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When
Anne and I examine our reasons for traveling we usually come up
with three: a) To get as far away from work as possible; b) to visit
and see things we've heard or read about, and c) to experience other
cultures. What better way is there to experience a foreign culture
than by mingling with the people in places that provide glimpses
into their daily lives. We find the local markets in foreign countries
do just that. There we can get a close look at the people as they
go about their normal daily routine and also inspect the goods and
services that are available to them. We were lucky to have such
a market just across the street from our hotel, one that Anne spotted
from our room.
After
returning from our visit to the Summer Palace we decided to run
a couple of errands. First, I wanted to drop the exposed film off
for development and there was a camera shop right across the street
and next to the local market that Anne spotted. Second, a friend
had asked us to pick up guitar pins for her brother from the local
Hard Rock Cafe in Beijing and other cities. So, off we headed.
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The
corner in front of the hotel
Many
streets are tree-lined and small
l with two or three lanes of traffic
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The
first obstacle we faced was crossing the street. Let there be no mistake,
Beijing is a large city with lots of traffic. Cars and buses fill
the highways much as they do in any US city we've visited, but there
is also a large part of the population that uses bicycles for transportation.
So you have to watch carefully as you cross any road or intersection. |
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Beijing bicycles can be and are seen everywhere. Other cities, because
of their terrain, aren't as suitable for bicycles and they are rarely
seen, but not in Beijing. Bicycle repair is a good business in Beijing
and you can see local entrepreneurs with makeshift bicycle repair
shops everywhere. |
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Others
are major expressways with eight to ten
lanes of high-volume traffic |
Alicia
at the
Hard Rock Cafe
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The
roads were well maintained
and had numerous pedestrian
crossovers along the way |
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Having
dropped the film off and visited the market for a short time our
next objective was to go to the Hard Rock Cafe to purchase the guitar
pins. We decided to jump into a cab for the short ride to Hard Rock
which we had passed on the way to our hotel from the airport. We
were prepared and had the name and address written on a piece of
paper, however, there was a slight problem. In our travels on the
bus I had noticed that all of the streets included signs with street
names written in both the Chinese characters and English. Our note
with the address was written in English and when I presented it
to the cab driver it was absolutely worthless. We should have had
someone at the hotel write the address in Chinese to give to the
driver. We learned that even though the signs are written in English,
the average citizen cannot read the signs. Our driver was pleasant
though and tried his best to deliver us to our destination. We had
repeated the name of the cafe several times and he indicated he
knew where we wanted to go, and he headed off in the right direction
initially. A few turns later he delivered us to the wrong place,
but it was a rock-and-roll night spot so he had understood something.
Feeling adventurous we decided to get out and find it ourselves.
I felt we weren't to far away and was right. We reached it in about
15 minutes walking, bought our pins and decided to walk much of
the way back to the hotel before taking a cab. This time I showed
the cabbie the business card with the hotel's name on it so there
was no problem and we were quickly delivered to our destination.
Now,
about the market. Anne spied what appeared to be a market from our
7th floor room. In reality it was a market, but it looked more or
less like makeshift homeless shelters. Pieces of tin and canvas
roofing stretched across makeshift walls of one type or another.
When she called it to my attention and indicated she wanted to visit
it my first concern was safety. Here we are in a foreign city less
than 48 hours, we can't speak the language and not having been exposed
to many locals we didn't know how we, as Americans, would be received.
Let's face it, a few months earlier the Chinese weren't to happy
with America when because of the incident where our intelligence
gathering plane was intercepted and forced to land on one of their
southern islands, an incident that resulted in the death of one
of their pilots. I was a little leery at first, but we decided to
give it a try and see what happens. We weren't disappointed.
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As
you can see by the pictures this market was a very interesting place
to visit. You could almost refer to it as the Chinese version of
a Wall Mart. No, it wasn't modern ... no, it wasn't one gigantic
building ... but, yes, it did offer a large variety of items for
sale including food, household items, clothing, pets and, of course,
a foot court. Anne and I have always enjoyed such markets because
you get a really good feeling for how the natives live and they
are always such colorful places.
I'm
happy to report also that we were very well received by the local
people. We were obviously an oddity walking through the market which
brought lots of attention from the merchants and their customers.
They were very friendly toward us and tried, as best they could,
to communicate with us. When I asked to take pictures of the people
they eagerly complied. It is true that not all Chinese like their
pictures taken as they believe it captures their soul so it is best
to ask before taking pictures of the people.
Continue
to the next page to see more pictures taken in the market ...
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