Beijing - Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Hutong, Beijing Opera

Started off with buffet breakfast at the hotel again.  This is the strangest meal of the day, you can get their attempt at what we would eat at home, or you can have what we eat for lunch and supper every day, or you can get a soup made, kind of like we get omelet made at an all inclusive, you pick what you want and they make it into soup.  This is also the only meal that you get what we would call dessert, lunch and supper only watermelon or cantaloupe for dessert so far. 

Discovered last night that our China adapter for the computer does not work, so today the hunt is on for an adaptor.  There is sometimes some at the front desk, but they are all out. Also checked out the rack rates for our room at the front desk, $400.00 per night cdn, ouch.

Morning walk outside our hotel

Cranes everywhere, so much new construction!  Smog today as well

Welcome to Beijing Traffic and smog...

Outside Tiananmen Square, no tourists allowed today

First stop this morning is going to Tiananmen Square, which is supposed to be the largest square in the world.  I imagined it would just be a really large square based on what I remember seeing on TV, but it is actually one huge block with a few buildings in the middle and lots of parliament on the outside.  Yesterday we were supposed to visit here, but our itinerary changed because it was closed, well guess what still closed today.  We were able to walk all around the outside, lots of security around but the tour groups got through really easy, locals had to provide ID.  It is the New Year and all the diplomats from the different provinces are gathered here, this happens every 2 years.  It actually will probably make for some nice pictures, not too many people around.

Tiananmen Square, no tourists allowed today, buses for politicians

At the end of Tiananmen Square is the Forbidden City, named this as commoners were not allowed to visit for centuries. The gates were very impressive, we heard lots of interesting stories about when the emperor lived here.  The Emperor was the only man that lived here.  There were Eunuchs for some of the harder jobs.  There are 99,999  1/2 rooms, every time we went through a gate I thought we were at the end, only to see more on the horizon.  It really is huge, could have spent ages here exploring.

 

Flag we will follow for 2 weeks, I am tour guide I guess here?

Forbidden City Entrance

Our tour guide in Beijing, Jenny

Inside Forbidden City, some sort of ceremony going on, had a hard time reading the banner

Inside Forbidden City

Amazing courtyard inside Forbidden City, you go through one building and another whole courtyard ahead of you!

Very busy going through the gates

Jade and gold tree for Dragon Lady in her quarters

From the Forbidden City we took the bus for lunch and then to Temple of Heaven.  This is a beautiful structure, the most holy of the temples in Beijing.  It is very pretty, the first round structure we have seen.  On the walk to the structure we walked through a park which was fantastic, lots of seniors playing cards and checkers, they are very animated when it comes to their cards, fun to watch!

Some locals wore masks, we heard that if you live in Beijing you life expectancy is 10 years less than other parts of China

Dinner tonight, do you see a theme here?

Games along walk to Temple of Heaven.  A beautiful spot where locals meet for cards and games

Temple of Heaven

55 different ethnic groups in China

Model of temple of Heaven over the years, it has gone through 5 different transformations, starting with the first one on the left

Following the Forbidden city we went on a rickshaw ride in the Old Hutong.  This was lots of fun, we stopped to visit a house to see how the locals live.  This is the old part of town, over 600 years old.  It is tiny little streets and homes worth millions of dollars, but look like shacks inside and out.  The value is all about location.  We travelled as a group of 18 rickshaws which was fun, lots of bumping and racing each other, the kids really loved it as we did too.  Rickshaws are no longer used in the city except for tourists, lots of scooters and bikes are used now.

Extra warmth, oven mitts and a blanket attached to protect from the cold

Rickshaws all lined up for tourists

Rickshaw ride through Hutong

House we visited in Hutong

Not sure I would have wanted to eat anything out of this kitchen

Painting inside bottles

Following the tour of Rickshaws

Tiny narrow streets requires tiny fire engine!

Our rickshaw driver, loved the license plate

Next stop was off to supper.  Another good meal, one of the dishes was spicy at lunch today, and one was extra spicy at supper.  So far we are quite happy with the meals. 

After supper we went to the Beijing Opera, it is only a 1 hour tourist show.  I managed to only have 2 naps so I'm quite proud of myself.  The best part may have been trying to read the translation on the big screens and trying to figure out what they were trying to say in English.  The costumes were quite nice, hopefully Andre got some good pics, that will be the best part of this show!

Beijing Opera

The pictures make the Beijing Opera look more exciting than it was, beautiful costumes!