Saturday morning we strolled through the houtongs in our neighborhood and came across a community music center tucked in between (as all things are in these areas)some busy alleyways. We entered via an open courtyard door and followed a planted pathway to a back courtyard surrounded by large rooms that were being used for childrens' art (drawing) lessons, dance classes, and Chinese instrumental music lessons. Some boys were kicking a football in the yard while waiting for another class to start. It was such a surprise to find it strictly by accident and to take simple pleasure in its just being there. Again, we were glad to see what goes on in the daily lives (this time, Saturday morning activities) of the folks who live in this busy enclave in the middle of a city of 16+ million people. It's remarkable how these little islands of tranquility are carved out.
Our guide and driver showed up 20 minutes early to take us to the airport (highly unnecessary, since Saturday is not as busy, traffic-wise as other days) but we were hustled off to make our way to the airport for a 4:10pm flight. We sat for 4 hours at the airport, time we would much rather have spent doing a little more exploring. We left from the new international terminal that was built for the Olympics; it is spectacular architecturally and a model of high tech efficiency for other airports.
Everything went smoothly until we got to O'Hare in Chicago, when, as is typical of O'Hare, everything got jammed up...some heavy thunderstorms occasioned delays, cancellations, jam-ups with stand-by supplicants....After all the delays, we had to switch planes and finally got underway...arrived Boston about 2:30am, home by about 3am. We are moving in slow motion today. It seemed that 1/2 the plane was coughing and sneezing, and Lily and I woke to pretty full and nasty colds today...thankfully, the timing was right and we didn't have to stress about having a cold during the trip.
Overall, Beijing felt much less hectic than Shanghai or Hangzhou....the guide remarking, "but it's much smaller than Shanghai (only 16 million rather than 20 million)" Be that as it may, drivers seemed more prone to obey traffic lights, to give slight chance to pedestrians and not confront them directly, and to honk less. Were we to return to Beijing, we would stay at the Red Lantern Guest House again for the unique experiences provided by its style, location, and way of operating.
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