May 25

Drove to the Hutong district of Beijing. Hutongs are narrow streets/alleys, bordered by old homes, and the area of them that is left is not allowed to be demolished (historical preservation purposes). They’re mostly government owned, and people rent them out. We took those bicycle cabs (rickshaws?) through the small streets. It was lovely weather (finally a blue sky, not as smoggy). We stopped and went into the home of a little lady, where she answered random questions and talked about her life a little (through an interpreter). Then more rickshaw ride. A little walk brought us to the Drum Tower (every city seems to have one). We walked up that, watched a little drum show, took some pictures. Then back to the buses, and on to lunch.

Peking Duck dinner, which I was looking forward to because I like duck. The dishes before it weren’t too phenomenal, but not too bad. The duck was rather oily, but still a good flavor. Then they showed up with the duckheads which freaked a few people out. Great photo op though.

Later that night, I finally stopped in the hotel bar (most people have been spending their nights in there). The little cover band was amusing, and I definitely have video footage of our class president doing karaoke. I didn’t go out afterwards with the others, because we have to leave at 5:45 in the morning, and while I’m sure Katie’s opinion would be “you only live once” my opinion is that “you only live once, you might as well not make yourself miserable”. Needless to say, they didn’t return until 4 am and a few of them almost didn’t make the flight (and most were miserable during it).