后海 - Houhai

Saturday outing with Hubby - a walk at Houhai area. It started off with a lazy morning at home, breakfast in bed. We went to Houhai area around 2pm, to a place called 南锣鼓巷 (Nanluogu Xiang). This is one of the famous hutongs (back lane / alley) which has been in existence for more than 700 years. It has now turned into a thriving streets of bars, cafes and boutiques of art & crafts.

Here are some pictures taken at Nanluogu Xiang:









We continued our journey through Gulou Dajie, and at the corner of the streets, we saw a lot of foreigners walking out from a lane. We took a turn into the lane to see what's in store. There were 2 tourist attractions there, Drum Tower and Bell Tower. Doesn't look interesting to us so we did not enter.



We continued walking down Di'Anmen Dajie and saw the long queue here... we took a peek at whats selling and it seems like some kinda bread or pastry. Heard it was one of the famous pastry, but could not understand why people queue such a long queue. Maybe it's really good.



Continue walking down Di'Anmen and we saw a lake. This is Qianhai (前海).


There are many people swimming in the lake! This is the first time I see people swimming in a public recreational lake area and I thought it was pretty dangerous as it was deep, dirty and there was no lifeguard.


We continued our journey to the street opposite the lake and arrived at the famous bar street, Houhai. We saw something interesting here; this bird was trained to place RMB1 into the piggy bank. It only choses RMB1. Many passersby tossed 50 and 10 cent coins and it refuses to perform! Cute! Really smart!



Here are some of the bars at Houhai, preparing for a busy Saturday night. It was still early and not really crowded yet. We saw a nice Thai restaurant with tables by the lake, but unfortunately, we were not hungry. Maybe next time. I would really love to have Thai food sitting by the lakeside.



Me and Hubby were really tired after the long walk. We should have taken the rickshaw. Anyway, it was a good walk under the great weather. I shall visit 北海 (Beihai) in my next Beijing by Foot adventure.