Tienanmen Square is massive, it was a crowded day and there was still space for thousands of more people. It is surrounded by government buildings and home to the hall of famous people and national museum. There is a big China Flag guarded by guards in full uniform. Across the street from Tienanmen Square is the entrance to the Forbidden City which was most likely my favorite place we visited during our time in Beijing. The City goes on forever and ever, you walk through a new building and boom you feel like you are right back where you started with another huge square in front of you and the next building to walk through. The details are beautiful, the arched entryways are massive and they are closed off by this big iron red doors with beautiful brass/gold knockers.
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| Also, Chinese people do not wear sunglasses (brown eyes) or have tattoos or ear piercings...I fit right in! |
We walked through probably 5 buildings and the further we marched to the back of the city the view got more and more beautiful, you know the emperor saved those rooftop views and the gardens for the most important people of his city.
Also, our poor group, there was a family of 5 who had 3 small children and the youngest is a little blonde girl and they had people walking up to them, pulling on them, smacking their own children if they refused, just to take pictures with the blonde, white Americans. It was intense I think they might have been scared of Matt's beard we weren't bothered too much, just stared at a lot.
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| My most absolute favorite view!! |
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| In the Gardens of the Forbidden City |
The Summer Palace was built by the emperor as a gift to his mother and it has a very zoo/park feel to it. Lots of kids running and playing on bikes and scooters. The crowd was big when we went as it was a pretty day and the last day of the New Year Festivities so a lot of family traveled to celebrate the holiday together.
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| Summer Palace |
Feb. 12 - TRAVEL DAY TO GUIYANG!! Woke up early to head to the airport. Arriving in Guiyang we felt hopeful, it was a beautiful day full of sunshine and Guiyang is basically built into a mountain and has a very scenic feel as you drive in with lots of greenery and mountains. It is small compared to other cities with only about 5 million people. We did not have our Gotcha day scheduled until Monday so this day was a long and emotional one, felt like I was going to puke or cry all day long. We were dropped off at our hotel by our guide and that was basically that. No here let me take you out to a late lunch/early dinner because you will in no way be able to order here in Guiyang because it is nothing like Beijing. No picture menus, nothing translated on Goodle Translate. We were given some direction to the nearest convenience store and that was about it. No warning that oh and you have to cross streets under ground and underground is going to be a smoke filled cell phone dealer hell. We ventured out after we got settled and were feeling good until we saw NO restaurants, NO convenience stores only a class of kids learning English that ran up to us to grade them on their lesson. (we found that if you go the opposite direction from the hotel it is much better) We walked out of KFC in tears because we couldn't even order there at first. It was the most humbling experience of my life (I think every person should feel that way at way at some point). Matt left me to wallow in my emotional tears in our hotel room and got brave at the next door KFC...for the whole week KFC tasted like survival to us.
Tomorrow -- GOTCHA DAY
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