The Early Bird Catches the Tour

2009 09 15 – Day 81 – Chengde

Arriving in Chengde at 04:30 or thereabouts, I expected a bit of a wait before I could find out about visiting the tourist sights. I was wrong. Riding the high-tide of arriving passengers, I was teased out of the flow like a tickled trout and, before I knew it, I had negotiated a tour deal and was sat in a minivan on the way to a hotel to dump my stuff, splash some water on my face, find some food and wait for the sun to rise!
After freshening up, I had a bit of time to wander the chilly pre-dawn streets.

This square was virtually empty just 20 or 30 minutes earlier, but now was alive with people exercising, some individually, but mostly in groups. Aerobics, dancercise, tai chi and foot-badminton were the most common.

And while some exercised their limbs, others exercised their songbirds

Now most of the city was awake I could get breakfast:

On my morning stroll, I'd seen one of the reasons American fast food chains like McDonalds and KFC are making headway into the Chinese market – because, at certain times of the day, they're the only places open!
I'm glad I held out for a genuine Chinese breakfast.