Beijing #3: Tiananmen Gate and Beijing Duck

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Another hostel breakfast set us up for the day and we headed out to see some more of Beijing. We decided to head to the Forbidden City. What should have been an easy journey wasn't. Becuse Beijing becomes so crowded with tourists in the National Day holiday the roads were roped off and there is a one way system in place for pedestrians. And I had thought Tiananmen Square was busy the previous evening, it was even busier today. It took ages for us to get to the Forbidden City, but we managed to get there in the end. Tickets for the Forbidden City sell out super quick in the holidays and by the time we got there, the ticket offices had long been shut. We joined the queue for tickets to Tiananmen Gate and after getting the tickets joined the next queue to go through security and finally we were allowed into the actual gate itself. We climbed the steepish stairs to reach the top. Tiananmen or the Gate of Heavenly Peace, that is what it translates to in English, is an infamous image and often used as the national symbol of China. I had been to the Forbidden City on my previous trip to China so wasn't too sad that we couldn't go, and I was happy to explore Tiananmen Gate instead, since it is such an iconic place. The gate had originally been named Chengtianmen, which means 'Gate of Accepting Heavenly Mandate'. Over time, the gate has been built and destroyed several times. The original gate was built in 1420 and was based on a gate on the imperial building in Nanjing, which was called Chengtianmen. Lightening struck the gate in 1457 and the gate ws completely burnt down. Zi Gui was ordered to rebuild the gate in 1465 and the style of the gate was changed to the type of gatehouse that stands before us today. However, in 1644, rebels led by Li Zicheng burnt down the gate and the gate was rebuilt between 1645-51, and was given its present name. The gate was reconstructed during 1969-70, as it had stood for 300 years and had suffered from wear and tear during that time.

The gate is really pretty there are lots of flowers on display and we could see the Forbidden City behind us. That was pretty but looking out, over Tiananmen Square was a much better sight. The square was just a sea of people. I had thought it had been busy the night before, but that was nothing compared to this. From our vantage point, it looked crazy, there were just so many people. But I bet if we were to go down into the square it wouldn't be so bad. We spent a while walking along the terrace and looking out at the view. You couldn't get close to the edge, as there are lots of bushes there, stopping people from getting close. There were also a lot of security guards, posted every few metres or so, to keep an eye on us, and make sure we didn't do anything bad. From the gate, we had to follow a one way system out, there was a park next to the gate. In fact, there are several parks, but I think the one we went into was Zhongshan Park. The park was really pretty and not too crowded, we found a pagoda to take a rest in and put our feet up for a bit. The one way system that Beijing has going on means that we are doing a lot more walking that we should. Well, it is good for our health, although it was a very hot and sunny day. We spent a while walking through the park, it was pretty, and the entrance fee had been cheap. We headed back to the hostel for a rest via Starbucks.

When in Beijing it would be rude not to have any Beijing Duck. Last time I was in Beijing, we had went to one of the famous places, which I cannot recall the name of, and the food had been so good. One of the chefs had carved the duck on a trolley at our table and I remember that we were given a plate with all the duck's internal organs on, which we totally ignored as no one wanted to try any one them. There are numerous duck restaurants in Beijing, so we set off to look for a place close to our hostel. We didn't have to walk too far as we soon came to a place that served duck and looked pretty busy. We headed inside and were shown to a table. We had a look at the menu and saw that the duck sets looked pretty small, only a small plate of meat, so we decided to order another couple of dishes. When the waiter came to take our order, he told us that we had ordered too much, so we dropped one of the dishes we wanted, and settled for the duck set and a crispy fried prawn dish. We sat drinking beers while waiting for our food to turn up. I think the duck came first and it was on a small plate, like in the picture in the menu. The pancakes, cucumber, spring onion and sauce were served, too. So we set about making some pancakes. I was thinking it wasn't much food when another plate of meat turned up, this one wasn't arranged as prettily as the other plate but still just as tasty. A plate full of the duck's skin appeared, too, and I happily scoffed a load of that. Skin might be so bad for you, but it tastes so good. Then another plate of meat and bones appeared, followed by our shrimp dish. Suffice to say, we definitely had enough food. The duck was really delicious and I wished I could have eaten more of it. The prawns started off good, but I quickly got sick of them. We were in food comas by the time we had finished and I was glad we only had a short waddle back to the hostel.

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