We felt pretty proud of ourselves for jumping in and navigating the subway….and yes there are tons of people surrounding us and pointing and laughing.
In the subway it was pretty crowded, so I didn't take many pictures- I was protecting my stuff from pick pockets...
Although we navigated the subway perfectly, we were unable to find the Tea Street shops that we wanted to visit at the XISI subway stop. Chinese maps always seem to be a bit incomplete with misspelled street names or missing streets….so we decided take a break from sightseeing to stroll through a hutong and grab an afternoon snack and beer at a local restaurant.
Hutong bikes
Spicy pickles??? Yum!
We Meet the Mario Andretti of Rickshaw Drivers
Again, finding a cab at certain times could be no easy task so we were luckily approached by a random guy riding an unmarked rickshaw who said he would take us to Beihai Park for 40 RMB (which is a total rip off by the way). Since our legs and feet were dead tired from our adventures we bargained him down to 20 RMB and he motioned for us to hop into the gypsy rickshaw. Moments later we realized the error of getting into the rickshaw- this guy was biking at full speed from street to street, almost took out a pedestrian (which nearly knocked us out of our seats), and then speed up into oncoming traffic. Once we reached our destination and he asked to be paid, I realized that I only had a 100 RMB bills. He of course had no change, so I gave him 17 RMB and waited for him to completely freak out on us for short changing him. Thankfully, he recognized our rock star American tourist qualities and allowed us to go on our way with our 3 yuan discount.
Beihai Park
Dinner at Chaoyang Park - A fabulous traditional Beijing meal & a Fodor's Choice!
Deep fried vinegar peanuts are a recipe that I will be learning as soon as I get home...
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