Hutong Along

We arrived unscathed after the longest flight of our lives. There was no three-year-old boy to entertain constantly, and Beck made it 14 hours without whining, so overall, it was glorious.  Very, very long.  But glorious.

One family in our travel group was on the flight with us to Beijing.  They recognized us from the blog pictures.  It was really neat to meet a family on this end of the trip, as we won't meet the other five families until we all have been united with our adopted children.  They were also traveling with their oldest son, who was 9.  We shared our hopes for the coming week and were thrilled to know the boys would be buddies on the second half of our trip.  We likely won't run into them again until then.... but, I guess you never know.

Upon landing, Beck proclaimed how foggy it was!  That's not fog dude, that's smog.  A lot of it.

A make-shift taxi driver took us to our quirky, converted small hotel.  The Double Happiness Courtyard is in an old, traditional neighborhood called a Hutong, a series of alleys and small one-story cement homes and businesses that open to the narrow streets.  Hutongs are a crucial part of Beijing life.  They act as playgrounds for the neighborhood kids and as a place of social leisure and relaxation for the adults. There are no expensive toys or electronic devices filling these alleys, just kids folding newspapers into shapes and chasing each other through the nooks and crannies.  The adults sell fresh fish, fruit, and eggs while trying to keep the thousands of bicycles and mopeds from running over their flock. Simple, local families sharing life together...  There is real happiness in the air.  


Hutong life

Courtyard outside our room

Traditional furnishings inside