Around Beijing & a Rickshaw Ride

 After our morning at the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square we were starving.  We went in search of some bowdzas (the steamed bread filled with meat that I love).  Along the way I snapped some pictures discreetly of the area behind our hotel.  It seemed pretty authentic downtown China to me.

 There are many bikes in the city but most have a motor on them even if they do look like a normal bicycle. 

 Just pick out your slab of meat and take it home, little to no refrigeration required.

 We found bowdzas!  Cheap and delicious. 

 The family vehicle in China is a scooter.  With one child laws it is common to see a Dad, Mom, and small child or baby on a scooter together.  Here we require a mini-van, there they only need a scooter.

 We went back to the room and took an amazingly long nap.  After our nice nap we went looking for information on the Beijing Opera.  Jake surprised me by telling me he was taking me to it.  I told him long ago that in High School I said I'd go to the opera someday with my husband.  While in High School I was a member of History Club and we attended the Houston Opera twice and I loved it.  On our quest for tickets outside the mania of the exit to the Forbidden City there were "little people" and deformed people asking for money, some singing loudly on microphones or dancing to music played from boom boxes.  Amongst this mania of what seemed like thousands of Chinese there were overly aggressive rickshaw drivers advertising their rides.  I thought it sounded fun and one guy was nice and not pushy so after we asked about tickets we went back and found him specifically.  I know this is not something Jake even remotely wanted to do so I love that he humored me on this "romantical" adventure.

 Before our rickshaw ride even got started we walked a ways to where our ride would pick us up.  We were looking around at a souvenir shop on the corner.  Jake picked up a small model airplane made our of bullets and it fell apart.  The guy and Jake began to converse in Chinese.  I didn't realize it was a heated discussion til Jake went to leave the shop (that had one aisle leading in and out) and the guy stood in his way and put his hands on Jake to hold him.  Jake towers over this guy by about a foot so it was easy to see that Jake was putting up little resistance.  Jake continued to talk to him as he walked out of the store with the guy trying his hardest to hold Jake in place.  There is a crowd gathering and the guy still has his hands on Jake.  I walk up to them as to try and take the guy's hands off Jake but it is little help but seems to end the argument as Jake tosses 4 RNB on his shelf and tells him he can buy some glue to repair it with that.  It was obviously a piece of junk to begin with.  We walk away to our rickshaw as the guy is still irate.  I'm sure we left a sour taste for "laowais" in his mouth.  We tried to enjoy our rickshaw ride but at the beginning I was still a little nervous over the entire incident even though I know we did nothing wrong.

 The rickshaw ride took us through "old Beijing" where the officials of emperors and such lived.  Each doorway had a different number of posts above it and it showed the level of person living there.

 Some of the homes were extensively renovated but others were in severe decay but since they were made of stone they were in decent shape overall.

 We learned about the lions outside the entrances and how they were a male and female and were good fung shui.  

 I took this picture because the dogs in China are quite small.  Even the breeds that normally seem medium to large like the collie below seemed shrunk down to a small to medium size.  One night in Xi'an I did see a group of people with very large dogs all together outside our hotel almost as if they were in some kind of dog club together.

I love that even though my husband had no interest in a rickshaw ride he endured it for me.  He may have given me a hard time about how lame it was later, but in the moment he was lovey dovey with me.