Thurs. Oct 10 Liulichang Market

Oda and I visited the Liulichang Market. It is a street that has antiques, seals, paper, brushes in an old style street. They are redoing many of the stores. One that I really liked from my last visit to Beijing has been demolished. I am looking for a chop (stone seal) for Branwen. I bought a nice one for Calder the last time I was in Beijing on this street. Oda wants to buy some brushes, ink and paper so that she can create her own chinese scroll.

It is hard to believe that this is not a pedestrian only street. But cars do manage to get through, beeping all the way.

At the end of the street, we wandered into a Hutong area. This is what all the houses were like in Beijing. They are being torn down to make room for high rises all over. We saw the little markets:
This was a meat stall. Without refrigeration!! I wouldn't be trying it.
Down these alleys were doors into houses. Behind the walls there are courtyards.



Dual use for the rickshaw.
Growing vegetables on the wires.

A garage
But still everywhere we wandered there were flowers in pots for bits of color.
There were many public toilets in this area. I am not sure that they have bathrooms in their houses. Oda needed to use one - She said it had 3 squat pots and 1 western toilet in a row without separations. A true communal experience.!

Since Oda wants to try brush painting, we negotiated well for this brush set. It had a chop that she had carved with Chinese characters that would sound like her name.
Stopped for a nosh. This was vegetables wrapped in tofu. There was too much of the wrapping so we unwound it several times and it tasted better.

Pancakes with leeks:
Oda eating noodles with tomatoes and egg. (Sort of like spagetti, but tepid.)


We walked some more on the other side of this street and saw a child doing his homework outside of his mother's shop.

We took a cab back to the hotels. As we were getting closer, the sky turned black. It looked like the storm of the century was going to start. At Oda's hotel, it was still dry. At mine, the first raindrops fell. I scurried in to take a shower and dress for the banquet and then collected my raincoat, rainhat & umbrella figuring that I was going to get drenched walking over to the conference site. Miracle upon miracles, the rain had stopped already and the sky was clearing.

Back to the Duck restaurant for the big banquet. Thought that I would memorialize the duck!

As I said before, "Luckily, there is always new stuff." I had to "sing for my supper" though. They brought the head of the conference over, so that I could tie his tie. He didn't know how. Chuck only knows how do tie it on himself, and we didn't think that this dignified Chinese man wanted Chuck with his arms around his neck. Chuck dictated the process and I tied. It wasn't great, but good enough.

The pyramid of greens - like chopped parsley.

These looked just like glazed carrots - but they had a different texture and taste. Noone know what they were.
More of the vegie wraps from lunch - but these had more filling to wrap. Some had salmon in them.
Beef
Slimies
Salad
fried duck
The duck for the pancakes. This are great serving dishes.
Shrimp with cashews
After eating and drinking too much, we went home to bed. There were a lot of toasts because all of the head guys have to come to each table and do a little drink.