Hutong bike ride

On October 1st, China's National Day, we biked around our neighborhood. I apologize for the "Blair Witch Project" kind of camera work, but with one hand on the iPhone, one hand on the steering wheel, one eye on Thomas, and one eye on the traffic, I couldn't do any better. The clip is just under a minute, but should give you a bit of a sense of the street life here. Now, if only I could also send you the street smells! :-)




In het Nederlands: Een rondje om de kerk. Nou ja, er is geen kerk hier, maar afgelopen maandag, op China's nationale feestdag, fietsten we een klein rondje door de buurt. Nu ik het clipje weer zie denk ik eigenlijk dat de geluiden nog meer zeggen dan de beelden!

Weekend bike ride (or: Enjoying the weather while it lasts)

Just two weekends ago (the same weekend as our excellent camping trip), Paul and I also made a fun little bike ride.

 

China of course used to be a bicycle kingdom, but over the last 20 years its bikes have slowly been replaced with cars and other motorized vehicles. People's driving styles, however, have not kept pace with this change and often it seems people are driving as if they are still on a bicycle. (For example -- and this might be hard to image -- we actually often see people stop along a highway and back up to go back to an exit they missed.)

 

So two Saturdays ago, Paul and I felt a great need to get out and bike in this crazy traffic. Besides, it was gorgious weather and in Beijing you have to enjoy that. Before you know it, winter will set in and I'll be dressed like an eskimo again.

 

We biked about 34.64 km in 1:53 minutes; at an average speed of 18.29 km/hour -- this information  brought to you by the Endomundo iPhone app, which nicely tracked our route. (According to the same Endomundo, we also burned 1313 kcal, a fact I immediately celebrated by eating a giant chocolate muffin.)

 

For the most part we biked along a canalized river. This is Beijing too, you know!

 

Paul enjoying the view.

 

Another view from the same bridge.

 

It's kind of hard to see, but the dots in the river are fishermen (and one woman), catching fish with a big trail net. If you like heavy metals, it should be a great dinner.

 

Just like The Netherlands: a nice bicycle trail. The only difference with Holland was that this trail all of the sudden was interrupted by a big fence, and we had to bike all the way back and take the regular road again.

 

In the middle of the trip, we came past this construction site.

 

I made Paul go in and take a picture of this monster (the "tree root," not the man). It's not actually an old tree, but a gigantic, enormous, humongous tree-like construction made of stone. It wasn't...eh...exactly...eh...my taste.

 

Back out on the street again. It looks like I am dressed for the Gobi desert! Well, I was going for a run, but then (literally) switched gears. The Chinese don't mind at all when you dress in a top and shorts, but it is a bit unusual as Chinese women usually cover up and protect themselves from the sun. (You might have read about China's facekini's earlier this year?)

 

The Great Wall. (just kidding--I don't want you to cancel your upcoming trip!)

 

The bike ride continues.

 

Oncoming traffic. By the way, look at the width of this road, compared to the amount of traffic. Sometimes China's infrastructure is just a little bit grandiose, as if it is planned for giants, not humans.

 

Again closer to home, we cycle through this village area. (Note the pipe on the right.) 

 

More village view. It's Saturday morning and people are just millling about.

 

And with this last look around the neighborhood, we returned to our own house (not pictured in this photo). It was a fun little trip and if the weather holds, we should do it again soon.

In het Nederlands: Vandaag gewoon wat fotootjes van een fietstocht dichtbij huis. Het is niet altijd even makkelijk een leuke fietsroute te vinden, maar interessante dingen zijn er altijd wel te zien!
 

Hutong Kitchen: Traditional Chinese Medicine

Last week Thursday I learned how to cook using the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (in het Nederlands: Traditionele Chinese Geneeskunde). Well, OK, maybe I didn't become a TCM professional like our instructor Alex Tan, but at least I learned three recipes and some basic ideas behind the approach.

I was a little bit worried about the cooking lesson. I like Chinese food, and I am also interested in Traditional Chinese Medicine, but somehow the combination didn't seem particularly exciting.

Lucky for me, I was wrong. We made some great dishes, including a shitake mushroom with chicken dish, and a dish using some weird "asparagus lettuce" plant, which did look like an overgrown asparagus and kind of tasted like broccoli, but better.

Asparagus lettuce. Also known by its friendly Chinese name wosun. Definitely "made in China." 

The key idea behind TCM cooking seems to be to base your three meals a day on a good portion of boiled wheats. Yes, that's right: forget the fruit with yoghurt (lovely snack in between) and base your meals on good wheats, balanced with some vegetables that are just right for the season. TCM also says some foods are "warming" and others "cooling," by which they don't mean the temperature of the dish, but the way it works in your body. For example, hot jasmine tea is cooling, but beer is warming (as any 16 year old with a beer in his hand can tell you).

Don't take my word for it though, and read some of Alex' interesting articles on the Straight Bamboo Clinic's Website. The Clinic, as was the cooking class itself, was actually located at The Hutong, a neat cultural exchange center in the heart of Beijing.

View from The Hutong terrace patio. (What you see is a "hutong," a low-rise Chinese neighborhood with lots of small courtyards. "The Hutong" didn't have to look far for a name.)

View of the kitchen. Look at the big cleaver on the chopping board on the left. Just like the one the Swedish chef in the Muppet Show used!

See?

Our ingredients, carefully chopped. Half a plate of ginger, spring onions, carrots, garlic, shitake mushrooms, red onions...

Super mushroom dish.

Asparagus lettuce with shrimp.

Yum! If this is healthy food, I'll take it!

In het Nederlands: Vorige week ben ik even gaan koken in een mooie Chinese hutong. (Het centrum waar de kookles wsa heet dan ook de Hutong.) We kookten volgens de principes van de Traditionele Chinese Geneeskunde, wat onder andere betekent dat je nadenkt over het type voedsel (verwarmend? afkoelend?) dat je eet, en wat je eet in welk jaargetijde. Maar ik denk eigenlijk wel dat ik deze lekkere gerechten gewoon het hele jaar door ga maken...

Nanluoguxiang hutong

Last Friday, a friend (hi D.!) and I strolled through a lovely hutong. As you may know, hutongs are these narrow (mostly gray) streets with lots of courtyard homes. Until the arrival of high-rise apartment buildings, it was where pretty much everyone but the emperor lived.

Apparently, "[w]ith a history of more than 700 years, Nanluoguxiang is one of the capital’s oldest hutong areas and has been one of Beijing’s 25 cultural and historical protection areas since 1990." (Beijing this Month.) With Nanluoguxiang hutong in the middle, this hutong area has sixteen (eight on each side) more hutongs east and west of the main corridor.

While some of these hutongs in Beijing are still used as they have been for hundreds of years, others are demolished for new construction. Yet others--like the Nanluoguxiang hutong I visited--are renovated to become an entertainment and shopping destination.

Actually, the Black Sesame Kitchen I wrote about earlier is in this same hutong area.

The Nanluoguxiang hutong. This main street has lots of side-streets with shops, bars, and restaurants.

More of Nanluoguxiang hutong.

The accidental tourist.

Hotpot in a Japanese restaurant for lunch. I love hotpot, but I love it best when you can cook your own veggies in the broth. This one came already done, with tofu, meat, and veggies already stewing in the soup.

Hotpot and friend.

No matter where you go in Beijing, there is always a guy biking around with a truckload of stuff.

You never know what is behind the doors in a hutong. Could be a stack of paper and cardboard, kids playing, a cabbage collection, old bikes and laundry, or a fancy restaurant.

In addition to a guy on a bike, there also always are lots of people sweeping the streets. Even outside big modern office buildings, you inevitably will encounter a guy (or gal) with his or her hand-made broom.

In het nederlands: De fotos vandaag zijn van een min of meer typische hutong woonwijk in Beijing. Deze hutong, Nanluoguxiang, is opgeknapt en heeft veel leuke winkeltjes en cafeetjes. Andere hutongs zijn nog gewoon woongebied (en zien er niet altijd even schoon of idyllisch uit.) En weer andere hutongs zijn allang verdwenen en vervangen door nieuwe kantoor- en flatgebouwen. Je kan meer over hutongs lezen in dit Volkskrant artikeltje, "De Sloopwoede voorbij".