Day three....woke up in Beijing. Love our hotel....the location is central to everything, staff is so nice, great restaurant and a fun piano bar with big cushy purple and green chairs.
Let me back up for a minute though....remember I talked yesterday about the cab drivers being crazy...apparently all drivers in China drive nuts. Our driver was able to manipulate his 4 door sedan in between buses and into on coming traffic. Its a talent really! At times, we were just inches away from the large bus next to us...kinda scary and exciting all at once. Anyways, he delivered us safely to the Summer Palace...pulled right up to the front and told us to meet him back in two hours.
The place was enormous and was filled with palaces and a huge lake with boats floating around. The part that was most impressive was the colorful paint that lines the top of the buildings....where the wall meets the ceiling. It's like a painting...so colorful and artistic. Each look alike yet still unique. There were beautiful trees lined along the lake just beginning to bloom. You could see the mountain range in the distance...and another palace on top of that. We spent the two hours walking around and taking pictures...but the amount of people there made it difficult to enjoy all the beauty of it.
This is the largest stone in China. Blue Iris Stone.
The map is even HUGE!
This is the largest stone in China. Blue Iris Stone.
Next stop Tiananmen Square. Our driver slowly drove around in circles and I got photos out the window. In general China has an enormous police presence everywhere....but seemed to be even more so here. There were three guards at all four corners, all with rifles. Tiananmen Square is the center of Beijing and ironically referred to as the Gate to Heavenly Peace. Since this was the place of the large massacre in 1989, its strange that they give it this title. It's a large gated area with buildings and statues. I am glad that we did not get out of the car for this. It was a cool place to see...but I saw everything I wanted to see from the car.
Vendors everywhere selling this glazed fruit on a stick!
Right across the street from the square is The Forbidden City. Again, our driver pulls us right up front and says he will pick us up in two hours....at this point...I sooooooo appreciated him. Not hailing cabs and having language barrier issues makes the day even better and the fact that we get dropped off up front and picked up....bonus!
The Forbidden City was HUGE. In fact, EVERYTHING is HUGE in China! There were several sections, you could go to the left and enjoy a park and lake with boat rides or go straight to the forbidden city. The street that lead to it was so pretty. A canal and old houses on one side and these weeping willow trees on the other. They were not like the trees at home, the trunks were more narrow but had dark black trunks and the leaves were almost neon green!
We headed towards the city. You walk through the gates and see three beautiful palaces. The colors are bright reds, blues and greens. There were three stone bridges separating the entrance to the next set of buildings. I thought that was it....NOPE....it seemed to go on for days. The next set of buildings would open you up to a huge courtyard filled with stone walkways, stone walls, huge palaces that are so brightly covered that you feel like your eyes are being overly stimulated.
There are tour groups walking with hundreds of people, small families, and small tour groups. One of the funniest things I saw was a man and woman taking a tour with a guide...he had a microphone and was talking very loudly with the people two feet away. Ummmmmm...I am not thinkin you need the microphone for 2 people...just sayin. The walkways are so broken down from years of people walking on it, it makes it difficult to not twist your ankles. As we enter the last gate, there is a costume shop. You can buy traditional Chinese outfits. The colors of the outfits were so similar to the colors of the trim on the buildings...everything just ties together.
This is the famous stone at the Forbidden City. I just happened to have two cute twins in my pic!
The kids were playing with streamers...so cute!
As we were leaving the Forbidden City, we passed by a bridge and a grove of trees....breathtaking! But the second you leave the grounds, the noise and hustle of the big city takes over.
We found our driver quickly and headed to the Temple of Heaven, by far my favorite place we visited today. You enter through the gates and hear people singing and instruments being played. As we walk in farther, there is an older man playing an instrument that looks like a violin but is holding it on his knee instead of under his chin. It sounds a little off key...but the music is intended to sound like that. Strange and intriguing all at once. We walk further in and it's row after row of groups of people either dancing, singing or playing an instrument. They all had the same music books so I had the impression that they were all together but broken into groups around the park. There was a woman playing the flute, man playing the accordion, women dancing in what seemed to be a Chinese version of line dancing and men singing loud in a large group. It was very cool to watch them all gather together in their own cultural way.
As you walk through the tree lined path with the short metal fences, you eventually run into the temple. It's quite a site. So enormous....it's round and in the center of the courtyard. To the left there are several buildings that have been turned into souvenir shops. All the doors that lead to the next set of buildings are enormous. There is seriously NOTHING on a small scale here. Anyway, this must be a popular place for wedding photos because we saw two different brides getting their photos taken.
The area then opened up to more parks where families and couples gathered to sing, play their instruments or just talk. That's where we ran into the cutest lil kid ever. Throughout this trip, I have learned that I am a side attraction in China. I am tall and have "yellow hair"....people stare at the minimum and ask for photos and take photos of me to the maximum. So anyway, this little 3 year old had a camera and after seeing me his eyes got big, he glanced over at his mom as if to say, "Mom, she's so tall and has weird hair, am I safe?" The mom smiled and said something that seemed positive in Chinese because the little boy looked back at me and smiled. He starting taking my picture and I was posing and waving for the camera. He seemed so proud of himself. Amy stepped back and got what could have been the best photo of the trip. She captured me taking a picture of the little guy, taking a picture of me. It was as if we were communicating without talking. The universal language....photography and smiles! Amy walked up to him and tried to give him a high five...high fives must not be a thing they do here because he seemed confused. It was cute though, him smiling after he realized that he saw a girl that was so different than anything he had seen before and learned to high five.
As you walk through the tree lined path with the short metal fences, you eventually run into the temple. It's quite a site. So enormous....it's round and in the center of the courtyard. To the left there are several buildings that have been turned into souvenir shops. All the doors that lead to the next set of buildings are enormous. There is seriously NOTHING on a small scale here. Anyway, this must be a popular place for wedding photos because we saw two different brides getting their photos taken.
The area then opened up to more parks where families and couples gathered to sing, play their instruments or just talk. That's where we ran into the cutest lil kid ever. Throughout this trip, I have learned that I am a side attraction in China. I am tall and have "yellow hair"....people stare at the minimum and ask for photos and take photos of me to the maximum. So anyway, this little 3 year old had a camera and after seeing me his eyes got big, he glanced over at his mom as if to say, "Mom, she's so tall and has weird hair, am I safe?" The mom smiled and said something that seemed positive in Chinese because the little boy looked back at me and smiled. He starting taking my picture and I was posing and waving for the camera. He seemed so proud of himself. Amy stepped back and got what could have been the best photo of the trip. She captured me taking a picture of the little guy, taking a picture of me. It was as if we were communicating without talking. The universal language....photography and smiles! Amy walked up to him and tried to give him a high five...high fives must not be a thing they do here because he seemed confused. It was cute though, him smiling after he realized that he saw a girl that was so different than anything he had seen before and learned to high five.
So, we thought we were all done....until we saw Chinese Elvis with a black shirt on, unbuttoned half way down with a pink microphone and a large group of people gathered around. Again, strange yet intriguing.
It was like a karaoke type thing. A 5year old kid sang a slow love type song and then it happened. I was so thrown back that I actually blurted out WHOAHHHHHH! A man came out and did ballerina style dancing while he swung a lady around the walkway. In the background, a woman was singing off pitch...but again it seems like it was supposed to sound that way. We watched until it became painful for the ears and walked away. Sitting along a long corridor was a group of men playing some type of board game made of a wood board and ceramic tiles. The tiles each had something written in Chinese on the top which made me think it was a Chinese version of chess. They were very intense as they played...we stood back a ways and watched. The men were very competitive and it felt like they bet their entire home on this one game. Kinda surreal.
By now, I think we have walked 15-20 miles so we were ready to go back to the hotel and eat. Neither one of us ate or drank during the day because the bathroom situation here in China is scary. Being dehydrated and starving is a much better option than using a public restroom....or as all the signs here say, "toilet". They are all squat toilets. Its basically a hole in the ground. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! Our driver offers to take us shopping but we just want to head back. One block from our hotel we see a beautiful Catholic Church....he suggests we get out there and take photos, then walk to the hotel. All the sudden a second wind of energy takes over. We hop out, pay and thank him for the day. Get a photo with him and we are off to the church.
The church just does not seem to fit. It's in the middle of the city, huge hotel next door, convenience store and small shops across the street and then this big beautiful grey stone building that seems to belong in England or Ireland. Another bride is having her photos taken in front of the church and in front of them is an area where teenagers have used the steps to the church as their own skate park. In America, this would be disrespectful....but apparently here it's ok because the courtyard of the church was a stomping ground for many different projects and activities, none related to church.
Finally, back the hotel for some food. Of course, I am craving a burger like no ones business...and that burger was delicious! Went for a swim in the rooftop pool, sat in the hot tub and then the sauna. Stopped in the massage parlor for an hour long AMAZING foot and leg massage....then we sat in the piano bar for a little while before heading back upstairs for sleep, since our day would start at 5:20am tomorrow. How will I ever sleep knowing that tomorrow I will get to toboggan down the Great Wall of China!?!?!?!?!?!
