We're in a routine that includes getting up early, making coffee in the room, showering and dressing, and then going down for breakfast in the hotel. Usually these things are all accomplished by 8:00 am. Alas, after tonight, we have only one more night in Beijing!
The weather was perfect again today. I'd heard about polluted skies in Beijing but it was perfectly blue today and completely sunny. What's 25C in Fahrenheit? (I'm good at both scales but not at conversion.) It was a grand day to get to the cultural sites of Beijing. We again headed for Tia'anmen Square. I am still impressed with the cleanliness and orderly crowds. I am beginning to notice the Chinese who have traveled far to visit their capital city. Some look a little more village than the city folk. Some look Tibetan. There are many types of faces, shapes, and sizes.
We walked in the Tian'anmen Gate (with one with Mao) as it's the first step towards the Forbidden Complex. We even paid a little money to store bags and to climb the stairs to the Gate as well. The view of the Square is, of course, stunning from up there. We even bought a souvenir of several pins in a small box. The curiosity cabinet back in New Westminster is pretty full of world-wide clutter, so we keep new items very small.
Then, we continued walking after purchasing entrance fees to the complex itself. Mostly built in the 14th through 16th centuries, it is immense in scope. We'd read up and figured we'd get just an audio guide. After discovering there was no way to pause the electronic gadget with a GPS built in, I returned it for a refund. We learned all we needed by reading the large signs in English and evesdropping on the multitude of tour groups passing through at the same time. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get to the exit on the opposite end.
After that, we continued to stroll in the same direction and walked into Jingshan Park. It lines up with the end of the complex and is up quite a hill. Oh, those poor legs that climbed the Great Wall yesterday! There was a large Buddha in the pavilion on the peak.
We walked down the other side through the park that has many significant stories from China's emperors of the ancient past. We hit a nice street on the other side and had a wonderful lunch at a very cheap restaurant.
Again we just got back from a local restaurant near our hotel and we ate far too much for about $10 total. I'm going to need a crane to get on the airplane out of here.