Last weekend, two friends and I decided to spend the day exploring some of Beijing's back streets.
My friend suggested we check out the area right behind her apartment that is right next to Sanlitun Village. Sanlitun Village is a relatively new and affluent area where many tourists go do brand name shopping and eat western food. The area we went to, 幸福二村 (roughly translates into happiness village), is just a 2 minute walk around the corner from the last street that is part of Sanlitun Village yet you would never think it even existed. Walking through the maze of little alleys, you never know when you're accidentally walking into someone's house...(I'm serious...it happened a few times).
Next we went to the 鼓楼 (Gu Lou, Drum Tower). After climbing the steepest staircase of my entire life, we were greeted by a great view. We were also very luck that it was one of those rare smogless days! We waited around for a bit to see the drum performance. It was good but I couldn't help but be distracted by the main drummers massive wedgie.
Obviously I took several a picture.
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| Zoom in to Hou Hai, where we went next |
Our last destination was 后海 (Hou Hai, litteral translation is back sea...i think they meant lake but wtv).
This is a typical night spot and I'm sure I will be blogging about that aspect later on in my trip but this time we were there during the day and explored some of the back streets that tourists don't seem to wander off into.
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| The famous Beijing squat. Btw you can see one of the main tourist streets in the back, surprising nobody really turns onto this one. |
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| CUTEST DOG EVARRRR |
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| These two little girls look cute and innocent. They're not. One of them spat at us and told us to get lost. ouch. |
Last but not least, it was a hot hot day. I guess people go through extreme means just to shade themselves a bit...
...it's a big leaf...
