Mini Beijing travel – Hu tong and Houhai
By Raymond on Feb 28, 2009 in travel
Travelling in China
Mini Beijing travel – Hu tong and Houhai
Here I am not writing about the Beijing palaces, as many people have written about them. I would like to talk about somewhere which is rarely visited by tours but closer to the real life or tradition of “old Beijing”.
Originally I planned to have a week’s travel in Harbin province. Due to limitation of time, I changed that to a one day “mini Beijing travel” in “hu tongs” and Houhai. Hu tongs are old streets where Chinese traditional buildings are still remained. Houhai is a small inland “sea” (hai means sea in Chinese) crowdedly surrounded by bars.
Once my lover and I stepped into the hu tongs, it seemed that we had left Beijing and were travelling in another Chinese village. Short brick houses replace tall buildings. Many narrow streets form a crisscross. Hawkers sell meat and vegetables on the street side in the evening.
We stayed in a youth hostel of quandrangle style. Perhaps it is rather difficult for foreign travelers to search for such kind of hostels. You cannot really experience the culture and lifestyle of traditional Chinese living in hu tongs by only passing through the narrow streets and taking a few photos, without staying in the hu tongs at least one day and watching what the people here are doing in different times of a day.
The picture on the wall shows a traditional Chinese couple who have just married. The room is in a rather traditional style, with supply of electricity and hot water also. It was a little pity that the weather was too cold to sit in the court and enjoy some tea and leisure talk.
We went to a family dumpling restaurant and watched the woman, probably the owner of the house, making the lovely fried dumplings. The sauce was wrapped inside a dumpling and splashed out when we bit it.
Houhai is a world very different from hu tongs. Foreigners or teenagers love to visit the bars here for leisure or excitement. I am not very interested in bars and beers, but it was still very interesting to walk around Houhai. There are bars of many different styles, western or Chinese, noisy or quiet, crowded or lonely. Due to cold weather, however, the atmosphere was not as lively and bustling as in summer.
(Skiing on the frozen Houhai)
Many restaurants of foreign styles have been built in Beijing these few years. We had dinner in a Vietnamese restaurant in Houhai. The decoration was well designed. Pebbles, bridge, water, statues of Buddha and fabric of different colors hung from the ceiling made up the Vietnamese style atmosphere. Waitresses politely and patiently explained to us the names of dishes we could not understand. They were not angry when we only ordered one Vietnamese Cake in order to save money.
An old man in the street gave us a performance on making mini dolls with syrup. Marvelous. Although we felt that we were cheated when he said the doll was composed of two dolls and asked for 20 Chinese dollars, we bought it without regret, considering that it is rather miserable to hopelessly wait for customers in the chilly street. Yes, during the travels in China, we have been “happily cheated” by sellers or hawkers many times. The amount is not big to us, but it means a lot to the poorer people. We are well educated and we have good chances to find good jobs and even fulfill our various dreams. The uneducated, in the opposite, do not have chances to change their situation. We felt better when we took the 20 dollars as a donation to support traditional Chinese handcraft.
Of course, there are also rich sellers in China who cheat travelers to earn more… These acts should not be tolerated.
We also visited a teahouse called “The Butterfly Lovers”, originated from a popular Chinese love story. We were the only customers that night, and enjoyed full set of service. We highly appreciated the decoration of the whole teahouse. Customers can enjoy tea and chat in small private compartments without interruption. A waitress taught us the names of the teawares, steps of making tea and etiquette of drinking tea. Tea becomes an art if we know more about the culture and philosophy behind.
My lover talked with the owner of the teahouse happily about knowledge of tea leaves, while I chatted with the 24 year old waitress. Sometimes we feel a little bit surprise when we know that teenagers of similar age with us or even younger than us are working in the society for living. It is rather easy to unconsciously form an illusion that study (or even get a master/doctoral degree) is the only way to serve for the society and become successful if we stay in a university for a long time. Some people, who may not have the chance to receive better education, are making their way out by their own talent. Actually, the waitress was a bit nervous when she introduced to us the culture of tea, but we just smiled and talked with her happily. We should always give encouragement to new learners. I believe that there were many customers who were very hard to be satisfied and gave harsh comments, and we were there to make a balance.
We found that it was difficult to taste the subtle difference between teas of the same type. Probably it is not the chemicals which make a cup of tea special, but the heart of the one who drinks it. The traditional decoration and quiet environment of the teahouse, together with tea fragrance, let us temporarily forget the pressure and competition in reality.
i miss Beijing very much, enjoy your life in Beijing ^_^
Raymond Reply:
April 21st, 2009 at 9:25 pm
thankyou! I have enjoyed it quite a lot
tingyan | Apr 17, 2009 | Reply