Crowd of crowds!

Anyone know the collective noun for crowd? It’s constantly been on my mind since we arrived in Beijing-well, we did arrive on Workers Day! So I have come up with Crowd of crowds! And my goodness, have we been in a constant crowd of crowds! And it hasn’t been hard at all-the Beijingers (is that right?-) are really well mannered, unpushy and very friendly.
So a few highlights-The Forbidden City with a very knowledgeable guide was a real treat-wonderful buildings, wonderful space and built according to true feng shui prinicples, and of course The Great Wall -humbling experience to stand on the top and marvel at how and when it was built - but so far the highlight has to be dinner at my friend Mimi’s parents. Besides our quite hysterically funny taxi ride to their home in 1 of the few hutongs left in Beijing, it was a veritable feast! It was Sunday night and 13 dishes later, yes 13! And each better than the one before. I wish I would’ve written all the dishes down but I do remember loving the dish of tofu done in different ways we had for starters, tofu and egg dish, the cabbage dish, little fish which I thought were anchovies, and Alan’s best was the beef dish and of course the duck which was so tender it was cut it off the bone with a spoon!
Our latest passion is pottery and we were about to buy a few pieces of such innovative domesticware until thank goodness we realized this is just the beginning of our trip-how are we going to schlep it from here to
Israel, Europe and SF! We even had a flat white at Flat White Café in 789 Art District - funky, edgy and fantastic! Little galleries, big galleries, design stores, boutiques-you name it, it is there and lots of cafes!
And the architecture-loved the hutongs (traditional residential areas) but was awe-struck by some of the amazing modern buildings-my best The Opposite House designed by……art and arch united!
Modern Beijing side by side with the old Beijing but unfortunately, the modern is winning-at times I thought I was in Singapore. Loved all the old touches still visible if you look closely enough.
Oh, and did we ride the subways-even with the sea of people and it was a sea! -almost preferable to taxiing as the roads are packed and with the latest Audis, Vws, Buicks etc -all made locally in China and black is the new black in cars!
We started with a feast and ended with a feast thanks to our friend Robyn from Yogayard-Din Tai Fung was just the best food we ate in a restaurant in Beijing. Robyn ordered and did she get it right! Dumplings par excellence and a seiten dish to die for! And from there to Bodhi for a foot massage -heavenly-what a way to end the 1^st part of our adventure!

P.S. Alan has a few dinner table stories-! Remind him when you see him!