Hutong, Summer Palace, Tea Street

大家好!  

Last week I went to my first hutong, the Summer Palace, and Maliandao (tea street). Maliandao is a famous tea street that has tea shops up and down the street. There is also a tea warehouse. A friend of mine and I went to Maliandao. Originally, we were just going to wander around, but we instantly got sucked into one of the tea shops. The sales lady was very nice. We started talking to her about buying tea first in English but then we switched over to Chinese. It was nice to get to speak Chinese outside of the classroom. I didn’t know what to expect when it comes to buying tea and I’ve never had tea before. The lady wanted us to try some. We sat down and then had a tea ceremony with her. She picked out some tea for us to try and then we sat and talked for nearly an hour with her. She kept pouring more cups of tea for us. Half way through I wondered if we were going to have to pay for this tea, but we didn’t have to. We ended up buying tea from her and she didn’t even rip us off. It was a good experience.  

After going to Maliandao, we went to a hutong (胡同). A hutong is a narrow street or alley in China. Hutongs were established in the Yuan Dynasty. In the 20th century, many hutongs were being destroyed in Beijing to make room for new roads. However, recently there has been a push to preserve them. The hutong we went to is called Nanluoguxiang (南锣鼓巷). This one is a popular tourist attraction. I tried a potato tower while there. It was a stack of potato chips on a stick that had mayonnaise on it. It was actually pretty good. It’s cool to see traditional buildings in the center of Beijing. I definitely want to go to another hutong soon.  

Finally, I went to the Summer Palace (颐和园). The Summer Palace was the imperial garden during the Qing Dynasty. It is full of palaces, lakes, and gardens. There is a huge lake called Kunming Lake that is absolutely beautiful. I went with my Chinese friend Yihui who was my tour guide. She was an excellent tour guide that told me some of the history of the Summer Palace. A lot of it was destroyed by the French and British but was renovated. The Summer Palace is huge, but the main attractions are Kunming Lake and the Longevity hall. I definitely think that the Summer Palace is better than the Forbidden City. It’s more beautiful. The Forbidden City has a lot of the same looking buildings that are different but they all look the same while the Summer Palace has got halls, but it also has gardens where you can relax and the beautiful lake. I think that’s what makes the Summer Palace stand out to me.  

再见 

马乐