Tiananmen Square & The Forbidden City

My legs were barely functioning this morning from yesterday’s morning adventure, and it was another tour/walking day.

We had a local guide named Miko come along with us, and he was to take us to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. To start our tour off right he had us hop onto the bus as that was the fastest way to Tiananmen Square. The bus wasn’t crazy here in Beijing so that was nice, it also was still early.

When we got to the entrance for Tiananmen Square, that was a different story. It was crazy busy, just insane. Everyone was here. While we were waiting to enter the square, Miko gave us a bit of a history lesson as well as taught us the hand signals for numbers up from one to ten. Eventually we did make our way into the actual square.

It was a neat experience to be there, to be where a lot of important events occurred for China. Miko explained which building was Chairman Maos mausoleum, the monument in the middle, the government building, the museum, and then the building which was the entrance to the Forbidden City. Miko provided a lot of informative information, most of which went in one ear and out the other.
The other thing that was going on with us was that there were a fair amount of villagers and travelers to Beijing that had never seen white people / foreigners before, so people were asking to take photos with us, pointing at us, and slyly trying to take photos with us.

We eventually made our way over to the Forbidden City, tons of crowds we had to fight. We spent a lengthy amount of time here, I felt like it took forever.
The history of the city was amazing, how it was named, and what some of the buildings were for. I’d go into detail but I don’t remember most of it, except for a few small details ...

- the ornate pathways up the middle of the pathway leading to each building down the center line were for emperors only, no one would walk down these, ever ... not even us! Haha

- the only time another person was allowed to walk down the center line of the entire city was the Empress-to-be on her wedding day

- the Emperor had over 3500 concubines there with him

- there were 9,999.5 rooms created there, since the God in the sky had a palace with 10,000 rooms, he didn’t want to overshadow
- only 8500 rooms are available to be viewed, and the half room is not one of them

Wow ... I did remember a fair amount!!

Our tour ended up running over four hours long, it was only supposed to be three. By the end of it almost all of us were starving, tired, and our feet were exhausted. We split off into groups and went about our merry ways.

My group went on a hunt for food, while walking in the direction of the shopping district which was on the way to our hotel. We found a busy little restaurant that we thought would be a good place to eat. It was ok, nothing exceptional. Not really worth the price.
After we were recharged, we decided to continue onto the shopping district, and this is where a few of us broke off and headed in different directions. One of the girls and I still headed back to the shopping district, which when we came to it was insane. The place was like Times Square, NYC during New Years ... that’s how crazy it was.
We fought our way through, and stopped in at a McDonalds for an ice cream treat, as well as a rest for our feet, we were dying. I ordered a McFlurry with strawberry and cookie crumbles, what we didn’t realize was the ice cream wasn’t the standard vanilla, it was like a cappuccino flavor. Now if you don’t know me, I will tell you I hate coffee flavored things, even coffee that’s too coffee-ish. Yup, I’m weird, and don’t really care!
Anyways, the mixture of the strawberry and cookie crumbles with the ice cream was actually tasty and I didn’t mind it one bit. After our recharge we were on our way. We stopped in a few shops, none of which had anything we wanted, or the sales people didn’t talk to us or we were just ignored, so we walked away empty handed.

Once back at the hotel (almost 16 km later), I went to do my groceries so I could just relax that evening. Grocery shopping in Beijing is fun, some stuff is easy other is trial and error. I got enough for 4 meals plus snacks to carry me through for a bit. I’d been getting free bottles of water at the hotel, so I was stock piling them up for the train journey.

Alex had planned one last Beijing Dinner for us, which he said would be the best, and it was. We went to a restaurant in the mall near our hotel, and we were taken to the top floor. As we waited for Alex to work his magic and get us past the huge lineup of people, we looked in awe at the mall, it had a full size ice rink in it. It was awesome. I watched a few people fall and struggle, it was cute and they looked like they were having some fun. A few minutes later Alex returned, he secured us a table.

He got us not only a table, but a private room for us to enjoy. It was fantastic, and so classy. As usual we ordered two Peking Ducks, and a ton of sides to enjoy. The food was amazing. The flavors, and textures were fantastic, and the duck of course was impeccable. It was an outstanding meal for us.

The journey back to the hotel was not far nor eventful, but I did take advantage of the bathtub and have a nice soak. It was the perfect size for me. I also watched a movie and just enjoyed myself. It was a great way to end my last night in Beijing.Read more