Today an easy day…. Hectic start and anticipated early 5am start and busy 2 days in Pingyao coming up
Visited the Cloisonné Museum. Very quiet. There were 3 floors, historic display museum floor, shop and “factory” floor, and shop floor
It was interesting if you like cloisonne but presentation a little sterile. Some pieces are huge, and even sensible sized pieces £500 to £5000
What was interesting for us is memories of our previous visit 35yrs ago to “a” Cloisonne” factory (I think same brand/different location) and the pieces we bought back then now selling for £2-500 each. Must look up how they polish them!!!
I wanted to take photos of the “artisans” at work but it was Sunday and the boss wasn’t in, so there was lots of phone study time
We then went “walkabout” in the suburbs. Clearly not as polished as central/tourist/commercial district but interesting in its own way. Quieter, smaller shops, lots of intestinal meat stalls! Somehow reminded me of parts of Hanoi???
Some general/random thoughts on Beijing
I rather liked it from a very skewed perspective
It feels quite mature, very little construction works on skyline etc
Traffic was busy but manageable (except no idea of junction and zebra crossing etiquette
Saw three (minor) prangs, clearly EV driving aids are not infallible!
Lots of “Boris” bikes, and electric scooters mostly segregated into their own lane but now mostly orientated to cars
Do not come on holiday periods, they have a lot of people seeking relaxation
Mid April probably peak blossom time (whole month)
There a lot of police primarily functioning as traffic police, especially in the central districts
There are a huge number of cameras around, official or private? I cannot imagine how they can monitor all of them, maybe there “just in case”
Apps – Alipay just works mostly (we didn’t always!) WeChat worked OK but not quite so transparently, Didi for taxis worked well but sometimes had small post-hoc adjustments, payment confirmation sometimes delayed til later or you get reminders before you can book again
People: maybe a bit stress en mass, like busy streets but when 1:1 we found them universally friendly nice and helpful
(Apple) translate works pretty well but most “retail” locals have their own translation app