Beijing a modern city with old things!

---

I arrived to Beijing, China on June 11th after a long and tiring flight. Before the passengers could leave the plane every person on board the plane had to have their temperature taken in case they had the swine flu. If any passenger had a fever they and three rows in front and three rows behind would be put in Quarantine for seven days. Luckily nobody on the plane had a fever which caused the passengers to cheer and we were allowed to leave the plane, go through customs, and enter Beijing, China.

I started my first day of sight seeing at Tiannemen Square. Tiannemen Square is one of the largest squares in the world. the area has the Forbidden city on one side, government headquarters in the middle and the Memorial Hall of Mao Zedong. Walking around the square a while I noticed that most of tourist were not foreign but actually Chinese tourists. the first attraction I went to see was the dead and preserved body of the former communist leader Mao Zedong. I qued up in the longest line ever of tourist waiting to see mao Zedong. Believe me there must be thousands that go through the memorial every day. I went through the line and saw mao Zedong although they need to give him a face lift but i guess that is why you can't take pictuers of him. I toured around Tiannemen square a little longer before getting ready for later.

I headed out that night to Wangfujing street which is the main shopping and night market area in Beijing. The street contains modern malls and shopping and also contains small alleys with competing souvenir sellers and the selling of weird and normal food on a stick. i browsed the modern stores which contain american fashion and american fast food. I then headed to the small souvenir stalls and haggled for a mao Zedong watch that has him waving his hand. The guy at first wanted to sell me the watch for 280 Chinese Yuan but I haggled him down to 25 yuan. The vendors had different types of food on a stick including fruit, corn on the cob, scorpions that were alive but ready to be deep fried till crispy, and other weird bugs and fish on a stick. I couldn't do the fried scopion but I had corn on the cob. This next part is a warning for all tourist. I was almost scamed at wangfujing street. Two chinese women approached me telling me that they were college students studying english and they wanted to practice their english with me. So I was talking to them and walking down the main street with them talking. All of a sudden they started to mention and wanted me to to a club nearby and have a drink with them. They started to walk off the main street to go to the club. the alarm bells started to go off in my head and I made an excuse that I had to leave right now. They were persistant saying that it was close by. Well I left them and made my way back to my hotel safely. If I had gone with them they would have disappeared after having a drink and I probably been forced to pay large amounts of money for the cheap drinks before being allowed to leave. I am glad I trusted my instincts because this is a commen scam on tourist in that area. Be on guard and always trust your instincts.

Today I headed out to the Summer Palace made for one of the Queens of Imperial China. The palace grounds are hugh and has been turned into a giant park for Chinese and tourists to get out of the city. The Summer Palace is situated on a lake and set amongst large hills and forests. It contains many of the original temples including the spectactular Temple of the incense for Buddha located on a large hill. The summer Palace is beautiful but is crowed with many Chinese families enjoying a picnic lunch. One of the attractions is a massive marble created for the queen which used up the money needed to support the imperial navy. The summer palace is an amazing site and is well worth a visit.

---

Comments

[sharon]

china
Looks like a good start to many beautiful new places to see. Enjoy, love the pics