Day 11: Distilleries, Warehouses, and Fragrant Hill

 Another crazily long and busy day! Unfortunately it was also our last day doing sightseeing. But we started the morning at a brisk 7am with breakfast and hit the road to the outskirts of Beijing for two company visits. The names are hard to pronounce, type, and remember, but the first one was an alcohol distillery and the second was an advanced economically friendly window distributer.

 

The alcohol distillery visit began with a lesson in the surprisingly long history of the importance of alcohol in China. We learned that Confucius is considered to be the “master of drinking” in Chinese history! After that, we tested some high proof alcohol and for whatever reason, the tour guide gave me another tester. Anyways, we moved on and saw the bottling process, which was a super depressing production line where women were just putting labels on and tightening the lids. Again we tested a REALLY high proof and putrid alcohol that had been distilled for 15 years. The good news is, I think somewhere on the way down my throat, it killed whatever sore throat I had. Our second company visit was also really cool and hands-on because after a brief history, we got to go directly into the warehouse and watch the process of the window making.

 

We had lunch with some representatives of the companies afterwards at a traditional Chinese restaurant. I was once again surprised to find that the food was already on the table in a family-serving style when we walked in. The food was pretty good and I especially liked the sweet potatoes and some sort of Chinese root with blueberry drizzle overtop.

 

After lunch, we went back to the hotel and got changed for our trip to the Fragrant Hill, which was more of a mountain. The girls decided to take a cable car up the steep incline (no regrets about that one at all) and it was a beautiful view! As we got higher up the hill though, the wind picked up and was crazily swaying the cars but I thought it added another element of authenticity and craziness to the experience.

 

More observations:

 

1.            Cars pass other cars from the inside right shoulder on the highway and

that seems to be acceptable.

2.            There is a ton of feral dogs around. Actually, it’s tough to

distinguish sometimes because most dogs that have owners don’t even have a leash on. They’re super loyal to their owners and it’s adorable.

3.            It’s hard to tell whether Beijing has the best or worst drivers I’ve

ever seen. They’re dreadful because they don’t abide by laws which makes for a frightening driving experience, but on the other hand, there are virtually no accidents- so they must be doing SOMETHING right.

4.            It’s really windy here! Most of the times when I look out the window,

the trees are bent over in hurricane fashion. Apparently that’s how spring usually is though.

5.            Babies/small children’s pants just have an open bottom and they don’t

wear diapers. Still trying to figure out the logic in that one.

6.            Beijing is ENORMOUS. From our crazy view at the top of Fragrant Hill,

you could look all the way to the left and all the way to the right and it’s still Beijing. There’s no skyline either, just skyscrapers everywhere and anywhere.

 

Chill day tomorrow, just one company visit and a trip to the Silk Market.