Beijing bungling

The street to the hotel

So I've been trying to guide Ross around his new adopted city of Zibo but most of the bus routes are still a mystery to me.  It took us several tries, two bus rides and one very perplexed taxi driver to get us to the mobile phone store I wanted to patronize. But that's okay. We see and learn more about the city every time we go astray. Getting lost or stranded in Beijing was more frustrating. Not only could I not find my way around Beijing, I could not find my way around inside the Dongzhimen subway station.  I actually paid my two yuan, went inside and walked through the wrong exit without riding the subway.  Uh, twice.  And I wasn't trying to ride the subway. I was just trying to get across the street because it's also a pedestrian underpass. We did ride the subways but avoided the rush hours. 

In Zibo, taxis are plentiful and cheap. In Beijing, they are scarce, expensive and the drivers refuse to take you to nearby destinations; it's just not worth their while. So getting from "A" to "B" is problematic. Okay, enough complaining. Here's what we enjoyed:

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I went to two bookstores. I took pictures but I am afraid that due to a mishap with my cell phone, they've been lost. I'll post them later if I can retrieve them. One was an ex-pat coffee shop hangout, very pleasant. And the other was huge and filled with books, books, books. I got a Business English textbook that I'm very pleased with.  I guess when you're in a foreign bookstore you feel like you are part of an international book-loving fraternity. It's a universal love. We also bought some clothes but I'll talk about shopping another day. The highlight of our time in Beijing was our stay  at the Double Happiness Courtyard Hotel. I'd read about this place on Trip Advisor. 

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It's a renovated traditional Chinese residence in a traditional neighbourhood of Beijing that has not been torn down and replaced with skyscrapers.  This type of dwelling is known as a hutong. Dwellings are built around a central courtyard. The first two nights, I'd booked a hotel near the airport. But since we decided to stay in Beijing another night, we wanted to stay in the city.  Luckily I came across an advertisement for the hotel, remembered reading about it, and decided to take a chance and see if they had any vacancies.

As we walked down the narrow, dirty street leading to the hotel, Ross was getting increasingly dubious. I'd already demonstrated to him that I was not the person you'd want to put in charge of an expedition; now where was I leading him? But his concerns vanished as soon as we reached the hotel entrance. We were greeted by three slim beautiful women wearing cheongsam dresses who spoke very good English. They had one vacancy and we could have it for one night. We wound through a hallway filled with antique furniture, pictures and photos and up a crooked flight of stairs to a verandah overlooking a narrow courtyard. 

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Our bedroom featured a recessed bed with a curtain, and antique furniture. The mini bar and fridge were hidden inside a beautiful antique chest. The bathroom was all nice and modern and I especially enjoyed the shower after using the anemic gravity-fed shower tank provided by the evil landlord in my apartment.  In the evening, after we walked out to a nearby restaurant for Peking Duck, we relaxed in the hotel bar and listened to a pretty girl play the Chinese harp. Oh, and the breakfast was a plentiful assortment of Chinese and Western foods. 

The next day as we walked out, we passed a plaque on one of the nearby buildings indicating that the people had been living on this street since the 13th century. Shivers. Double Happiness was a memorable highlight of our time in Beijing. 

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