Drive By Attractions

I spend so much time with Tate and Lao Zhang in the car that I've decided I may as well take pictures along the ride. Here are a couple:

In old Beijing (meaning about 5-10 years ago) the city was made up of hutongs (pronounced who tong). A hutong is what you see below. People have their shop on the outside and they live in the inner court, on the inner side. The streets used to be lined with them. Now, most of them are destroyed in place of new construction, including the plot of land where Dan's building is located. Across the street from his building is the only lot of hutongs left in the area, owned by a government family who refuses to sell. The people must have some serious connections (what they call guan xi pronounced gwan she), or they would be gone. So there are a few streets of hutongs left. Most of them are shops and driving by it is hilarious because they sell a hodge podge of items from shop to shop. This one sells toilets.
This is the North side of the Forbidden City. We are two subway stops west of the Forbidden City and I still haven't toured it. I have been in there for two concerts at the Forbidden City Theatre. It is several miles long and wide, I'm just waiting for the right opportunity to take a tour. Outside of the South entrance, or main entrance, is a huge picture of General Mao where every Chinese citizen who comes to visit Beijing gets their picture taken. Across from The Forbidden City is Tiananmen Square where one day, hopefully tomorrow, Dan, Tate and I will go fly kites. That is the thing to do at the Square. Their are some serious-old-chinese-guy-kite-flyers there, I mean they have serious skill.