Usually children are extremely well dressed and all the great attention the grown ups give to them at all times illustrates, how much importance Chinese families give to their only child, especially if it is a boy. 

Also old people stand out. While younger people are dressed in the latest Western fashion and carry all the attributes of Western-style success including mobile phones, old people still wear the well-known blue Mao uniforms. We get the impression that China is evolving from a class-less society towards a two-class society of Western-style entrepreneurs and Communist-style have-nots.  

However, even more fascinating than visiting the world-famous monuments is observing the Chinese in their daily life. We walk through the narrow streets called hudongs of the old quarter and watch the buzzling street life, the small houses, shops and food stalls. 

Several signposted public toilets illustrate that most houses still lack bathrooms. We are amused to see that little children wear trousers that are open in the back - even in these cold winter days.

We see a lot of pensioners sitting together in street corners or parks for a chat or a game of mahjong. Usually they have bird cages with them that have been placed in a sunny spot to make the birds sing in the winter sun. The affection of the Chinese for birds also becomes evident, when we visit the Saturday market. Surrounded by lively arguing pensioners, hawkers offer an amazing number and variety of birds at the entrance while further down the market everything from Chinese medicine to household goods is on sale.

The cold weather finally forces us into a tea house,. It takes us some time to figure out the order procedure and select among an impressive range of cookies and tea variations, but then we enjoy the tranquility of the place all afternoon. 

The great importance of tea for the Chinese is demonstrated by two girls dressed in traditional costumes who perform a tea ceremony and play traditional instruments. They go through a complicated procedure that involves a great number of cans and cups while a third woman explains every step in Chinese. We can only guess what happens, but we enjoy it anyway.

Communication remains difficult for us. Very few people we meet speak English and most restaurants don't have English menues. Needless to say that we always make good entertainment for the Chinese guests, especially when we try to cope with the chopsticks. We order by either pointing at other people's food or choosing at random from the menu (we choose medium prized dishes from the second and third paragraph because the first could be starters). 
The concept works pretty well for us, but several times we are in for surprises. One time after a long day out in the cold, the waiter comes with a steamy pot of soup. When he puts it down on the table, we see chopped chicken heads floating to the surface. We don't even try...
As a result we go to McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken a lot more often than we actually wanted to.