In Beijing Day 1 - Hutong tour

Beautiful people, beautiful scenery, beautiful city... We are so lucky to be able to experience what Beijing is all about, without even going to the Olympic parks we have seen some very beautiful parts. We weren't sure what we wanted to do today since we had left it opened to relax and recoupe from the jetlag but as we were in the lobby we felt so alive (besides a pain in the a... cold I caught on the plane) and so ready to go that we looked into any type of tour we could do... and then Joe remember the "Hutang tour" yeah!!! good choice, the door man got us a cab and we were on our way. As soon as we got there we were approached by the Hutang tour people and we gladly accepted with a little reservation since we had no clue where we were. But after paying and getting our own little rickshaw and our own guide who rode her own bike along our rickshaw we knew we had made the right decision. We went around all different hutangs (which means streets or roads), there are all sort of hutangs, very narrow, narrow, little wider and wider, there are temples and courtyard homes. We pretty much stopped every time we wanted to take pictures and do a little shopping. We visited the Drum Tower and the Bell tower, pretty amazing these were used to make people aware when they needed to get up (at 6 am with the Bell which was heard throughtout the city) and the Drum Tower to tell them to stop working (6pm) and to go home. If they didn't go home the gates of the city would be closed with them in them without being able to go home.... It's 6pm right now and we are done for the day... enjoy the pictures