National Museum of China

Late start and we were off to Tiananmen Square to see the National Museum of China. Huge building and free if you bring your passport. Some English writing and quite interesting exhibits.

Checked out an exhibition on the history of Chinese currency - lots of cool old coins. China was also one of the first countries to have paper currencies. Also looked at a beautiful exhibition on Buddhist figurines; some really nice Chinese paintings and pottery.

There was a very big exhibit on Ancient China which had a lot of information, but presented well. Such an interesting and vast history. Lots of guides keeping watch on people too.

The Ancient China exhibit took us through to about 1840 and then it was upstairs to the Road to Rejuvenation. An ... interesting exhibit, focusing on 1840 (opium wars) and onwards (revolution and a communist country).

Far less English in this one so we didn't learn as much but very interesting. My knowledge of recent Chinese history is patchy but I think there was some famine etc. there - no mention in English in the museum though. Even just the change in writing style between exhibits was intriguing. It went from 3rd person, objective facts to 1st person, adjective filled, emotive language. Still, there's two sides to every story so won't judge. And now intrigued enough to find out more.

After the museum, a walk back to a mall, and ate at an "Italian" place for about 9 bucks. Radi had pasta (decent for $2.50) and I had something like a pizza but with rice instead of the pizza base. And taro milk tea. Surprisingly good.

Did some shopping then grabbed some more baked goods for dinner and back to hotel. Oh by the way all the locations for these posts are probably off as Google doesn't work properly - but should be fine from next stop (Frankfurt) onwards.Read more