After the wall, we headed to a Jade manufacturing plant and lunch. Lily was an excellent guide and told us many facts about China as we drove. At the jade plant, we were taken upstairs to a nice restaurant where we were served a very good chinese meal with many dishes. There was a big glass lazy suzan on the table so you could rotate it around to get the dish you wanted. There was rice, broccoli, kungpow chicken, sweet and sour chicken, dumplings, cabbage, soup, and watermelon. Almost everything was very good. The sweet and sour chicken was the best I have ever had. Then they took us downstairs to where they make jewelry out of jade. They showed us these master carvers who sit at diamond tipped polishing wheels and take raw stone and turn it into jewelry. Then they took us to a large showroom where they wanted us to buy stuff. We decided not to part with any of our money there (expensive).
After the museum we headed back into the city to Hutong Lane or the "Old Town". On the way, we passed the Olympic village, Birds Nest Stadium and Water Cube. Hutong Lane was like the traditional old school area of Beijing. It looked like various Chinatowns do in American cities. They put all of us on 2 person rickshaws and drove us through the streets. It was a very cool experience. It was pretty brisk, but they covered us with blankets. We saw a traditional farmers market complete with all kinds of weird animal body parts and a traditional family home. We were invited invited into a ladies home to sit in her kitchen and got to ask questions about her life (this was pre-setup by our travel agency but we had no idea it would be part of the tour). Turns out her husband and son are big time Kung Fu guys and both knew Jackie Chan so there were pictures of them together all over the kitchen. It was cool to talk to the lady and think about Mila in her home and wonder if they were the same.
After the rickshaw ride, we got back in the van and drove to the section of town where there is an open street market where you can get things like scorpions and mealworms on a stick. They also had starfish and snake. Bobby tried a bite of cow kidney and watched the other man in our group eat 2 scorpions. Turns out that this place was two blocks down from our hotel. So we said goodbye to our group (because that was the last stop) and headed home.
On the way home, we got distracted by a huge mall that we hadn't even realized was there. We went in and were surprised to see how super nice it was. Tons of really nice stores. We also spotted a foot massage parlor across the street from the hotel so we ducked in there to check out the prices. Turns out that the prices here are really cheap. We both got 70 min massages for $30 each and the place was super fancy. We had our own couples room and got to drink Lily herbal tea as we had our feet rubbed. It was super relaxing and much needed after the stress of flying. When that was over, we grabbed a quick bite at a McDonalds in the mall (lame we know) but we wanted something quick and that was honestly one of the only places we recognized. But it turned out to be really cool because they have a bunch of weird stuff on their menu like rice, and a big mac with two huge sausage links on it. Not sure what that is about.
But now we are beat! And we have another day of touring tomorrow. Neither one of us realized how cool this day and probably tomorrow will be!
