The City Museum - Forbidden City Part 2

Fortunately not all of the  9999 and a half rooms in the Forbidden City are open to the public!  Those that are have very little in... unless it is a shop or restaurant. 

Rick and I left our tour group before exiting the gates, so that we could see the 9 dragon wall, the treasures and get thoroughly lost!!  We 'found ' ourselves in one of the many delightful private gardens - cool and quiet, until the guard had to evict a chinese teenager for walking off the path and attempting to scale the artificial mountain.

Arriving finally in a car park full of tour buses, we returned to our hotel... a very late lunch, shopping for bus snacks, hiking supplies and for me an unsuccessful afternoon with chinese internet. 

Some of the group couldn't make dinner as they still had a farewell dinner for their previous tour, but those that did were great fun.

Mandy and Linda, good friends from their school days. They been on other trips together and had some funny (and scary) experiences to share.

 Nick and Jo, a vet and a doctor both with an infectious good humour. Naturally, with a vet at the table,  talk turned to animals and pets as the group related their best (or worst ) animal experiences or asked advice!

Pru, well travelled and quiet, related the drama of taking one of her dogs back to the UK after her many years in Africa.

Viv, also travelling alone, was off to a yoga retreat after the walk the wall tour. 

Tomorrow we hit the road!

The Forbidden City

We arrive in the restaurant for breakfast... an interesting assortment of chinese dishes and some english looking items... the sausages and bacon nicely arranged, but not cooked?
Rick soon sorts the system and requests his cooked.  While waiting he takes a generous portion of what looks like sliced apple.
Seconds later, "Aahhh, mannn!!! That's really nice! Hey you've got try this!" 
I look to see who else has noticed the exagerated enthusiasm in his voice, as I take a tiny slice and bite it cautiously.  Pickles anyone?
Yesterday's McDonalds breakfast had included a really nice hotdog type sausage and Rick was keen to repeat it.  Shall we mention that he tried a hot dog at a food stall at the Temple of Heaven yesterday and was not impressed... so this was sausage experiment Number 2.
After carefully buttering his soft, warm 'toast', and selecting a couple of fried eggs. he lines up for his sausage and bacon.  Sausage experiment number 2 is also declared a disappointment.
Cereal has been put out in tiny bowls, so I take a spoonful from each and add hot milk meant for coffee.
 A dumpling, a brown rice cake, scrambled leek and eggs and a few slices of watermelon  fill my second plate, all demanding to be eaten next.  So many different things to try and so little time.

We meet in the foyer to walk to the Forbidden City.  As there are two or three Tours beginning , ending or joining here it means not all of our group will be with us today. Nor will we have our guide Bob.  Instead we  have Peter.  I can't beleive my good luck.  I look over to reception where he is sorting out details with the hotel staff.  It looks like the same Peter we had on the 2008 tour.  But don't all Chinese look alike?  His movements are familiar and as he turns towards us I am sure.
Wow! What are the chances of that? The only person I know out of the whole one and a half billion people in China?!  Well ok it is same place same job, so not quite a billion to one chance!

The hutongs we walked through 4 years ago have mostly been replaced with streets and shops.  Nice not to be dodging puddles of filth.  Only once did we collectively cover our noses in a futile attempt to block out the smell of the nearest public toilet. Peter pointed out a Tea Shop that he assured us also sold regular black tea tea bags.  We memorised its location, along with the McDonald's, and various interesting shops that we really would have to come back to later.  Yes, this is a real falcon.  Yes, this person really is walking down the street in their pajamas.

We cross the last busy road to Tianamen square, as Peter explains that the ancient city walls were destroyed to build the first ring road, an essential sacrifice to keep traffic moving around Beijing.

The flowers are stunning, some real, some larger than life, and all looking their best for the National holiday.

As Rick and I had already spent quite a lot of time in Tianamen Square yesterday, we spent our spare time watching bikes cycling down Chang'an St, the main road between Tianamen square and The Forbidden City.

 There seems to be few rules for what sort of bike is

and isn't allowed in a cycle lane, but STOPPING in the cycle lane is frowned on. This cute little pink thing was moved on promptly when he tried to play un-patriotic? music to the crowds in Tianamen square.

So we have photos of falcons, gardens, bikes, cute children waving chinese flags, chinese flags on buildings, chinese flags on flag poles, chinese flags on bikes amd shops and banks...
Camera memory chips filling alarmingly, we finally make it to the Forbidden City, where we just might take a few photos.






Now the Forbidden City is a bit like a Russian Matroushka doll.
It starts with courtyard  (with streams, lakes and bridges)  in front of a wall and a massive ornate gate-house.
You walk through the gateway, (usually up a flight of stairs then down on the otherside)  and there you have another courtyard, with lakes bridges,etc.
So you go through this inner gateway only to find yet another courtyard, another wall with another gate house.
And then you go through the next gate house...

Gate of Heavenly Peace

 Supreme Harmony Gate

Qianqing Gong- Palace of Heavenly Purity

Day 5 Temple of Heaven

When you start at dawn, you can fit an awful lot into the rest of the day.

• breakfast
• sim card for Rick's tablet
• check out of Tian Rui
• check into Xiao Xiang
• Visit Temple of Heaven
• Meet our Tour Group for the next 12 days

 The Xiao Xiang Hotel is clearly a step up from the Tian Rui with the requisite pair of lions guarding the front door, a couple of restaurants and a bar..
It is also conveniently situated within a kilometer of the Temple of Heaven so we set off for the West Gate.

 This is the centre of China ( and therefore of the World) and despite the crowds and the pushing we have become accustomed to in queues here Rick actually managed to stand on the stone - in the very centre!

These two reminded me of Kane and Alyssa.

This park is the so big that although there are a lot of people here... still on holiday... it doesn't seem crowded.  People are sitting around the courtyards, on the grass and on steps everywhere, picnicking, singing, flying kites, swirling ribbons, eating icecreams, playing music.  It is lovely to have such a big green space in the middle of this noisy, dirty overpopulated built up city.  It also seems that as everyone has been on holiday for the past 5 days, there is a lot less pollution in the air.  The sky is really blue!

Back at the Hotel we meet Bob, our tour guide ( there goes any last desperate hope that I might meet the only person I know in China... Peter, our guide from my tour in 2008)  The others on our tour arrive, many straight off the plane from the UK, while others are joining us from their 'China Highlights' tour , when that concludes in another couple of days. It seems that several Explore groups are all in Beijing together.
A short walk through Beijings busy, smelly streets brings us to dinner at a Peking Duck restaurant.  Plates keep arriving at the table - duck, chicken, beans, aubergine, pork, mushrooms, bakchoy.. even rice...
It is the best duck I have ever eaten and the quantity and quality of the other dishes bodes well for the rest of the trip.  Maybe we won't be losing weight on this trip after all!
Back to the hotel and another short walk takes us to the Theatre for tonight's acrobat show.

Photos do not do their expertise justice... especially with lighting and the speed with which they were spinning!!!
The last act was a huge spherical bamboo cage into which drove a man on a motorbike... as he gained speed he circled higher and higher inside the ball until he was looping completely upside down.
Without pausing another motor bike entered the cage and the two of them circled and looped...
Oh but that is not all, oh no that is not all ... again and again the ramp/door lowered and another motorbike was added to the swirling, diesel smelling, noisy, smoky mele!! Every time we thought that was the last one, another would be added.   Finally when FIVE bikes were dipping, circling, passing, swirling and looping in what suddenly seemed to be a tiny bamboo cage, they opened the door and each one rode out, down the ramp onto the stage, to our incredulous applause.

Day 5 Dawn in Tianamen Square

Lonely Planet says it is best to see the dawn flag ceremony, as the sunset flag lowering cermony can be packed.
Early mornings are one of Rick's specialties so here we arrive in Tianamen square, at least an hour before sunrise.  We are not the first to arrive.  Soldiers already hold back three rows of onlookers, running the full width of Tianamen square.  Being taller than the average around here we can only just see over their heads.  But of course this is still the National holiday so hundreds (thousands) of children are milling around and being hoisted up and down off their parents shoulders. 
We have no idea what time dawn actually is. And whether the flag will go on the o'clock, or at dawn... or how long we must wait for.  There is no where to sit, except the ground and we have already seen enough to know we don't wish to sit there.  It is still chilly and there are thousands of Chinese and tourists arriving every minute.
Last time I was in Beijing I missed this, as I underestimated how long it would take me to walk the 2 km from the Hotel to Tianamen square.  This time Rick wants to go before it starts as we have no chance of seeing anything.  I can feel his discomfort in the crowds, and having to stand around for so long.
Can I miss this twice?  Will I ever be back to try again?  Does it really matter? For reasons I can not explain  I decide it does matter and stand my ground.

Behind us another phalanx of soldiers holds back the next rows of red flag waving patriots, crowding in to see the beginning of a new day in the very heart of communist China.  Street lights seem dimmer, Mao seems to move nearer, as the sky slowly lightens in the east. 

Waiting...

 Waiting...

No these are not the soldiers marching at exactly 108 steps per minute- this is the army of street sweepers, getting ready for the dawn flag raising ceremony.

Beijing Military Museum: Day 4

After the Summer Palace, we had another 'must see' on the list for the day!  The Beijing Military Museum!  A short walk took us to the subway... first time we had ever used it , but Beijing Subway is all in English, so we needn't have worried.  We got chatting to a couple of young soldiers and their mate, who had been an American exchange student, and before we knew it, they had bought our tickets and were pointing us in the right direction.  Once on the train the map of the line was again in English as well as Chinese, and a little light moved along it, showing where we were.  Announcements were made in English and Chinese, and of course our new friends were anxious to see that we changed at the right station and made sure we knew how many stops after that before we arrived!!! 

Beijing Military Museum is free... but the queue for the bag inspection and to get your free ticket, ( which they took off us three steps after we got it!) seemed to take forever in the hot sun!