Beijing Mornings

We have been waking up pretty early given the jetlag.  I am typically up between 4-5 as are my teaching pals.  So we hop out of bed, throw on the shoes and set out to explore, work out and take in some Tai Chi.  

This is the scene out of my window at 4:30 am.

Bikes are everywhere.  You can rent them too.

Dogs are well taken care of here and many people have them as pets.  You do not see many stray dogs roaming the streets or neighborhoods. 

 Typical morning scene.  Everyone is just waking up and cleaning up from the night before.  Most of this street has restaurants where people socialize, listen to music and hang out with friends at night.  In the morning you can see restaurants open, people cooking dumplings and noodles that they will serve for breakfast. 

 The streets start to get crowded with a lot of these.  It is the dump truck of scooters.

 I was surprised to see that most people park right on the sidewalk.  There are actually no cars parked on the street.

 There are millions of little alleyways like this all over Beijing.  A number of families will live in each alley.  They form a tight knit community and everyone knows everyone's business. 

 Work starts early.  This man was welding something as I passed.

 Many people take these motorized scooter cabs to and from work.  They may opt to bike.  China has the largest number of new car owners in the world.  However, if you live here and want to buy a car, you must send in your name to the government.  The government picks about 2,000 people per month who will receive permission to buy a car.  This is the case only in Beijing, not all of China.
All car owners have one day of the week that they are not allowed to drive their car.  This is done for traffic and pollution control.  For example, if your license plate ends in a 1 or a 6 you cannot drive on Mondays.  Ends in 2 or 8, Tuesdays, etc.  The days you cannot drive also change every 3 months and rotate.  If you are caught driving on days you aren't supposed to you can be fined and points deducted from  your license. 

 There are many areas like this throughout the city for children to ride on these creepy cartoon rides.

 All sidewalks and streets are swept by hand with brooms like this every morning.

 Mini cars are popular here.

 There are numerous parks or central courtyards in neighborhoods where people gather in the mornings.

 Down the street is one such park.  Most parks I have seen have these types of exercise equipment on them.  The majority of people I see working out are the elders.  All movements are done to increase mobility, stretch and roll out muscles.   My roomie and I went down to try it out and low and behold, we had the company of our fellow travelers who were just as curious. 

We ended out time here with a bit of Tai chi that we did with some women.  Hopefully this video may upload to show you what you can see in virtually every park every morning in Beijing.  The internet here can be a bit on the slow side.  I shall try.

 

 After working out we headed back to our hotel.  This is the front entrance to where we are staying, The Jiangxi Grand Hotel. 

 Many people cage in their outdoor porch and make it a large birdcage for pigeons.  Terrible idea.

 These are dragon fruits.  The colors are amazing. 

Back at the hotel was breakfast which for me consisted of dried bananas, cucumber, cabbage, egg, carrots, pumpkin and congee which is like a porridge.