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When restaurants serve dog, what does one pick up at the local Pet Smart to replace rover? Why a cricket, of course! And these aren't just your avearge run-of-the-mill crickets. These are monster crickets. And crickets aren't just popular pets in China; they're also considered very lucky. One other piece of trivia: Cricket fighting is popular throughout China...and they eat crickets, too. That'll teach 'em to lose those cricket matches! |
Today was full of lectures. This morning we heard more about health issues in China, specifically AIDS and HIV, while the afternoon was spent at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. I won't bore you with those details, I have better things to tell you.
During our lunch break today, we made a group run to the China Post. It was pretty funny to see all of these Americans standing in line to mail things to the states. They have a different system than in the U.S. First, you stand in line and the clerk takes your items and packs them in a box. She then wraps the edges with tape and puts packing straps around the box. After you pay her for that service - which, by the
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Locals have a saying about the number of Hutongs in Beijing: "There are 360 large hutongs and as many small hutongs as there are hairs on an ox." |
way - is not optional, you get the package weighed. There are three options: Air mail, surface mail, and a combo of air and surface. The combo seemed like the most reasonable way to get my box to America but it was twice as much money as surface mail, so I sent my box surface mail. I hear I should get to Indiana the first week of September...maybe. As soon as I was on the bus I was happy to know that I did not have to lug the stuff around. Then I realized that my souvenirs for some are in that box. Oops. Some people will have to wait to get their special Chinese treat.
Great news today! The teen I met at the Dandelion School, Zhange, passed her high school exam. She also received the highest score at the Dandelion School. The wonderful principal there pulled some strings to allow some of the students to take the high school entrance exam and she passed. I am so proud of her and happy that she sent me an e-mail with the news. She is hoping to get into high school and I would like to see if I can help as well. I will be emailing the principal today.
Let me tell you a little more about a Hutong. Hutongs are like subdivisions...BIG subdivisions. They are laid out so that the houses have only small spaces in
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Meet Mr.Wang. He and his wife own a hutong in Beijing, and graciously opened their home to our invading group so that we could see what life is like in a hutong. |
between them for protection and they connect to each other. Each separate Hutong is closed in with walls. Inside each are four connected buildings filling in each angle, with a courtyard in the middle. The Hutongs are then closed off from the outside by a wooden gate. Down the streets of the Hutong you will see people riding bicycles, selling rice, or collecting items for recycling. The entire area can also be closed off from the rest of the city if need be by a single gate. In the old days the gate would open at 5 a.m. with a signal from a bell rung from a huge bell tower. At night, before the gate would close, a drum could be heard from the drum tower. Hutongs are being demolished in Beijing to make way for large buildings and apartment complexes, but this one was being saved after some bad publicity about China tearing down the Beijing Hutongs. All for now; it's time to call it a night.