It has been raining for the last couple of days. This is actually a good thing as it cleaned up the air tremendously. It is an intermittent rain, mostly light, more on when it is not later.
We woke up later than usual and went to the dumpling shop for breakfast. We purchased our plane tickets to go to Qingdao on Tuesday. We then wandered thru the Wangfujing mall area and Tian'anmen before heading over to the Beijing Opera.
Of course, there was no direct subway or bus route to the theatre and we decided to walk. About 1/3 of the way there, it starts raining pretty hard. Bill forgot his umbrella, and I had a jacket with a.hood, so it worked out ok. It seemed we wandered for days! Especially so because of the rain. Along the way we wandered down a street with many interesting shops. Musical instruments, calligraphy needs, paper for calligraphy, cloth, incense, brushes for calligraphy. Each shop a little jewel. Too bad it was raining and we were tired or we would have stopped in.
After convoluted online directions, we finally made it to the theatre. It was in the Qianmen Hotel. A fading grande dame of yesteryear. Huge lobby, wide staircases, and this theatre. It was still raining when we arrived, and we decided that we were not going out in it to find food before the show. Luckily there was a hotel bar that did make a good perfect Manhattan. Bill's draft beer was a bit skunky but he switched to cans next.
This is a view from the lobby bar to one of the doors to the theatre.
We woke up later than usual and went to the dumpling shop for breakfast. We purchased our plane tickets to go to Qingdao on Tuesday. We then wandered thru the Wangfujing mall area and Tian'anmen before heading over to the Beijing Opera.
Of course, there was no direct subway or bus route to the theatre and we decided to walk. About 1/3 of the way there, it starts raining pretty hard. Bill forgot his umbrella, and I had a jacket with a.hood, so it worked out ok. It seemed we wandered for days! Especially so because of the rain. Along the way we wandered down a street with many interesting shops. Musical instruments, calligraphy needs, paper for calligraphy, cloth, incense, brushes for calligraphy. Each shop a little jewel. Too bad it was raining and we were tired or we would have stopped in.
After convoluted online directions, we finally made it to the theatre. It was in the Qianmen Hotel. A fading grande dame of yesteryear. Huge lobby, wide staircases, and this theatre. It was still raining when we arrived, and we decided that we were not going out in it to find food before the show. Luckily there was a hotel bar that did make a good perfect Manhattan. Bill's draft beer was a bit skunky but he switched to cans next.
This is one of the performers in the "best of" vignettes that were shown. As we left the theatre the rain was still coming down. We had a struggle to find a cab in the rain. We finally got one, and got home.
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