Day 1 - Beijing

Today was a great day in Beijing! We did not sleep as much as we wanted. We woke up around 4:30am and did not really fall back asleep. We stayed in bed for a while. Finally, around 5:30 we gave up and got up. We did our yoga practice and got ready for the day. We had lots of time before our guide arrived so we grabbed some breakfast. As far as buffet breakfasts go Novotel has quite a spread. It is much better than the buffet breakfasts we had on our last international trip. There were a lot of American options (omelets, crepes, waffles) and some Chinese options as well (wontons, dumplings, noodles).  We mostly stayed with the American options. 

Following breakfast, we hung out in our room for a little while longer until our guide arrived! Our first stop was Tiananmen Square. This is the largest city center in the entire world and can hold up to 1 million people! Surrounding the square are many government buildings. The square was walled previously, but the walls have long since been destroyed and all that is left are the gates. Tiananmen Gate is the gate exiting the square and entering the Forbidden City and it means "Gate of Heavenly Peace." Towards the end of the square near Tiananmen Gate, there is the National Flag. Every morning they do a flag raising ceremony and in the evening they do a flag retreat ceremony. For Chinese people, it's very significant and many people come to witness it every day. There were a lot of Chinese tourists in Beijing, and our guide, Susie, told us that for many of these people coming to Tiananmen Square and seeing Mao's body is one of the highlights of their life.  

There was a long line of people to see Mao's body

The hero's monument

They had beautiful flowers all around the square. These flowers were put in place to celebrate international labor day (May 1)

Following Tiananmen Square, we entered the Forbidden City. The Emperor lived here until 1911 when the Nationalist Party took over. Common People were not permitted in the Forbidden City. The city itself is a series of gates that open into several different courtyards that have different levels of significance. The most important building in the City was the Emperor's Office. There were several different gates to enter the Forbidden City and the tallest was only for the Emperor. The tallest building in the City is the Emperor's Office. It seems like the emperors had an ego. The Forbidden City was built during the Ming Dynasty in approximately 1420. 

While it looks very crowded Susie assured us this is not a very crowded day. She said they limit the number of people who can visit the forbidden city to 80,000 per day and a peak times they actually have to turn people away. 

Alison among the crowd

A Chinese lion

The emperor's throne 

symbols of the emperor

A very mean-looking turtle

Another of the emperor's thrones 

These decorative pots were found throughout the forbidden city. Throughout its history, the forbidden city has dealt with many natural disasters (mostly fires and earthquakes). These pots were filled with water to fight potential fires. 

The last building in the Forbidden City is where the Emperor and his mother would choose his concubines every 3-5 years. It seems like an odd job for a Mother to assist with... Behind the Forbidden City is the Imperial Gardens. They were really beautiful. I've been surprised by how many flowers there are throughout Beijing, especially roses. Susie told us that roses are the flower for Beijing, so they take a lot of time and space to make sure they are planted throughout the city. 

After the Forbidden City, we went to lunch at Fangzhuang. Susie ordered for us and she ordered quite a feast! We had Peking Duck, Beef, Asparagus, Rice, and Duck Soup. They brought the beef out first and it was delicious. Next, they brought out a whole duck (with its head on) and they carved it tableside. They brought us what looked like tortillas and Eric and I were attempting to figure out what they were for. Fortunately, the restaurant manager came over and showed us that you dip the duck in duck sauce, put a few pieces in a tortilla, add some onion and cucumber, and roll it up. It was seriously delicious! 

After lunch, we visited the Temple of Heaven. This is where the Emperor would come and worship their God. China Pavilion in Epcot has a version of the Temple of Heaven, which I never put together until I was standing next to the actual Temple of Heaven. Susie told us that the Temple of Heaven has become a hang-out place for retired people to gather and play cards and chess. We saw a few playing games while we were there - it was pretty cool. 

There were roses everywhere around Beijing. Roads were literally lined with miles and miles of beautiful rose bushes. 

After the Temple of Heaven Susie took us to the Pearl Market where they have a lot of souvenirs and knock-off goods. Eric and I have spent enough time in Chinatown in New York to know what prices we can get and also that we don't care if we don't buy anything. With this in mind, we drove a hard bargain. Susie may have been annoyed with us. Ultimately we walked away with a new purse for me, a few new polos for Eric, and a stuffed panda for Skylee. 

At this point, we had completed all our tour activities for the day and so Susie left and our driver brought us back to our hotel. We took a few minutes to regroup and decided to visit Beihai Park. It was about 2 miles away so we decided to get a cab - a bad choice, it took nearly 30 minutes for the cab to get to our hotel and another 20 to get to the park. We decided anything less than 2 miles, we will just walk (or maybe figure out the train). Fortunately, the park was worth it. 

Right when we arrived the heavens opened and poured down rain. We got out of the cab and found shelter in a walkway that goes under the street. We stayed there for about 5 minutes until the rain let up and then went into the park. We walked around for a while and then decided to go to the White Pagoda in the center of the park. The park is surrounded by a canal, so it's really beautiful. We had to climb about a million stairs to get to the pagoda. It was worth it. There were a few stops along the way with buddha statues that were really beautiful and interesting. A lot of Chinese people would stop at these buildings and worship and leave money. It was really interesting. 

Another mean-looking turtle

We loved the vibrant colors

Distant buildings - after the rain the humidity was off the charts 

There was beautiful artwork all over this Buddhist complex 

The forbidden city is visible in the distance

A Chinese bull rider

After the Park we headed back towards our hotel, walking this time. It was a really nice walk and it was cool to explore more of the city. Beijing is a really clean, safe city. We walked around the forbidden city, past Tiananmen Square to Wangfujing Street. This is a pedestrian street that we thought was very similar to Times Square and Ben Yehuda Street (Israel). There were a lot of malls and other stores, and there is an alleyway where they had street food including deep-fried scorpions. It totally creeped me out. 

The scorpions would wriggle around on these skewers before they are deep fried 

Our guide recommended a place that has Hot Pots for dinner near our hotel, so that was our next stop. Turns out we should have googled what hot pots were before we got there because it was totally amateur hour at our table. Fortunately, we had the sweetest waitress and we were able to use google translate to communicate. She was so kind and helped us so much. And also, thank goodness for Google Translate. Seriously, I don't know how people traveled before it existed. When we left I gave her a hug, she was so nice. We decided to get half spicy, and half mild because usually Eric likes spicy food. This was a terrible decision. Spicy in China is like a 10 out of 10. Eric ate his food, but it was so spicy he drank most of a 1.25 L of sprite, which is very unlike him. 

A Chinese melon 

Half spicy, half normal

Ready to eat!

After that, we decided to call it a night! We are excited to see the Great Wall of China tomorrow!