Seeing the Beijing sights

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Having stayed out a bit too late the night before, we were all dragging the next day. But we rallied and planned a day hitting the big tourist spots in Beijing.

We started with Peking Duck for lunch. It's a local speciality that involves puffing air under the duck's skin and then frying it. It's served with lots of dipping sauces and small tortilla-like pancakes to wrap the meat in. Pretty tasty...

We then headed to Mao's tomb and Tianamen Square. Unfortunately, tons of renovations are going on in Beijing to get it ready for the '08 Olympics and Mao's tomb was included. So we weren't able to view Mao but were able to check out the outside and then walk over to the square. Tianamen Square's size was impressive - it was easy to imagine it packed with people back in the day.

From there we walked across the street to the Forbidden City. It is the palace of a former emperor and is a huge, ornate structure. It has tons of different rooms filled with art, shrines, and other historic items. Maybe its because we were hungover, but despite it's beauty, this wasn't one of our favorite spots.

After that we headed back to O's to meet up with his girlfriend Jessica who had flown in to travel with us to Tibet. We did hot pot again for dinner and just took it easy that night.

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