After a full day on the Great Wall of China, we slept in, meeting in the Green Tree Inn lobby at 10:00 am for our 1 hour walk to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
CHAMP CHINA MOJO IN FRONT OF MAO AND THE FORBIDDEN CITY.
TIANANMEN SOUTH - OPEN AIR PEARL MARKET, BEIJING'S BIGGEST.
HUTONG BY NIGHT.
FORBIDDEN CITY'S NORTH GATE.
CHINA MOJO'S HUTONG HOTEL.
While more modest than the hotel we originally booked while in Beijing, the Green Tree Inn is in a fabulous location – the center of Fang Zhia hutong just 1 ½ miles from the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, and full of lively little shops, eateries, and a night club/listening room or three with funky names like Hot Cat and Yes.
The hutongs – traditional Chinese urban neighborhoods first built by the Mongols when they moved the imperial city to old Peking – are one of my favorite things about Beijing: best described as little mini-mazed warrens of private one story apartments with shared communal open air living space. When the CRP ascended to power in 1949, Mao soon declared war on the hutongs, proclaiming them “backward” and a sign of the “old China.” The real estate boom hasn’t helped the hutongs’ fate, but there are still many of them left in this part of the city – and I spent some time while here just knocking around.
We were on the road by 10:00 am, and after a quick cash exchange and McD’s breakfast for some, made it to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square by 11:30. I oriented everyone, and we bought tickets and then turned everyone loose for the day in downtown Beijing.
HUTONG BISTRO CUISINE: FRIED RICE AND RED WINE.
Kat, Sean, George and I hit the trifecta – touring the Forbidden City (including the beautiful Jianing Park and temple tower that overlooks the city from the north), Tiananmen Square and Pearl Market (where we shopped like barter-seeking westerners) before heading back to the hutong via taxi before 6:00.
Because of the big CRP event downtown, and the fact that it was a reasonably nice Saturday afternoon weather-wise, downtown Beijing was hopping, and hearing their stories later, our Mojo’ers made the most of their day (some even saying they wanted another day to experience the mother of all Chinese Cities.)
A great way to finish off our visit in China.
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