Hutong Tour and birthday party

This morning, we and several other families took in an optional Hutong Tour. A Hutong is a traditional Chinese neighbourhood (actually, the word is Mongolian for a water well as we were told). I think at one time there were over 5,000 Hutongs in Beijing but they are being demolished and the people relocated to make way for high rises. Anyway, the Hutong we visited is one that will be preserved for tourists to visit. It is a maze of little streets as all the houses in the hutong are arranged in a quandrangle with a common courtyard. Sometimes, fifteen or more families will share a courtyard. Its a curious blend of the old and new as the alleys and courtyards seem old, yet many of the houses have electricity, air conditioning, telephone and tv's!!. On one hand you can see and old man peddling wild garlic from his bicycle and in another you can see young boys riding modern bmx bikes listening to mp3 players (weird).

We toured the hutong by rickshaw (we've never been in one before but it was quite comfortable - although the drivers are like car drivers in Beijing - crazy and fearless). We had a local guide for the tour and he took us to one of the more impressive homes in the hutong, which belongs to a man renowned for raising grasshoppers and crickets. Apparently, the grasshoppers are raised for their song and the crickets for sport fighting. Cricket fighting is a big gambling sport and we were told that on occasion up to US$100,000 has been bet on a cricket fight (can't really see TSN covering that one!!!).

After the hutong tour, we visited the Bell Tower of Beijing and had a tea tasting on the ground floor (we had jasmine tea, oolong tea and lychee tea with dried rose petals).

In the afternoon, Daddy and Stephanie headed out to the Beijing zoo. It is huge although the animals do not seem to be as well treated as in North America. In fact, animal rights activists probably would not be too thrilled with the Beijing zoo. The most impressive part of the zoo was the aquarium, which featured many exotic fish in huge tanks (including an escalator type walkway in a tunnel through the tank (you could see stingrays and galapagos turtles swimming around you - very impressive).

During this time, mommy stayed home with Sophie (Sophie napped). The big treat tonight was that one of the babies had her first birthday, so all of the families met in the hall outside their room for pizza and cake (and beer for the parents :). It was so cute to have all the babies on blankets in the hall (probably one of the last times they will all be together).

We're back in the room now and the kids are asleep (it seems strange saying kids in the plural). We got Sophie's visa stamp and Canadian immigration documents, so now all the paperwork is done. Tomorrow is a free day but some of us are going to do some last minute shopping at a local mall (we have to get an extra suitcase just to bring home the stuff we bought). For the grand finale tomorrow night, all of the families are going out for Peking Duck - a tradition with the adoptive families group.

It is with mixed feelings that we come to the end in China. We are getting very homesick, yet at the same time we feel incredibly fortunate to have had such an amazing experience, and a little sad that we are leaving Sophie's birth country.

We'll try to post once more tomorrow night and then it will be quiet on the blog front until we get home.

Miss you all,

Chris, Caroline, Stephanie and Sophie.

P.S. Chantale, you had asked what Sophie's measurements are. She is quite petite about 59 cm long and weighing 6.4 kg. She is wearing clothing of 6-9 months and some of that is big on her. She was swimming in Stephanie's 6 month outfit :)