Arrived in Beijing at 1:00 am, Goofy arrived at 9:00 am and we set ourselves up for three days of sightseeing. On the first the day we wandered around the Forbidden City and Tian 'an men Square.
Goof on the southern gate tower of the Forbidden City overlooking Tian'an men square.
The forbidden city is huge - their are throne Halls everywhere for many types of harmony, treasure rooms, gardens, sculptures, etc. it was too big.
I could have picked any number if significant cultural photos to insert here, but I love this demon tortoise. It is one of the nine sons of the dragon (god of heaven if my memory serves me correctly). Unfortunately none if the sons, all of whom had different forms, grew into a dragon.
There were also massive crowds of Chinese tourists all been led by tour guides. often our main goal in exploring the city was to search for the less full rooms.
Once again, there are many significant Halls I could have shown where very important decisions were made, however, Rudolph loves the drink and the Pavilion for bestowing wine made it in instead.
We also found a street we dubbed Beijing's Chinatown. It embodied the western perception of China with old style buildings and lanterns hanging from eaves.
This is the monument to the people's heroes, the central feature of Tian 'an men Square.
Everywhere we turned we got swamped with locals offering to be our guide, offers for day tours to the Great Wall, and rickshaw rides. There were also mounds of security guards, police, and soldiers, although even the most smartly dressed unit of marching soldiers becomes infinitely less intimidating when the last two men are holding shopping bags full of food.
That evening we met or first VodkaTrain guide (called a 'Honcho), Lily. Her English was really good and she had great knowledge of the area and history. Over the next two days she took us to the Great Wall, the Pearl Markets, an Emperors Tomb, a Kung Fu show, the Temple of Heaven, and the Summer Palace.
One thing we learnt about China: they like to make things big - even when building rabbit- proof fences.
She seemed less than impressed when I insisted we walk to the top of the Great Wall and even more displeased when Goofy and I celebrated the beginning of snowfall by purchasing some beers and drinking them in the snow.
Apparently it rarely snows like this in spring. We were stoked, she was not.
We visited an Emperors tomb, which is not as cool as it sounds. There are quite a few littered around China, but apparently the excavators did such a bad job on this one the Chinese government is not letting the others to be opened up.
This is the best. Once the tomb is ready for sealing this giant pot, which is full of oil, is set on fire and the tomb is sealed. The fire uses up all the oxygen thus assisting in preservation of the bodies and the item they're buried with.
The weather couldn't have been better. The first day was sunny and clear (i.e. no pollution). The second day was snowing but not too cold. Lily informed us that she had ever seen that much snow in Beijing.
The temple of heaven. The emperor would prey for good fortune for his people, such as good weather, no disease, etc.
It looked pretty awesome. Our final day on Beijing was Sunny, but everything was still blanketed in snow.
The summer palace. Built by an Emperor for his mother for her fiftieth (I think) birthday. The palace is in the background, but it also includes a massive garden and a man made lake in the shape of a bat.
The food wasn't bad, we mostly took Lily's advice. Peking duck, sweet and sour pork, kung pao chicken, dumplings, hotpot, and Beijing noodles covers most of the meals we had. The biggest issue I had was that my lips started to crack on the first day, and so anything spices hurt them quite a bit.
Jeremiah was a bullfrog,
Was a good friend of mine,
Never understood a single word he said,
But he made some mighty fine tucker.
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