Dengcao Hutong BEIJING
Travel is like this. Wake up weary. Still a day to go before the last push to Country #100. Then Home. Weary. But this is today. A little homemade (Nescafe and the hot water tap) coffee and the slow walk to breakfast. Not so much enthusiasm for this day. Is it gray because of being overcast generally or what percentage is smog? I’ll think most is overcast from real clouds and that way I’ll love it.
Spinach dumplings for breakfast, many other items but I am focused on the spinach dumplings. Two bowls, orange juice, good coffee with cream. Still weary though.
Love my room with its big bed and crisply-sheeted large duvet. But I cannot stay in bed all day. On almost the last day of this trip that thought is quite travel-unseemly. Also I have the perfect wrap-up for this time in China. The Dengcao Hutong. Where I stayed for four days.
There aren’t so many old fashioned hutongs left I’m told. Small living spaces, small shops, small gardens, so intimately and quietly livable. Still today there is real life going on here.
So I walk up and down my alley, the Dengcao Hutong. Slowly. Smile. Nod. Pet the white cat. Gesture permission to take photos of the goldenest greasiest crispiest strips of frying dough.
Intense little garden this smiley hutong dweller has. Flowers I haven’t seen before. Not exotic, just small and exquisite. Maybe China is a place of small and exquisite among the big and gray.
I’ve just been walking down a hutong in Beijing, China. Could my life actually be any better?
This is the real China I think. Not the weapons and all the bs from the leaders….we have so many authentic american places like this…without the weapons and bs from the leaders…and want to be leaders. This neighborhood likes nice. That is the side of China that appeals to me…not the new china.