A Day in Beijing

We did our historical tour of Beijing today. We went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall of China. It was a big change from last time when we were freezing. This time it was hot and humid. Another big change is all the beautiful flowers planted everywhere as part of the "clean up Beijing" Olympic mission.

I am sad to report that the Starbucks in the Forbidden City is now gone. While I think it best not to have a symbol of American excess and over consumption in the ancient Forbidden City, the lost irony is missed. Plus, hot coffee was not nearly as attractive to us as it was in 2005, given that it was 60+ degrees warmer this trip.

Here is a picture of us standing in front of the main entrance to the Forbidden City (we are actually still standing across the street in Tiananmen Square):

After Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, we went to lunch. They took us to the same restaurant that they took us to in 2005. The funny thing is that last time, I thought this restaurant was on the other side of the city (actually, I simply had no idea where it was but we had been driving around all morning). This time I realized that this restaurant is only a 15 minute walk from our Hotel. The reason we know this now is because we happened to walk past it yesterday when we were trying to walk to Chaoyang Park (which we thought was a 30 minute walk but which turned out to be more like an hour and a half -- we took a taxi). Needless to say, we are much better oriented this trip. The food was largely fried Chinese food. I think they think Americans only like fried food. After all, very little of Chinese cuisine is fried, but you would not know this from the offerings at lunch. Also, they "assumed" we all drank soda because they just brought out coke and sprite. Of course, I don't really eat fried food and I don't drink soda. Luckily, the eggplant, bell pepper, and potato side dish was delicious. Donna and I filled up on it. The spring rolls were yummy too! I skipped out on having the Peking Duck this time (I tried it last time) because I could feel my cholesterol numbers rising just looking at it on the plate.

After lunch we went to the Great Wall of China. Katrina had been looking forward to seeing the Great Wall for months. She fell asleep on the drive and we didn't think we were going to be able to wake her up. We did eventually wake her up and I'm glad she didn't miss it. Katrina wasn't up for walking too far (thank goodness), so we only walked up a small section of the wall. It is very steep and the steps are really uneven. Here is a picture of a very small portion of the Great Wall (which, if placed in a single line and including all historical portions, would wrap around the world twice!):

I told you it was steep:

Well, it is 1 a.m. in Beijing, so I think I'll call it a day. Good night.