80,000 tickets per day sold out

That's 480,000 tickets per week ( 6 days a week), all taken, not one left. It's not the Rolling Stones or that Elvis has shown up again. Its for entry to the Forbidden City in Beijing, and most foreigners will fail to get a ticket because the minimum wait time is a week, and almost no tourist stays in Beijing as long as that. Just for fun to get close, i.e. Tienemen Square, you need to register 24 hours in advance. Of course, we hadn't done that, and neither had the handful of other Europeans. The lady at the entrance explained we could visit next time we are in Beijing 😂.

So, instead of visiting the forbidden city, we visited the Summer Palace, which is where those who lived in the forbidden city lived in the summer. Strangely, it's no problem to get tickets there, it's just a problem to get there. The hotel map suggests we get off the metro at Souzhou Jie, so after changing trains twice, that is exactly what we do. However, once outside the station, we use the maps app, and it tells us we need 1 hour and 10 minutes to walk there. Wtf! We ask some guys to help us get a taxi, and they laugh, but a 20 year old student comes to our help. She explains that to get a taxi, you need an app ( chinese language only), and you need a Chinese telephone number and another Chinese payments app. If that sounds impossible, that's because it is.

But then, an old sexist trick worked. Our young student effortlessly waived down a taxi. Off went Flo, Nora, and Oscar. For the rest of us, she ordered a car. She went, and it came, but because we lacked a code sent to her phone, the driver refused to take us.. So we tried to wave down taxis. It took us half an hour. We just aren't eye-catching enough 😁.

Safely at the summer Palace, we all enjoyed this pretty place. It reminded me of Japan because in the central area, it was absolutely packed with tour groups, but if you take a few steps off the main track there are far fewer people, and it's peaceful .

The only thing missing at the Summer Palace was summer, hence the rather grey pictures.

Later, we ventured out to a local restaurant that was a fantastic introduction for the children. We all loved it, and Flo learnt that next time she could order half as much and we would still be full. I have to say that sadly, the beer is not in the same league as the food, but it's still good enough to drink every drop.Read more