Asia 2017 - Day 2: Forbidden City
I waited in the lobby to meet half of the group, and we joined the other half already on the coach making 17 of us in total. We made the very short trip from our hotel around the corner to start the day at Tiananmen Square.
Within the first 10 minutes I had already had my first photo taken because of my height. The square is one of the biggest squares in the world and is perhaps most famous for the 1989 protests. On the square you will find Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong.
We slowly walked around the square making our way across the road via the underpass to the Forbidden City.
The sheer size of this place is amazing, there are around 980 buildings to explore you could spend all day here if you wanted to. We were guided through some of the most important buildings as we learned more about them through local knowledge. In total I think we spent the better part of 2.5 hours here which I felt was just right to see what we needed to. We then had some lunch before driving across the city to the Summer Palace.
The Summer Palace has a man-made lake(Kunming), along with various gardens and palaces and was an imperial garden in Qing Dynasty. The most notable buildings can be seen on Longevity Hill and the whole area covers around 2.9 square kilometres (1.1 sq miles), 75% of which is water.
We then drove back across the city towards the hotel area to end our first full day together here. Before sleeping tho I need to grab something for dinner, just around the corner from the hotel is Wangfujing Street. The main street is pedestrianised with various food and clothing stores but just off that is a smaller street selling snacking food at night. This is a tourist hotspot for trying some of the crazy food they have in Beijing. I saw scorpions and grasshoppers on sticks that were still alive, along with various other food that I didn't intend on trying. So I tried the local Mcdonalds and called it a day.
My video from this day can be found here:
Next Day: Mutianyu Great Wall, Olympic Park & Rickshaw Hutong tour.
Tiananmen Square
Within the first 10 minutes I had already had my first photo taken because of my height. The square is one of the biggest squares in the world and is perhaps most famous for the 1989 protests. On the square you will find Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong.
We slowly walked around the square making our way across the road via the underpass to the Forbidden City.
Forbidden City
The sheer size of this place is amazing, there are around 980 buildings to explore you could spend all day here if you wanted to. We were guided through some of the most important buildings as we learned more about them through local knowledge. In total I think we spent the better part of 2.5 hours here which I felt was just right to see what we needed to. We then had some lunch before driving across the city to the Summer Palace.
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| Outside the Forbidden City. |
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| Inside the Forbidden City. |
Summer Palace
The Summer Palace has a man-made lake(Kunming), along with various gardens and palaces and was an imperial garden in Qing Dynasty. The most notable buildings can be seen on Longevity Hill and the whole area covers around 2.9 square kilometres (1.1 sq miles), 75% of which is water.
 |
| Cruise on Kunming Lake looking up at Longevity Hill. |
We then drove back across the city towards the hotel area to end our first full day together here. Before sleeping tho I need to grab something for dinner, just around the corner from the hotel is Wangfujing Street. The main street is pedestrianised with various food and clothing stores but just off that is a smaller street selling snacking food at night. This is a tourist hotspot for trying some of the crazy food they have in Beijing. I saw scorpions and grasshoppers on sticks that were still alive, along with various other food that I didn't intend on trying. So I tried the local Mcdonalds and called it a day.
My video from this day can be found here:
Next Day: Mutianyu Great Wall, Olympic Park & Rickshaw Hutong tour.
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