On 2 July the weather was so nice – and really hot – and I could not resist jumping on my red bike and going to explore the Wudaoying Hutong near the Lama Temple.
One excuse was I wanted to finally locate the well-known bike shop, NATOOKE, run by the also well-known German girl Ines Brunn (yes, also “an Old China Hand”!). She was the one to launch the now ubiquitous fixed gear bikes in Beijing, she is also an acrobat on wheels as she showed us in the 2014 Rotary Ball.
The bikes are cool but I still prefer a more “work-horse” type allowing me to transport a lot of stuff, in the front and in the back. And with fenders to protect against water and mud when it rains.

There is a lot to explore in the hutongs there. Many shops, coffee shops, restaurants.
Besides the Lama Temple (with the shops selling the tools to pray in the temple!) there is also the Confucian Temple and Imperial College Museum (I still have to visit…).
I really need to explore more all those hutongs. There also some rather mysterious buildings there, not sure what they are but they look like VIP meeting places. I will need Chinese friends to figure that out… Few signs however to figure it out. They can ask the guards at least.