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Published: April 19th 2015
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We began our second full day in Beijing with a visit to Tiananmen Square, the most symbolic reminder that China is a communist country. Our first visit to China had been in January when there were few tourists. April in Beijing is a totally different story. There are tour groups everywhere, mostly groups of Chinese tourists. Nowhere was this more evident than in Tiananmen Square which is an enormous expanse that can accommodate more than a million people at one time with the smiling face of Chairman Mao overlooking the plaza. Unlike our last visit, we had to pass through security to access the square. The line to visit Mao’s tomb (which we were not doing) was hours long. We saw many of China’s ethnic minorities dressed in their colorful traditional attire, here and there throughout the square. Since we arrived in China, we keep wondering why people are staring at us and are then reminded that with our Chinese born daughters, we are a bit of an oddity. Some stare openly while others try to discreetly take our pictures.
After passing under Chairman Mao, we head towards the entrance to the Forbidden City. It is a short walk between
Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City yet the cultural divide between communism and the dynasties that ruled China for centuries is enormous.
The Forbidden City is a vast compound of grandiose buildings large and small, hundreds of courtyards, beautiful gates, gardens and terraces, all of which housed many of the dynasties of China, the last being the Qing dynasty whose rule ended in the early 1900’s. It was very crowded but the girls were having fun running here and there looking in at the beautiful carvings and antique furniture. All of a sudden we heard quite a commotion and came into a courtyard to find all the girls hugging someone. We couldn’t believe it, but it was Rose, our guide from our first trip. Ira had noticed her leading a group and called out her name and she was so surprised and emotional and happy to see the girls. And even though they were too young to remember her, they felt like they knew her from all the pictures we have been showing them over the years. I had emailed her a few weeks earlier asking if we could take her out to dinner while we were there but
she said she had a tour group and she wouldn’t be able to see us. Over 20,000 people visit the Forbidden City every day. There are 19 million people that live in Beijing and we run into the one person in China that we wanted to see the most! Divine intervention.
We had delicious peking duck for lunch and then toured the Summer Palace. A beautiful place comprised of gardens, lakes and residences that the Emperors and their families enjoyed. It was a nice break from the city, especially the boat ride on the man-made lake. As we were leaving, we were informed by our guide that a sandstorm was about to hit Beijing. It started to look a little yellow and got a little windy. Our next stop was a visit to a “hutang”, an old residential neighborhood that are a dying breed given that they take up valuable space that could accommodate a high rise in downtown Beijing. The streets are quite narrow so the mode of transportation for visiting tourists (and some residents) are pedicabs. So just as the sandstorm hits we are getting in our pedicabs for a tour and dinner at a local families
home. Needless to say it was quite an experience as sand is blowing everywhere, we are careening around corners and can’t see a thing and then to make matters worse we are running late and have a train to catch so we all run into some strangers home who has spent their day preparing a feast for us, spend 5 minutes, run out again into the sandstorm to take the pedicab to the bus and then on to the train station for our overnight train to Xi-an.
Bye Bye Beijing?
So we finally get to the train station and we are rushed and everyone checks through and on the last ticket they find a mistake. A big mistake. The tour agency in China had purchased our “deluxe” (meaning we would have our own western style toilets in each compartment vs. the shared squatty potty per train car) sleeper tickets on the wrong day. We were furious. It had been a long two days since we tried to make up for the lost day from the flight cancellation, the girls were tired and so looking forward to sleeping overnight on the train. The tour company found us a hotel,
so back to downtown Beijing we went.
Thursday in Beijing
The sandstorm cleared the air and Thursday morning was glorious. We spent the morning in Jinshan Park, a hill behind the Forbidden City with spectacular views of Beijing from the top. It was an easy hike up to the temple. We were disappointed to have lost a day in Xi-an but were happy to have had the opportunity to visit this last landmark in Beijing. The girls really enjoyed the hike. After lunch we headed for the train station, again, for the 6 hour bullet train ride to Xi-an. We were in the first class compartment and it was quite nice. Very comfortable with lots of leg-room. We were disappointed to lose a day in Xi-an but the bullet train afforded us the opportunity to see the countryside and cities that stretched between the two cities.
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