Day 202: Tiananmen Square — Forbidden City — Two Home Visits — Kung Fu Show — Stomach Bug
We woke up knowing today would be challenging yet fulfilling — and it lived up to expectations!
Our itinerary was full: Beijing must-see tourist spots, two home visits and a Kung Fu show. That would have been a lot by itself but sprinkle in 100+ degree heat plus a stomach bug and you have one of the more rigorous days of the year.
We got started at 7:30 am with a quick breakfast at the hotel restaurant.
It should be noted here that my mom continues to be unfazed by jet lag. She flew in yesterday from DC and is up this morning with no complaints, full of energy as always.
Our guide Nancy met us in the lobby. She’s great. Energetic, excited, sweet with the kids, strong English speaker and very knowledgeable on both Chinese history and the ways of working the tourist system in Beijing.
First stop was Tiananmen Square. We were there at 8:45am and it was already PACKED. Thankfully we had a guide so we could skip the long security lines. We also weren’t queuing with the other 3k people (minimum) there to pay respects to Mao’s tomb…
This time of year the crowd is mostly Chinese tourists. We were some of the very few Western tourists — and we were a novelty to the Chinese. According to Nancy, many of the tourists from other areas of the country have never seen blonde hair except in American movies. We were stopped several times so people could have their picture taken with Willa and James — or our whole group.
The heat was brutal. We had to break out lollipops and other kid-friendly distractions by 9:30am, which we will remember in this pic.
After Tiananmen Square we walked to the Forbidden City. We stopped at a bathroom on the way and James said he needed to go #2. I was in the stall with him when the same urge hit me. Luckily I had taken the wet wipes offered by Nancy in the van because there was no toilet paper.
James seemed to recover fine but I continued to feel worse throughout the day. This was the starting line for a 24 hour stomach bug.
We finally staggered to the van around 11:30 and got about 5 minutes of AC before getting out again and making our way through the hutongs to our first of two home visits.
The home visits in China are government-approved — so you know they’re better than the average. We know that game from Cuba.
Our first visit had two rooms on the first floor and a rare second floor too. Best news: the AC was pumping!
We had three interactive lessons with the super-friendly matriarch of the house: Chinese character calligraphy, paper cutting and dumpling making. We got into it and enjoyed all three. Nancy was translating. The family was also selling these little glass jars with paintings on the inside. The woman demonstrated her stunning dexterity and attention to detail.
Next we walked to lunch at a popular place on a nearby lake. It was packed with tourists but they opened up a private room on the second floor for us. The food was pretty good— we had a celery appetizer and a couple different chicken dishes. I ate a little but I should have had nothing as I started to feel worse after lunch.
Next we walked to the second home visit — one we will never forget.
We were told that we were going to see a guy who trains crickets to fight. Huh?
When walking into Mr. Liu’s home I didn’t know if I was walking into a zoo or an episode of Hoarders. There were birds, turtles, lizards, fish, dogs and various other animals.
Mr. Liu was full of energy and so excited to welcome us.
He started by getting one of his birds to repeat his calls of “Ni hao.”
Then he showed off a bunch of publications that had featured him over the last several decades. Apparently he’s a big deal.
He was so excited to show the kids his full array of creatures. Whenever he wanted our attention he would shout, “Hello!” — his only English word.
He brought out his beloved crickets which he explained are trained not to jump out of their little bowls. My mom wasn’t buying it. Claiming he does something to their legs so they don’t jump… “You can’t train a little cricket brain!”
Then he moved on to larger insects and lizards. The kids loved it — accepting his invitation to hold the bugs and lizards.
Lobsy, Margaret and I kept our distance. This pic says it all.
Mr. Liu had a 12 year old small white fluffy dog with a single straight up pony tail that lived in the house but he mentioned a second, 1 year old dog outside. We asked for a glimpse on the way out and outside this ramshackle house was the sweetest, most perfect Golden Retriever. He was so out of place — and locked in a cage “because he’s naughty.” We said goodbye and then left as Mr Liu ran off looking for a large turtle that, as Nancy pointed out, had escaped from his bin of water.
Meanwhile I was starting to feel worse and just needed to get back to the hotel.
We had about 90 minutes to kill at the hotel then we were turning it around for a Kung Fu show.
The show was really entertaining. We had great seats. James sat on Margaret’s lap and was enthralled. Willa said she was scared at parts (it was dark and loud at times and there were pain-tolerance demonstrations of people lying on swords and stuff like that). Lobsy snoozed for a bit at the beginning but then recovered — an amazing performance by her today right off of a DC to Beijing flight yesterday. I really enjoyed it, despite my worsening belly situation.
We were back at the hotel by 7pm. Margaret, LOBS and the kids went to dinner at the restaurant and I headed to the bathroom then right to bed.
A few hours later Margaret said she had similar symptoms. We both had bad stomach issues plus fever/chills/aches.
It was a rough night. Woke up regularly wondering how the hell we would manage our plan for the next day: climbing The Great Wall in a heat index expected to hit 112.
