Beijing, Day 2

Hello again!

We started off this morning with a very early sunrise walk to Tiananmen Square where many us of watched the PLA guards raise the Chinese flag in front of the giant portrait of Mao Zedong. It was very cool to watch the flag go up with the many hundreds of Chinese tourists also there to watch and with the Chinese national anthem blaring through the loudspeakers across the Square.

After breakfast at our pretty amazing breakfast buffet—including everything from noodles to duck eggs to cereal to a hot noodle and egg station!—we headed out to tour a (very) old hutong neighborhood in Beijing. After sitting through some pretty impressive Beijing rush hour traffic we met our guide Michael Crook. We were very lucky to have Michael as our guide since he and his family’s experience living in Beijing dates back many many decades. Michael’s Mandarin was as impressive as his knowledge of China, Beijing and the local hutongs he guided us through. For about 3 hours he walked us through the old hutong neighborhoods where we saw houses dating back many hundreds of years. While meandering through the maze of tiny alleyways that make up the hutong neighborhood, we stopped at the NGO called ‘Facilitators.’ The workers there explained their operation to us where they provide services to migrant workers in Beijing and their children. The people at ‘Facilitators’ were very friendly and answered many of our questions about the services they provide and the problems afflicting the growing migrant population in Beijing. Michael then brought us to a Neighborhood local government building where we talked to a local official who gave us some more detailed information and statistics about the people living in the old hutong neighborhoods and the ways the government and people have been working to modernize the neighborhood. Then, after a large lunch with Michael who graciously answered many of our questions about his interesting life and his interpretations of modern China we headed off to the Forbidden City.
After a few hours of walking through the old Palace and many more miles of walking we dispersed for some much needed rest and relaxation. And long but very great day.

-Andrew