Hutongs

At first glance Beijing seems very modern with tons of large buildings and crowded freeways, but off of all of the major streets are hutongs, old neighborhoods that seem to lack most 21st century conveniences. All of the buildings are one story and made of gray brick. There were very fragrant public toilets every few blocks, so I began to wonder if the houses had indoor plumbing. Apparently, these areas are being demolished to make way for modern housing, so it was great to see them. Some of the hutongs have undergone gentrification and are full of restaurants and stores, so they'll probably survive.

The food in China

The Chinese food in China is really good, better than any I've had elsewhere. We ate some interesting street too. I really enjoyed these crab apples coated with sugar. They had scorpions on skewers too, but we opted not to eat those.

thoughts on China-part 1

There are so many things I'll forget to say about our trip to China, but I'm going to try to write short posts about my impressions. We went to lots of tourists sites like the Lama Temple, Confucious Temple, the drum and bell towers, the Forbidden City, and Jinshan Park. All of these had buildings that were built at least 400 years ago. But instead of feeling old it felt like a movie set. Everything has a fresh coat of paint and is so well cared for that it felt like it could be weeks old.

juice

Signs you don't see in the states

Are we eating enough?

In a recent email Grammie asked if we were eating enough. I have no way to describe the amount of available food in Singapore. I am sure that there are 100 food stalls within every 3 block radius of Singapore. It is unreal. There are places called hawker stands which cook up local cuisine for fair trade prices, so tonight we ate rice with tofu and vegetables with gravy (curry sauce) for $4.90 Singapore, about $3.50 US dollars for the whole family. We spend more and get meat and sometimes we spend a lot more to get western style food, pizza, etc. But we get plenty, actually I'd say, too much to eat. :)

Mothering rooms

So one thing that I love about Singapore is that in must public places they have a mothering/nursing/baby room. They are right next to the bathrooms and have a diaper changing area, comfy chairs for nursing, a sink, water cooler, and some have a pump sterilizer.