Beijing

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Day 2

On our second day in Beijing, Lea had to sort out her tooth and visited a couple of dentists in the morning. In the afternoon we went for a walk through Haidian district to Zizhuyuan Park. It was quite a pretty setting, and it was good to see people getting out and enjoying the day, even though it's cold and the middle of winter. I liked the bikes and chairs they use to skate around on the ice (but did't try it myself). I can imagine it would look completely different in summer.

Day 3 - Forbidden City

Today we took our chance to visit the Forbidden City in central Beijing. Since it is almost the lunar new year, and a day with cold wind, Lea thought it wouldn't be too busy, so we got a bus to the subway, and the subway into the city.

Tiananmen Square was closed off to the public when we arrived (it looked like there was some meeting going on in one of the buildings nearby), so we went straight to the Forbidden City. It is huge! You definitely need a whole day to see all of it, especially if you go into some of the extra exhibitions.

The scale of everything is impressive, and the colour and decorations of the buildings are amazing. Walking through the streets (and it is like a city!), you could imagine what life was like in the past, with all the emperors, concubines, courtiers and officials living in this walled city, having their life full of political intrigue and gossip, cut off from the life of the common people. I can imagine it got cold in winter though, because a lot of the walls are very high and block the sun.

The Imperial Garden was one of my favourite areas - full of trees and interestingly shaped rock formations. Parts of the big halls were being restored when we were there, so we couldn't visit everywhere, but it still took over 5 hours just to see the parts we could.

We finished off the day looking at another sprawling complex - this time very modern: the Oriental Plaza shopping mall. It was very much like the western style ones we have back home - all glossy consumerism - and the prices were equivalent taking into account the exchange rate. It was back home on the subway after that for a rest and hot dinner!

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Comments

[Jenny]

Wow, great stuff
Hey Darryl and Lea, loved the Forbidden City! Your photos really give a good idea of how it all looks, and the colours are striking. Hope your teeth are better, Lea.