First priority upon waking up in Beijing was to acquire breakfast ahead of our guided tour of Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City. After a reasonable sleep-in we may or may not have gone to McDonald’s, which was literally around the corner from our hostel, for an egg burger, hash brown and coffee for 14 yuan.
Then we met Vivian who is actually a good friend of Ann’s, took a short metro trip to Qianmen station and came out on the south end of Tian’anmen square. It wasn’t until the next morning that we got a better idea of just how big Tian’anmen square actually is, but more of that later. The immediate impression is that it would appear very large if it wasn’t humming with people. And even then, looking away to the entrance of the Forbidden City down the North end of the Square, it looks absolutely huge. Vivian explained everything that one might need to know about the Square and when it was built, why, etc, and gave us about 20 minutes to wander up and down.
We did a few group photos at the North end of the Square, which either involved Chines people posing in front of us for their photos, Chinese people joining our group, or people breaking out of our group to join Chinese people’s photos. All good fun.
As with the Square, only after walking around it does one begin to realise just how vast the Forbidden City is. And just like the Hermitage in St Petersburg, it’s vast without feeling grandiose. In the middle are three main temples; they have proper titles but Vivian calls them the throne room, the rest room, and the examination room. The Forbidden City was actually home to the Officials of the Emperor during the various dynasties, and the examination room was where they had to pass the final examination to become officials.
The next set of chambers was where the Emperor’s 3,000 concubines were housed; in order to be sure about matters of paternity everyone but the Emperor who lived in the Forbidden City was a eunuch. And yet for some reason there was no shortage of applicants for the official exams.
As to the multitude of other details and spectacular architecture one encounters in the Forbidden City, I can only recommend that everyone go and see it for themselves. Two final things worthy of mention;
1. Don’t be surprised if random people want to have their photo taken with you. We haven’t yet worked out why this happens but it happens quite a lot.
2. There is a 16m long x 4m wide x 1.6m deep slab of marble laid into a set of steps in the Forbidden City. On the top of the slab of marble is carved some lucky dragons doing lucky dragon stuff, and it’s pretty spectacular. What’s even more spectacular is what that single piece of marble weighs, and the fact that it was moved into place from several kilometres away by the simple but fiendish expedient of wetting the bottom of the marble in winter, and sliding it across the ice.
After the conclusion of the tour we took the bus back to the hotel and stuffed ourselves to the brim with lunch from a chinese-food franchise called Mr. Lee’s. It was 3.30pm and no one had had lunch so were somewhat starving. Any notion of further sightseeing went down the gurgler at that point, because we were meeting at 7pm to go to the Night Markets. Various people from our previous group had asked nicely, paid their money, and been allowed to join Ann’s new group on their trip to the Great Wall. In fact there were more people on the bus from Ann’s previous group than from her new one. We waited around for the bus to get back, played pool in the hostel, and then caught the bus over to Wangfudajie (I think that’s what it was called, the ‘dajie’ part meaning street).
Beijing has taken a practical approach to public transport – a metro ride anywhere is 2 yuan, while a bus ride is 1 yuan. Very handy – and it makes your trip to the night markets even cheaper than if you had taken a taxi, which would have been cheap.
The night markets were everything we had expected and more – chaos, fun, food, and some very unusual items skewered and grilled. Nat dared herself into eating grasshopper, which apparently is not that bad. Alice had some spicy crab (which was actually three crabs skewered in two sticks) and declared it to be her favourite. I couldn’t go past the fried ice cream, which actually tasted a bit like marshmallow. Andy and Steve tried the grilled snake, and nobody tried the lamb testicles. Afterward we went to the bar of the nearby hotel in which Prash and Shanika were staying, which I am sorry to report was amusingly bad. The place is done up all modern and looks shiny, but Liam’s Mojito (spelled Moqito in the menu) came in a tumbler with about 5 teaspoons of chopped mint, Prash’s scotch came after a great delay, and Adam’s Baileys came in what looked like a miniature champagne flute, with about one capful of Baileys in it.
Alice ordered a Cabernet Sauvignon and the waiter asked if she wanted ice in it.
(Huh?)
And also they had little fish bowls on each table, which consisted of a dead looking fish floating sideways in a martini glass. Shanika asked the waiter to take the fish away from the table but he didn’t seem to understand. We think he thought we wanted to buy it. Or something. Or maybe he thought we were asking if it was alive, and that was why he was shaking his head.
Anyway the bathrooms were quite clean indeed.
One taxi ride later we all went off to bed, knowing there was no way we would fit the rest of Beijing into one remaining day.
Greg
