We also have 5 people in our family, which means 2 taxis (unless the driver is willing to take all of us). Taxis get spendy quick and the drivers tend to not speak much English. The metro is super cheap but I've been warned of long transfer times and huge crowds. After much deliberation, we chose the taxi route. And we tried to get downtown as early as possible since crowds get heavier as the day goes on. We chose to go to HouHai lake in the back lakes area where we could go ice chair skating and check out the hutongs. The hutongs are flat one story courtyard neighborhoods where the people of Beijing have lived for centuries. They are sadly disappearing in the wake of modern life. We have never seen a lake frozen over before so that was exciting in and of itself. We all loved ice chair skating because it involved no actual skill. Perfect for Texans who don't know how to ice skate. The kids only lasted a couple of go-rounds before deciding they were freezing. And Chris got knocked down by some type of ice car. The sky appeared to be the limit as to the clever contraptions you could use to peddle yourself about on the ice. There were bikes and chairs and cars. They also had a bounce house in the ice and a karaoke booth. All in all very festive.
After exiting the ice we headed to a Starbucks -- which had one of the best mochas I've ever had-- to regroup and figure out what is next. We decided to head to the 13th century Drum and Bell towers for a scenic view. We stopped at the Altar of the Fire God en route which was like entering a completely different realm from the carnival-like ice lake. When having a sandwich at the No Excuses cafe we were all surprised to be photographed by passing Chinese tourists as we sat in the glass window.
At this point we were all freezing cold and had had just about enough. We had promised Violet a cotton candy after lunch so we headed down a busy hutong alley in search of one. We also found starfish and scorpion on a stick that the eldest wild one was desperate to try. I refused though because, dear reader, that seems like a great way to get sick. Or at least get a nasty stomach ache. After getting her cotton candy, Violet became the center of quite a bit of attention. At least 15 tourists circled around her and started taking her picture. They were friendly and she didn't seem phased but it was pretty funny. Yet another reminder that we aren't in Kansas anymore:)
Oh. And you will be happy to know that we all survived our first trip to the Chinese toilets!