Wednesday: Bejing Departure

While the others in our tour group had to wake up in the wee hours to catch their flight to Xian, Misterpiggy had the luxury of sleeping in and having a relaxed breakfast before packing and checking out from the hotel.

Tour Guide Adam was napping in the hotel lobby, and he woke in time to summon a taxi cab to the airport. It was nice that he accompanied Misterpiggy to the airport and dutifully saw him through the departure gate. Bye bye Adam Weaver and Beijing!

Tuesday: Hutong Alleys

Upon arrival at the Hutong Alleys, the tour bus was met by a local tour guide.  The tour of the alleys was by rickshaw so everybody picked a bicycle rickshaw from all the ones parked by the bus.  It was exciting to see all the bicycles all taking off, except that Misterpiggy's was not moving because the chain had fallen off the bike.  It took about ten minutes for the rickshaw driver to fix the bike, but the rest of the tour group bikes had already left.  One would think that the tours had a fixed route, but the rickshaw driver got lost riding around the alleys and there was no sign of the tour group.  The rickshaw driver had to return to the starting point to ask for help.  By the time the tour group was located, the tour was almost over!  Needless to say, Misterpiggy didn't get too many pictures of the Hutong Alleys.

Monday: Peking Opera

Today, after dinner, we were taken to the Peking Opera house to watch some performers, although we had no idea what they were saying. Lots of screeching from the actors and dook-dook-chang from the orchestra. The costumes were very colourful though.