Another high speed train ride (about six hours) from Hangzhou to Beijing for a three night stay. Along the way, the train stopped in some large modern stations. In contrast, we saw farmers working alone in fields using hoes and one using some draft animals instead of a tractor, and a shepherd with his flock of about 30 sheep.

Everything in Beijing is in security mode due to high level governmental meetings in Beijing. At Beijing South station where we arrived, we couldn't go to the subway until we passed through security scanning. 

Just outside Nanluoguxiang Subway station, we met Angela from Mao’er Courtyard B&B. The B&B is in an old house on a hutong (narrow lane). The building is designed the traditional way - a quadrangle with rooms opening out into it and while the rooms are small, the furniture is big! But we do have private bathrooms. Traditional breakfast with tea or coffee is included. One day, we had little scallion pancakes with scrambled egg and other stuff to put inside. Another day,  scrambled egg, a bun, cinnamon pancake.

Dinner was at Dali Courtyard restaurant, a Yunnan restaurant about 15 minutes walk from the B and B on a narrow dark street.  The delicious meal was a set menu and the dishes just kept coming:  a chicken dish with potatoes, a very spicy fish, beef, tofu, grilled cheese, mushrooms, about 14 small plates in all. The heat was complex, not just a blaze of heat. No pictures because we were still jetlagged and not thinking straight! We walked back through the Friday night crowds in the hutong. The area is more party central than we realized but our B and B was at the quiet end. 

Janet Lee, our guide picked us up the next morning for a trip to Mutaniyu to see the Great Wall, an hour and a half from Beijing. Fabulous to see the ancient wall with its towers along the wall. We took a cable car up to the top, after passing through the gauntlet of hawkers. This section of the wall has 22 watchtowers and the valley on both sides of the Wall. It is challenging to walk though because the steps are huge.  Afterward, we had a great lunch at a large country restaurant, Xiao Long Pu. Specially notable was the spare ribs covered with a mound of flowery Szechuan peppercorns.

Then we headed back to Beijing and to the Summer Palace which seemed like a zoo although our guide said it wasn't busy! Interesting to see especially the stone boat. The stories about the dragon lady Qixi were interesting too.

Dinner was delicious authentic Peking duck at Siju Minfu. We were the only Westerners that we saw in the large restaurant. We have had duck before in Toronto but never with white sugar to dip the crispy skin in!  We got all the accompaniments - the little pancakes, relishes, hoisin sauce etc. and beer.

We are now veterans of the subway. On our second day, Janet took us around by public transport. First, Tiananmen Square - “gate of heavenly peace” and the Forbidden City. We spent about three hours just for quick overview. We heard interesting stories about the evil empress and concubines, etc.  We saw fabulous jadeit and other precious objects. It is a dizzyingly large complex!

We visited Jingshan Park, a public park just north of the Forbidden City.  Afterwards, we went to a nearby restaurant for a Mongolian hot pot lunch. Although Janet gave us instructions, it was difficult not to lose food in the broth and thus overcook it. We did get a chance to try lotus root though.

After lunch, we wandered through Beihei park enjoying sharing a Sunday afternoon with Beijingers. It is an ancient park, far older than the Summer Palace. Vendors were selling tasty Beijing drinking yogurt. We went to another old area, Shichahai, for a bicycle rickshaw tour. It is the northernmost part of the Grand Canal linking Hangzhou in the south to Beijing in the north of China. And then visited a typical home, Beijing siheyuan or quadrangle house, to look around. One of the family was an artist and we saw beautiful samples of his work.

That evening, dinner was a food tour of two night markets with some couples who would also be on the cruise. These were located near a major shopping area (Donghuamen) which boasted all the usual chains - H&M, Zara, Gucci, Forever 21, etc. In contrast, the night markets were very Asian, with many exotic offerings. We tasted as we went. But we didn't try the scorpions!

We had a great last morning in Beijing with Janet’s friend, another guide. First, we went to Lama Temple (Yonghe Temple) built during the Ming dynasty to house the Tibetan lama when he visited Beijing for meetings with the emperor. It still operates as a Tibetan religious centre and people were praying and burning incense while about 40 monks were praying / chanting in the biggest room. Very atmospheric.

Our next stop was the Temple of Heaven and its park which was filled with hordes of grown ups at play:  line, swing and ballroom dancers, card and Chinese checkers players, knitters and younger people playing a kind of hacky sack, with a feathered shuttle cock. And singers - a couple with no audience and a man singing for a large group of dancers.

We visited the temple which was used by the emperor for live animal sacrifices to guarantee good weather. Later, they substituted marble animals for the wasteful real ones.

We had a delicious lunch at Da Wan Ju. Our lunch included chicken with walnuts and two vegetable dishes.

Then our guide took us to the Beijing South train station, another huge one. On the train, Frances had an interesting “conversation” with her seat mates using her Jibbigo off-line translator on her iPhone. Our fellow passengers were curious about her age, where she was from, etc. Everyone seated near us got the information relayed to them!

We opted to go to Tianjin rather than Tanggu since the trains were so frequent to Tianjin.

At Tianjin we got two cabs for our hour long journey. However they didn't know where it was. They called the port agent, the police and more and finally we set off. Tianjin is a beautiful modern city with a half dozen or more new bridges across the river and modern towers. But it had the worst air pollution we had seen. The air quality was awful and the smog obscured the vistas.

Well, to make a long story short, much angst about getting there! A few times our drivers pulled over to confer. Richard was tracking with his Blackberry - he had marked the location of this new port before we left home. Without it, we would not have got there. On arrival, our driver smiled at us and made the sign of the cross! We arrived at five for the six o’clock sailing and we were raced through. First time ever, we brought our luggage up the gangplank and straight to our room! A half hour later, we had our safety drill!