Day 27 was the Chinese New Year, and Jessica and I got up early to get breakfast. Walking downstairs, we were directly outside found leek and garlic dumplings at first, and then found some pork and onion dumplings too. We messaged the boys, but they didn't want to get up. One of the few people in there eating came to talk to us, and we found out that she had lived in Canada for 15 years, but had come home for 4 months to help out with her dying father. Around 9, they kicked us out of the breakfast room so they could clean up. Jessica and I went back to our room, and we all tried to figure out what we were doing the rest of the day.
Around 11, we headed out of the hotel, destination: Forbidden City. We had to take 3 subways, but first we had to get to the subway station. The hotel gave us their shuttle to the subway station for 12 quai total, which wasn't bad. Once getting there, we had to buy a ticket for the ride to Tiananmen West, which was where both Tiananmen Square (the same one that had had the massacre, yes) and the Forbidden City was nearby it. We had to get on three subways, accidentally getting on the subway that was going in the wrong direction for the last one, but we figured it out quickly.
We got off at the square, and the line for it wrapped around 2 blocks, so we decided not to. Crossing the street, we saw one of the imposing looking government buildings with guards standing outside of it (no shock). Still going, we saw a lady eating some street food, and wondered what it was. Turns out it was candied fruit. We figured it was a Chinese New Years' treat, and decided to try the one with the candied strawberries on it. It was delicious, although the fruit on the end of it was questionable...it was like a cross between a cherry and an apple tastewise, according to Jessica, even though it looked like an apple.
Walking further down, we ran into a guy who stopped Dom, trying to sell him something. At first he refused, but then the guy said something else and he started listening. He was trying to sell a guided tour of the Great Wall, the Jade Factory, the Olympic Village, and a few other places. It was private and included transporation. It was only 500 yuan, so we decided to sign up for the next day. It was an 8 hour trip, and would require us leaving at 8, but we thought it would be worth it.
Getting in line for the Forbidden City was interesting. The line wasn't as long, but it was still crowded. Apparently, in China, lines aren't lines, more of bunches of people shoving each other. We were in line for at least an hour, and at the end, people were shoving each other around to get in, even past small children. I tried to avoid separating children from their parents, but all 4 of us ended up going in at separate times.
Getting in, Nick and Jessica offered me buns from a package they had bought. We waited for Dom to get in, and we headed toward the giant temple that had a portrait of China's first president, Mao Zedong.
Going through the crowds, there was a pavilion area with lots of other temples, a few gift shops, and other places. We went into a couple gift shops, and got a beef wrap meal and some rice milk from one of the (overpriced) restaurants inside, splitting it with Jessica.
There is DONKEY on the menu....
The others went into another gift shop while I finished my food, and when they came out, I went in, looking around. I had already gotten a bracelet for a friend at another shop, and saw a rooster necklace that caught my eye, but it was fairly expensive, and I decided to wait. Walking back out, I saw Nick looking for me. He guided me over toward the ticket stand for the Palace Museum, which the others had already bought tickets for. I got a discount for saying I was a college student and showing them my CQU card (although I'm staff there), and walked out, when the others waved to me frantically to get my attention.
We went through security and walked in. Everything was magnificent. We saw some jade lions, but decided to come back later to see them, wanting to wander around the palace areas first.
Accidental selfies that happened when Jessica tried to take the picture below
There were lots of rooms with information and neat artifacts. I found out that Chong Qing was an empress dowager (mother of the emperor) and she was who the city was named after. I also found out that the throne was made of sandalwood with jade inlay at the top. But most of what we saw is better expressed in pictures than words....
This reminded me of a Dalek from Doctor Who, but it's a bell
There were lots of areas, from pavilions to the large garden to a sculpture room, as well as several archeological dig sites, which I really found fascinating. There were several gift shops inside too, and stopped inside, getting myself a fish keychain that moved like an actual fish on its joints, and a wallet patterned with Chinese flowers for a friend.
Room on top of limestone pulled up from a lake bed
Another piece of limestone from a lake bed and my new fish keychain
At 4:30, they kicked everyone out of the museum area, so we didn't get a chance to see the Jade Lions again, but we walked with the crowd out of the city. There was a perfect photo op with the sunset near a temple though, so we stopped for a few pictures, and then Jessica and I bought another candied strawberry stick.
As we went down the street, we got stopped by a guy dressed as the Monkey King, who is a mythical creature in Chinese folklore, and took a bunch of pictures. As we walked away, he motioned for tips, which we gave him. We headed on down, using the public restroom (which didn't have stalls, just holes in the ground....no privacy, but when you gotta go, you gotta go).
We then headed in a souvenir type of shop, getting some trinkets. There was a restaurant there, but we decided to wait to eat until later (BIG mistake). So we started walking back toward the Forbidden City, deciding to go through security again, so we could easily get across the street to Tiananmen Square, getting a couple pictures as we walked by. It was hard to believe that I was standing so close to where a massacre had occurred not so long ago.
We walked on down toward the Temple of Heaven, and tried to eat at one of the very few restaurants open for the New Year.We looked at the menu, and they were way too expensive. They charged 20 quai for just a soft drink that was normally 2 or 3 quai.
Tiananmen monument
We saw a procession of military officers go by, and several people were taking videos, so we did too. But we decided to walk down toward this place called the Silk Market, where Nick had gone when he had gone on a tour of China five years before. We asked a cop for directions and started to walk. We were going off of a map that Jessica had of the city, and it said we were only a few subway stops away. So we decided to keep walking.....and walking......and walking for well over an hour. At this point, I was very tired and hungry, but not wanting to complain, I mostly kept my silence, only to break it to have a bit of conversation from time to time. We stopped at a subway station to ask directions, and was told to keep walking about 10 more minutes. We kept going through Downtown Beijing, finding nothing, freezing from the 0 degree Celsius temperature.
We eventually saw a mall that was closed called Silk Street, and figured we were close. So we went a bit farther and decided to ask a worker at another area. He told us that there was no silk there, and we gave up, unwillingly, and decided to look for food. Going into an indoor mall, nothing was open but the ice rink. We wandered up and down floors, finding one restaurant that was open, but its dishes ranged into over a 1000 quai, so we knew it was way out of our price range.
We sat down, evaluating our options. There were apparently food places nearby, and Nick and Dom had differing opinions about that. But Jessica and I were the majority vote, wanting to go home on the subway (which had a convenient stop in the mall), and that was what we did. Getting to the subway station, we needed help from the desk worker to call the hotel shuttle (since they didn't speak English and she did), but they had trouble figuring out where we were, so we decided to get one of the taxis that were outside the station instead. I had seen instant noodles at the front desk, so that's what we got for dinner, and I had grabbed an orange juice and a Coke from the subway station vending machine on the way back too.
Exhausted, I video called a friend to talk to them for a while and unwind after a very stressful day.
I soon went to sleep though, knowing we had an early morning ahead of us.
-Zoe
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