Exploring Beijing - Forbidden City and Street Markets

Restaurant in Hutong

This morning we hit Beijing running. Well, not really. We took a slight detour to the electronics district in Zhongguancun to pick up some camera chargers, then ventured over to meet my friend Cici for lunch at this cute little Guangxi restaurant located in an original hutong – an old traditional style home. Cici and I met in London at a conference on social innovation in ’07. I was randomly introduced to her because others had overheard we were both independently traveling to Scotland after the conference. As we started talking, we found out that she is from the same town that my grandma is from – Chengdu, Sichuan, and she goes to Bryn Mawr College in the same town that I lived in at the time. It was a hilarious conversation as more and more common things unveiled as we shared about each other. Anyhow, after she graduated, she decided to come back to China, and has been working in Beijing for a city / urban planning organization, and is involved in the social innovation scene in China. To my surprise, there is quite a bit going on in Beijing, from microfinance to environmental to a plethora of other issues.

random girl who kept posing all over.

jenny and i at the forbidden city

After lunch, Jenny and I explored the Forbidden City until they started shooing us out at their early closing hour. Then we walked across the street to Tiananmen Square where Jenny’s heart poured out for this little boy who was running through the square chasing a wrapper of some sort (i.e. trash). The boy was failing in his attempt to get this wrapper, so Jenny decided to run after the boy and pick up the wrapper for him. It was quite the scene. She succeeded and gave the boy the wrapper, who seemed happy for a second, and then seemed to quickly lose interest as it flew away again. I can only imagine what the mother, nowhere to be seen, was thinking when she saw this adult Jenny chase after her child and her child's trash. 

Mission Accomplished!  Well done Jenny!

Jenny chasing after this child's wrapper

      

Then we headed to Wangfujing, a high-end walking street with shops and “Old Beijing” – old street market filled with all sorts of food oddities kebabs of all sorts, including scorpion, live bugs, lamb, octopus, fruit, buns, dumplings, noodles, and plenty of other interesting snacks. Along the way, we befriended an old homeless man begging for money. We offered to buy him something to eat instead, and asked what he wanted. His simple and honest response was (in Chinese): “Thank you. Something soft… something soft. Thank you.” We got him some tofu and water from the market, and told him we’d pray for him. He watched as he moved into a squatting position to eat. This poor old man. He wasn’t the only homeless person I’ve seen in China this trip – there have been others, and most if not all have been older and elderly folks. Not knowing the backgrounds of these people, I can only make assumptions based on the history of China and the Mao’s Cultural Revolution that took the lives and punished so many intellectuals, leading to a society that some may consider “behind”, leading to numbers of people who grew up during that time without an education who today are those elder folks who may be wandering the streets, desperately trying to survive. That’s my assessment – who knows if it’s valid or not.