Beijing Sites

Friday we started off our trip on Friday by visiting Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. These sites are both toward the center of Beijing (actually, the Forbidden City is the original center of the city, I believe) and take about 40 minutes via subway and walking to get there from Jon's place.

Neither were particularly exciting, to be honest. Tiananmen Square is literally just a huge (the biggest in the world, apparently) flat stone paved area with a couple unexciting monuments scattered around. There's nothing to do, you have to put your bags through a security screening upon arrival, and the place (like most places here) is crowded as crap. We tried to go see some site in the middle of the square (I think it was some tomb or something? We can't read any of the signs.) that everyone was flocking to line up for, but got booted from the line (via megaphone announcement about three feet from our heads) because you can't carry bags into that area. Yeah. Whatever.

Across the street from the Square is the Forbidden City. This is the old area of the city built for royal people back in the day. It's a relatively large area of very old buildings and plazas that was once only available to VIPs. Now it's just a huge sightseeing attraction that draws approximately a gazillion Chinese visitors. 

The facility itself is in disrepair. The cobble stone plazas are uneven and have many stones missing or broken. There are weeds growing out of the walls. The paint is peeling on the structures. The signage is minimal and the crowds are overwhelming. Which was unfortunate, certainly, and unexpected. I was thinking that they might not upkeep their landmarks as a rule and was a bit upset by this prospect.

Saturday, we visited the Summer Palace and found that this is not the case, thankfully. The Summer Palace is a huge park area with a variety of buildings, bridges, and pagodas situated around a large man-made lake. Some princess wanted this place built some hundreds of years ago and -- voila -- new lake and beautiful surrounds.

Which, of course, was only allowed to be enjoyed by royal people and the like for a number of years but is now open to the masses. And the masses do flock, holy crap. SO MANY PEOPLE. 

The day was beautiful (sunny, the "fog" had receded a good amount) and everything about the Summer Palace was serene and pretty. Unlike the Forbidden City, the Palace is very well kept and clean, and the arrangement of the foliage, buildings and water was picturesque. You can rent a paddle boat to paddle around the lake (we're lazy, didn't do this), or walk around the lake to the different structures and trails scattered around.

We stayed for a few hours just walking, taking a ferry across the lake, and enjoying the day. We were going to hit up the Olympic Park afterward, but instead we stayed too long, ate food nearby, and headed back to Jon's place to rest and then go to dinner. 

Up next... THE FOOD. (It's good, by the way.)