Along Tuenjiehu Lu, the main street near my flat, sometimes large sometimes small groups of old and young men play mahjong. There seem to be regular pick ups of street hawkers by the cops here too. Today I saw a group of tree fellers cycling the parts of the tree away on their tricycles-come-carts – four of them, each carrying a large weighty stump of tree and branches. A lot of work is still done manually, without the use of large machines. In a tourist office in Sanlitun, I asked about sightseeing tour information – but none to be had! No bus map either. In a local hotel, quite small, no English was spoken, and the only tour information was in Chinese. I am getting more reluctant to use the taxi drivers here as they do not know locations much out of their own experience – maps and written instructions in Chinese are of little help, so you have to rely on your wits. Sometimes you simply have to get out of the taxi and hope the next driver knows more, or phone a friend on your mobile who speaks Chinese and ask them to help….
People tend to stare around here at Tuanjiehu but I find a big smile and Ni Hao goes a long way and people grin back. I am quite surprised that this is happening in the capital city. Some people even push their kids towards me so they can photograph us together – and some kids rightly protest!
