Beijing Hu Tong Red Doors

Beijing Hu Tongs is a dying breed. In a few more years we’ll probably not going to see any more of them. They will be  leveled out and provide land for new sky rises. I’m sure government will save a few blocks for historic preservations and to attract tourists, but the real ones, where people use to live for hundreds of years will soon be nothing but history.  On our recent trip to Beijing we walked through couple Hu Tongs and I took a few pictures. Usually, doors is all you can see, they will lead you into internal compound. We didn’t go into them, but the doors itself are quite interesting themselves. All painted red with different level of tier and wear. Here is the first photo in this series. Click on the photo to see larger and better resolution.

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Chinese Twin Dragon

This is the twin of the last nights dragon. More like a sister maybe, or even wife. If you look close, she has a little baby.

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Chinese Dragon

This was taken on the way from the Tian An Men square to the Temple of Heaven. He had his twin seating on the other side of the walk. I’ll put it out here tomorrow.

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Big Enough to Cook a Horse

When I saw these huge pots I imagined how back in the Imperial times they used them to cook meals for entire royal staff or maybe for their guards or army. You can chop and cook a lot of meat in it. There would be a slow fire under it, probably maintained non stop, with servants running around, preparing meat and vegetables. They probably had some type of ladder next to it so they could stir it while it was cooking. The main chef will come by and taste it once in a while. It was probably some tasty beef stew, umm, I’m getting hungry,  it is dinner time.

This is inside the Forbidden City, Beijing. We were trying to stay away from the crowds, and those crowds as many have a crowd or “sheep” mentality, the more of them in the same place the more will come. On a hot day it is not super fun, to say the least. Walking off the main center path actually allowed us to see everything from a different angle and explorer areas where most tourists ignore. Good for us.

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Here is another one. I like the cuprum coloring.

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All on Board

We were riding bikes around Beijing that day. End of July, it was probably one of the worst smoggy weeks in Beijing, or maybe it is normal… it really sucked. You can see what it looked from the high rise, not a pretty site – “Beijing Blue Skies… Not”.

Anyway, the air was white, the sky was white and it was humid like in the sauna. We stopped at the north side of the Hou Hai (Back Sea) lake for a little break, I put my camera between the rail separating the sidewalk and the lake and fired a few shots.

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