A Walk Through the HuTongs

Today was the first day of the National Holiday Week here in China. It recognized the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. My friends and I had the day off so we decided to walk through the traditional HuTong (courtyard homes) of Beijing.  Love seeing the life in the older neighborhoods.

                           This table, complete with stuffed tiger, was sitting in the middle of the street.

上海探险 (Adventures in Shanghai)

The Bund, Shanghai's economic hub during the British colonization.  This is the Bank of China building, the first Chinese owned bank building on the Bund.

The first hotel in Shanghai to have an elevator. The "place to stay" in the early 1900s.

Across from downtown Shanghai.

The Oriental Pearl Tower at night.

Shanghai skyline at night.  The Bund is across the river.

This is a baby-holder intricately hand-stitched by the Dong minority tribe in Southern China (in the Shanghai Museum).

The 1st currency in China. It was literally a coin in the shape of a shovel.  I believe these coins are from 300AD.

One of the stunning calligraphy scrolls I saw at the Shanghai Museum.

The Shanghai museum has pottery form 900BC.  I was so captivated by the intricate pottery work, this is the only piece I took a picture of.

At the Propaganda Poster Museum--me and Mao.

The Propaganda Museum had hundreds of original Mao busts from the Cultural Revolution.

Real dazhibao or "big character report" used to denounce a person during the Cultural Revolution.  The large, black characters over the smaller characters were written by the denounced person to defend themselves.

Needlepoint poster.

Sunday morning in the park is matchmaking time. Parents congregate in the park to find a spouse for the child.

Parents looking at ads trying to find a match for their child.