It actually felt cold this morning and for most of the day. It was in the 60s , cloudy, with a good breeze; the sun didn’t break through until late afternoon; probably one of the last few pleasant days in Beijing for a while. I walked to Jingshan Park today, then up the hill, down and around. The hill has a good view of Beijing, especially looking south at the Forbidden Palace and towards the west at Beihai.
There were a lot of peonies in bloom, but they are probably past their prime as summer is here. When I was walking around the park, I passed some sort of children’s center and heard the sounds of a boys’ choir singing from behind the gate and over the high brick walls. It could have been a recording being played on loudspeakers, for all I know, but it was nice to stop a while and listen. Maybe I should try to download some of those songs from the Chinese websites.Continuing west, I ventured into Beihai. At first, I thought it was no big deal; just a big lake with hundreds of paddle boats for tourists to rent, but I also walked into some of the gardens/pavilions that are on the north end of the lake.
They were pleasant and interesting; not as nice as the Chinese gardens in Shanghai and Hangzhou, but it made the trip into Beihai worthwhile. What wasn’t as pleasant was a group of old women right beside the walking path of the lake with a microphone and speakers, singing karaoke to some old Chinese songs. I guess you can never totally run away from kalaOK when you are in China. There were also some girls trying to get tourists to rent costumes to dress up as Emperors, princesses, etc. and have their pictures taken.I exited Beihai to the north and continued into Houhai. I’d been there before, but in the daylight that place looked particularly tacky with all the overpriced tourist bars lining those small lakes.
Exiting Houhai and walking back from the Gulou (Drum Tower), I passed right by a Vietnamese restaurant! There’s actually a Vietnamese restaurant back in Houhai, which I had known about from the last time I was there, but it’s in tourist central and has middling reviews, so the food has to be expensive and not so great. This other Vietnamese restaurant is right on the street. The sign says Pho at Beijing - Saigon Vietnamese Dishes (in Chinese). I didn’t have a chance to pass by in the evening to see how business is, but if enough people are interested and leave a comment, I might give it a visit to do a review.
