Advertisement
Published: July 11th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Playing cards
in front of Tian'anmen Square Well, we decided to give it one more shot and visit China. For those of you who are avid "Erin and Daniel" blog readers you are probably thinking, "But Erin! You were deported last time you were in that god-foresaken country! Why on Earth would you want to return?" I might say, "I wanted to bring a little bit of American democracy to those freedom deprived peoples during our Independence weekend." But really, one of my goals is to visit all the World Wonders and the Great Wall happens to be one of them. So we booked a (cheap!!) four-day tour through MWR and off we went. (For $600 p/person the entire trip was covered- air, hotel, transportation, visas, food, entrance to sites, theater.)
After dropping the puppies off with my friend, Shawna, we drove to Incheon and in my exhausted, stressed out state (it took us 2.5 hours to drive what should have been one) I locked the key in our car at the hotel. Leaving the problem to be dealt with later we took a shuttle the following morning, arriving at 6:45 am and boarding at 8:30. 90-minutes and one meal later (yes, they served lunch on a
90-minute flight- Asiana Airlines really has customer service right!) we were in the impressive Beijing Airport. The tour group (40 ppl) loaded onto two buses and these are the people we toured with for the rest of the weekend.
Our first stop was Tian'anmen Square. Despite the oppressive 100 degree weather it was quite amazing to be there. At 100 acres it is the largest open people's square in the world. The massive picture of Chairman Mao, Great Hall of the People, National Museum of China frame the square while the uniformed and under-cover police (it was obvious, they weren't very stealthy about it) stood guard. There are no benches, or trees. There is no singing, protesting, dancing or sign holding allowed. Our tour guide told us that when she brought a U.S. boy's choir on a tour they were so happy to be there they sang a song. People stood around to listen to their angelic voices, but the police quickly stormed the area, demanding the group stop singing and disperse. The boys couldn't understand why they weren't allowed to sing.
Separating the Square from the Forbidden City is a large gate called a Tian'anmen which is
where the picture of Chairman Mao is displayed. Walking through this gate (you cannot stop walking through this area or guards will tell you to move) brings you to the Forbidden Palace, names because common people were not allowed inside. It was the royal palace from the Ming through the end of the Qing dynasty and is the largest collection of ancient wood structures in the world. The piece of the palace that you tour is relatively small, but it's still quite powerful. This was the home of the Last Emporer of China. (Have you seen the movie?)
From there we went to a jade factory where we bought a jade horse. In China, horses symbolize success, so that's what Dan wanted. Personally, I wanted the cabbage, because the word for cabbage and money in Chinese are the same, so having a jade cabbage in your house will bring you wealth.
We watched an amazing acrobatic performance (which was almost exactly like the one we saw in Shanghai) then went to a Cantonese restaurant for dinner. All the meals we had on the trip were family style with a giant lazy suzan in the middle of the table.
The restaurant served multiple dishes of food and everyone shared.
We finally made it to the hotel around 8:30 and we quickly fell asleep, exhausted by the whirlwind of a day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.09s; Tpl: 0.035s; cc: 8; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0443s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mr Travel
the trip start from beijing
very nice
I am here yet.this is a very nice city.I love beijing,I love china food.