This weekends adventure led us downtown to the Houtong village and HouHai lake. The meaning of houtong is "traditional Chinese", so these are the traditional neighborhoods of Beijing, with very narrow ally ways and streets that are lines with shops and homes. There are not many of them left due to all of the roads and buildings that have gone up, but some have been protected to preserve the Chinese cultural history. Despite the misty rain, the streets were packed with locals and tourists alike. There was literally a traffic jam of rickshaws going through the streets. Kids and adults jumping off the bridge into the lake, some people swimming laps in the lake, and random gatherings of men playing some game that looks to be a cross between checkers and chess. There were also lot of bicycles, some of which even fit the whole family on them. It was fun and interesting just to look around. Ella of course was on high alert and even went with wet hair and pulled it up to try and hide her blond locks. Not very successful! She always manages to get stares and admirers, in which she turns beet red and gives a shy wave, and then hides behind me!
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| rickshaw brigade |
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| lots of bikes |
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| Ummm....this bike looked like it had a helmet around it. |
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| Animation characters everywhere here. |
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| Jules |
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| A group of men gathered playing some sort of board game. |
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| Plant delivery truck???? |
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| HouHai Lake |
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| bicycle built for 3.......I wonder if the guy knew he was the only one peddling????? |
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| A distressed and overly cautious Ella |
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| Random Chinese locals taking a dip. One tried to talk Kelly into jumping off the edge but he declined. He wasn't as keen on stripping into his tighty whitey's as they were. Oh yes, they stripped into their unders!! |
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| Does this look like people abuse their dogs here????? |
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| Busy streets of Houtong village |
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| Family vehicle |
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| Awwww.....lovebirds........I had to pay him to get in this picture with me! LOL |
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