After returning from JianKou and a dinner of wonderful noodles (Stacey and I had the beef noodles) at 1949 in Sanlitun, we rose lazily the next day and headed out to a great shopping area near the Lama Temple and Houhai. Stacey knows all the best places for shopping and I enjoyed seeing her favorite hutong shops that she had been telling me about and buying such cute things and also LOTS of postcards for my postcrossing friends. :)
It's a holiday (May Day) time so very crowded streets but we still had a great time meandering down the street and dipping into tiny, cute little shops!
Mark and Miles in the background....Stacey and Kiah in the foreground. What a great day of shopping. :)
As Stacey knows, I was so excited to buy these two little bicycles. What you might not see in this photo is that the double coils in the bicycle seat can hold a photograph! SO cute. They made it back to the States just fine. But hey....now we're hungry and Stacey wanted us to have lunch at The Courtyard....a hutong-type hotel in the middle of a hutong neighborhood and it was a lovely lunch with good food and good conversation!
We're heading into The Courtyard for a delicious lunch! :)
As difficult as it was.....we passed on the "slug" dish! :)
Me...photographing the beautiful sink in between the men's and women's restrooms. :)
If you're ever in Beijing and want a very "cultural" experience while slumbering in Beijing...check out The Courtyard! :) It would be a wonderful, comfortable, authentic stay in Beijing!
The photographer, Mark Griffith, with his adorable son, Miles Griffith!
I love this photo of my friend, Stacey. There's a lot I could say about this photo but I won't. :) She'll appreciate that. :)
Oh my! It was so special for me to see this since PuYi...the last Emporer (albeit a "puppet" emporer) of China is of such interest to me! :) So here's a wider view of this site....complete with sporty car! ha
I LOVE the doors of hutong residences! I have lots of photographs of them.
Kiah, Ramon, and Stacey as they pass by one of my most favorite things.....fresh strawberries on a stick enveloped in a wonderfully crispy sugary coating! :)
I snapped this photo as the bus went by and just this past week I rode the local bus here in Nashville, Tennessee, to work (my car's brakes had failed and needed some repair) and there were only about 8 people on the bus and available seats were abundant! Not so on a bus in Beijing! :)
A day of shopping in the hutongs was great....and then we walked to the Drum Tower and Kiah, Ramon, Sofi, and I bought tickets and went up into the Tower just as drummers were about to drum! (Though I lived in Beijing for 2 years....and went to places near the Drum Tower.....I've never been up into it so this was a treat!)
Are you KIDDING me???? ha ha We had to practically run up them in order to catch the drumming show!
JUST as I stepped up on the LAST step....the drumming stopped and the drumming guys had disappeared so quickly I didn't even get a shot of them! ha
The view from the DrumTower on a very hazy (uh, polluted air) day in Beijing!
These adorable boys were playing together as we emerged from the Drum Tower. :) What a wonderful day spent with the Griffith family in Beijing! :) Cheers, T.