Day out in laneways

The word for laneways is Hutong. We went to such a place today after meeting my aunt's 2 very round cats.

This street just went for miles (ok, not literally) but had lots of lanes  that came off it. Shops everywhere with interesting traditional stuff like embroidery, silk, paper cuttings, kitsch retro gear including red army stuff, cute cafes and bars.

I was naive and brought out 200 kwei (yuan) which I went through pretty quickly.

I brought out a cold as well. So most of today I have had red dry eyes, sneezing a lot and making my way through packets of tissues. One thing I have noticed is that China is not so big on softness. Every tissue I have encountered for hands, nose or butt has the texture of a Coles green bag.

The other thing I experienced today was cabbie driving. The traffic here is hairy, people may or may not observe signs and pedestrians saunter onto the road whenever they want. You honk in a negative or positive way. Or you just honk all the time.

The buildings are something else. If London looked ancient, cramped and squashed to me, Beijing is massive, airy and gargantuan. There are buildings that seem to fill up 2 blocks if not 3.

Anyway, the codral I took has had no effect so I shall retire to bed and hope for the best.

Cazza