Beijing Tour Day 2

Tiananmen Square

Forbidden City

Temple of Heaven

Peking Duck!!

Aug. 26, 2014

    I woke up around 5:30 am and watched the sunrise over Beijing. Cassidy and I lounged around in bed chatting until seven. Then we went down to breakfast. The hotel we are staying at has a continental breakfast, which is very good. I didn’t bring my camera to breakfast so there are no pictures to see. I had potatoes, pickled cabbage, rice with egg, and coffee. We chatted with some students and the traveling professor. Then at nine we loaded up on the bus and headed out to Tianamen Square. We walked all the way through the square, which probably had half a million people in the surrounding area (it was very crowded). It was absolutely amazing to see this place because I have read about it so many times. The group got together for a photo and people swarmed us also taking pictures. The guard changed by the flag, which was really cool to see. We then crossed under the street and walked through Tiananmen Square to the Forbidden City.
    The Forbidden city was huge and there were so many people swarming the place. Cassidy and I found Andrew (one of our director’s helpers) and he took us around. It was his first time as well but with him more people approached us and we were able to communicate clearly. The best parts is when we were off the main path and the silence was beautiful. China is a very noisy place due to the people, but it makes the quiet moments more intense. We got out of the Forbidden city around 12:15, and headed to lunch. It was awesome and our table was super interesting. Brennan was also in Taiwan and we had fun telling the table about our experiences. Lunch was delicious as all the food has been so far. It was lovely. Then we headed off to Temple of Heaven.
    The Temple of Heaven is where the Emperor would pray to his ancestors for a good harvest. For Cassidy and I this was a bit more of a wander. We meandered around and took a bunch of pictures but we didn’t really have a guide for this one and people were moseying around. It was also the middle of the day so it was particularly hot. We then gathered everyone together and went to the shopping center.
    The Pearl Market is a large shopping center and people are really intense. I needed a watch and originally is was 150 RMB but Andrew haggled it down to 40 RMB. I didn’t like the shopping so much because people would grab, or force you to pay attention. But we survived. We ended up not really buying much, we hung out with Andrew. He’s a really cool dude, very helpful. Cassidy and I ended up having tea and just sitting down. We left for the hotel at 5:45. I went up stairs to the room for a bit and then headed out with Brennan, Jose, Cassidy, and Karen.
    Dinner quickly turned into an adventure in Beijing night life. We wandered down a street in search of a duck dinner. We first went to somewhere Brennan and Jose had scoped out, but it was extremely busy. We decided to head out and then we were approached by a man saying that we could go to a different restaurant that was similar. We felt it was odd how he spoke to us so we decided to not follow his instructions and try to find our own food. He then followed us and tried to get us to come with him at which point we asked him to leave. It was my first time experiencing a scam, it was more interesting than scary. So we ended up getting our duck. It was absolutely delicious! Talking with everyone was awesome, people have such interesting stories. We then headed back to the hotel and hung out in the lobby using the wifi. Then too bed, wake up is early again!