Thursday 30th July 2009 Beijing

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Thursday 30th July 2009 Beijing
The hutong we are staying on is really very nice. It’s all very bohemian like; there are about 4 little coffee shops almost in a row and a few small clothes shops. We went into one of the coffee shops were you would swear half the people were sitting there writing poetry or having a quick espresso on the way back from yoga class. We had a nice but well overpriced breakfast and headed back to Tiananmen Square for the next tick on the Beijing must do list, The Forbidden City. The crowds were alright, apparently sometimes it’s a bit manic and we skipped past everyone trying to offer us tours and made our way in. This place is huge, it courtyard after courtyard with very ornate ceremonial buildings scattered around with the largest standing in the courtyards centers. Its always amazing to be a place lie this where a couple of hundred years ago, in relatively unchanged surrounding emperors would address their courts of hundreds and complain that their tea was too hot and that because of it 100 peasants were to be put to death. We spent a good 3 hours walking through this massive old palace, but again unless you are into the minute details eventually all you are looking at is a pretty building that generally only houses 1 throne were emperor so and so used to scratch his arse before moving to the next building to say hello to a diplomat before beheading him.

We took a Beijing tuk tuk then back to the shopping street for something to eat. We went into tone of the big shopping centers as Mary was looking out for a interview suit for the agency she was lined up to meet the afternoon after we arrive in. I climbed a rock climbing wall exhibition and then we had some nice noodles for dinner in the food court. And then amazingly we found a little supermarket there that sold Mary’s saviours’, cornflakes.

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