We flew into Beijing where we spent a whirlwind four days taking in all the tourist sights. We walked for miles through the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, temples, and parks, climbed the great wall in an area not visited by foreign tourists.
We ate lunch with a local woman in a Hu Tong. Our hostess taught us to make dumplings. A Hu Tong is an ancient village with narrow winding streets. Most of the Hu Tongs are disappearing because of reconstruction, a controversy during the Olympics.
We ate traditional food, visited the Chinese Opera School, and spent an evening at the traditional Chinese Opera. The program explained the plots of the two plays. After watching the extensive training the actors undergo from childhood to adult, the acrobatic skills were appreciated. The accompanying music is not tuned to the western ear.
Our hotel was modern, clean and well located.
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