Day 6: The Forbidden City & Alice’s Tea House

Tea House Alice and me.

It was Saturday morning, our first full day in Beijing. The first thing we needed was coffee, so Larry and I went to check out the restaurant at the Far East Hotel.

At the entrance of the restaurant was an aquarium of large goldfish – the kind with the fat cheeks. And just past the aquarium we found an honest-to-goodness Western-style breakfast buffet for $50 Chinese Yuan, or just over $7 U.S. dollars. I’d had a hard time finding any kind of milk in China that wasn’t thickened and sweetened. This buffet had real milk, and espresso! We were quite happy with all of that.

Our plan that day was to see Mao Tse-Tung's Tomb and the Forbidden City. The line to Mao’s Tomb was incredibly long. We decided to skip it even after one official (we think) was telling us that for a little cash, we could budge the line. I won’t write about the Forbidden City, except to say that the one thing I found very interesting was the Hall of Clocks and Watches that contained ornate clocks that were gifts to the emperors. The Forbidden City is huge and takes a long time to see.

It was a day of much walking, so we stopped for refreshments at the Sakura Bar/Restaurant/Hostel that was down the street from our hotel. A few beers and a small pizza later, we decided it was time for real food and found another small restaurant for our evening meal. As we sauntered back to our hotel we decided to check out a tea house that was still open. Inside, we were greeted with a “hello” and a smile from Alice, the proprietor of Alice’s Tea House. Her shop contains many kinds of tea, tea cups, handmade tea pots, and other items. In Beijing some of the shopkeepers know a little English, but Alice was very fluent. She was such a delight to talk with, and was so warm and welcoming that we stayed quite a while and chatted.

If you go to Beijing: Alice’s Tea House, or Tea House Alice, is 50 meters east of the Far East Hotel. Her address is: 93 Tie Shu Xie Jie Xuan Wu District.

Wyatt was working on scheduling a trip to the Great Wall, but we were exhausted from our day at the Forbidden City. Tomorrow: A play day in the hutongs!

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