The Back Lakes, Hutongs & T's (Part 1 of 2)

The Back Lakes, Hutongs and T
(Part 1 of 2)

On Thursday we slept in a bit to recover from the climb to the Great Wall as Simati. (See the previous post for details.) Today, we took the lead from Cory and ventured to a more sedate but intriguing portion of Beijing called the Back Lakes. The area around the Back Lakes is a calmer version of Beijing that illustrates the more traditional, albeit stereotypical, Chinese lifestyle.

Here we walked past the splendid and rather expensive houses of the party apparatiks that surround the Lakes, saw several Buddhist Temples, and toured the former residence of Soong Ching Ling, Sun Yatsen's wife. Nearby there are several narrow side streets of modest homes, ornate temples, and simple restaurants, bars or shops.

We first toured the the former residence of Soong Ching Ling. Ms Ling attended the Wesleyan School for Women in Macon Georgia sometime around 1913 or so. She was a very worldly woman who had a very active life in Chinese politics. She started out as the secretary to Sun Yatsen and two years later eventually married him. Perhaps indicative of their life to be is the wedding gift that Sun Yatsen gave his wife--a small pistol. The complex we toured was her former residence as vice-Chairperson of the People's Republic of China. It was also the birthplace of China's last emporer, Pu Yi.

The most notable occurence this placid and sedate place has seen in recent years was Jamie swinging on the swing and launching himself several times into the air as he exited. You can imagine both the dear Madame and the Emporer were spinning in her graves. Not to be outdone, even Hilde took her turn on the swing, sans the jumping exit.


From there we walked to the lake shore, purchased some drinks from a local lakeside shop and took a stroll along the bank. We watched some local men swim across the lake while others engaged in various forms of exercise or game playing including a rather aggressive doubles Ping Pong.

We'll continue the day on another post...