The dimly lit alley
David wiscked us to our hotel in a private minibus, while giving us tourist tidbits and historical information about Beijing on the way. After freshening up and getting a chance to exchange currency, we walked behind our hotel for a traditional Schechuan dinner. We entered a beautiful restaurant with the typical Chinese décor and were ushered thru and to the back door. There, we found that we had been thrown back into a more traditional China. This was the stuff I saw in dubbed Chinese movies.

We walked thru a dimly lit, very narrow alley, semi covered with corrugated tin roof. The eaves drops were lined with big tasseled red rice paper lanterns and what looked like Christmas lights. We entered a small and very cozy private room. The group was seated in a big round table that took up most of the space. In the middle of the table, there was a very large glass lazy susan.