..Completely different atmosphere than in the modern city. Small streets, dark corners and whole areas unlit, I was walking there on Sunday evening, it was the first night of my stay it was really freezing. Strange atmosphere, other passers-by were also bitterly cold, silent, rushing to their place; no one was bothering to stop me with touristic things. I walked it for about an hour then ended up in a small cafe in its heart, selected a meal (vegetables and some meat which turned out to be almost inedible for me.. but I chose it so I was struggling with it for a while before giving up). The locals were apparently enjoying their meal - slices of thick bacon, fat skin and chops of pig tail etc. :)
As I looked quite frozen, the guys at the next table offered me almost immediately something like Slivovice to pour into my fruit juice... and they were quite friendly, me being the only stranger in the cafe. They also offered me their meat.. which I could not refuse.., so for the first time I was trying out pig tail.. just a tiny bit.. :)We started communicating -- me in Czech, them in Chinese, this whole story ended up translating from Russian by a guy who joined us and who lived in Russia for some time in the 80s. So just sitting with a couple of locals on a freezing night in a hutong in the heart of Beijing...
Hutongs - narrow streets typical for Beijing still about 20-30 years ago. Now they disappear very fast due to the construction megalomania embracing the highly ambitious and awaited year 2008.
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