Lama, Confucius, pearls and (again) great food!

Day 10

Beijing. Breakfast in the hotel, disappointingly cold zhou.

A walk out, initially undecided about where to go, but lack of a taxi forced long walk towards metro, and had Lama and Confucius Temples in mind. Walked a long way, and eventually only one stop on the metro.

Both temples peaceful, one intensely religious, the other not. Both relatively uncrowded, and very easy to relax. Loved the ferocious tortoises carrying stone tablets in the CT, also the wonderful very gnarly, very old pine trees.

Realised how easy it would be to get from Yonghegong to the metro stop for the Hongqiao Pearl Market, just ten stops all the way to Tiantandongmen station - just had to count my pennies to cover the massive cost of 2Y (20p). Metro so much cleaner than the London Underground; trains mostly behind sliding doors, but crowded.

Good to watch the pearl string knotters knotting strings of pearls; achieved the required shopping list for Dan, and a couple more bits and pieces. Then found, easily, a great taxi driver who knew the short cuts all the way back to the hotel.

Dinner again with T, tired initially but second wind came from somewhere...

We ate:

   Bitter gourds

   Silky gourds

   Bean curd with peanuts

   A whole sweet and sour fish, filleted, and cut to give spikes of fish, and lightly battered

   A crunchy bony cubed chicken dish, with chilli, spring onions, Sichuan peppercorns giving the amazing 'ma' flavour, peppers and some sort of noodle

   Lotus root, with lily bulbs, wood-eared mushrooms, mange-tout peas and gingko fruits

A veritable feast!

We talked about...

...well, lots of things.

New business venture aim, to encourage awareness of the hidden water usage of commodities - ' That all humankind should respect the value of water'.

Vey sad to say farewell to Tim, but he left me with a Chinese painting of persimmons to remind me of the luscious persimmon picnic by the lake in the Summer Palace, and, to ensure I'm not entirely 'Bereft in Beijing', a whole host of written menu suggestions for the next few days.

I think I have the tools to survive!