Ok, I have no idea if I've spelled that correctly, but that's what it sounded like. This was an area of Beijing where we went, and it was a very poor looking section of the city. However, the house that we visited was from a family that was rather well off in comparison to most. This woman invited us to come into her home, and she was so cute - served us homemade candy and tea right when we walked in the door. She was so proud to tell us her story. This house had been passed down for 4 generations. The stone floor that we were standing on had been there 100 years ago, and she told us the home was very fung sh(how ever you say that) sounds like fung-shway, but I know that's not how you spell it. Her house was built on the dragon or something like that, so the government will never do anything to their home so as to not disrupt this.
Most of the homes are owned by the state, so if they want to do any renovations to their homes, they have to get permission and sometimes they will even receive funds to help with the work. Typically there is one courtyard, a shared kitchen and bathroom, and off of the courtyard are several "homes." A home is just a living area, like a little living room, and a bedroom or two. So, if they have to go to the bathroom when it's freezing cold in the middle of the night, they have to bear the cold or hold it. She told us the children from the families who share the courtyard become like brothers and sisters.
This family, however, because they were well off, built their own bathroom and kitchen because they didn't want to share with others, but you still had to cross the courtyard to get to it. You can see the picture inside of the living room, of the couryard, and the kitchen. She is the lady with the purplish jacket. She had one daughter and was an only child herself. She said her mom told her not to have anymore children because they would fight, so instead she has 7 cats, dreadful. To the left of the door was a cage with 4 enormous grasshoppers (one was sleeping shall we say), but these too were their family pets, along with several birds that were living in the courtyard.
Even as we walked the streets to get to the house, people come up to you and put watches, chopsticks, dolls, anything in your face to try to get you to buy something. I need to learn how to say "I didn't bring any money with me" in Chinese. You feel so badly for them, but they say you can't start to interact or people will come out of nowhere.
What a lesson this was for Tori. I don't think she will ever forget, nor will I.
