Beijing - Day 3

Well.. you will be happy to know I am no longer hungry. We went out with the tour guide last night for an authentic chinese meal, and it was delicious! THe key is how to order the food. I had lotus flower root, bamboo, dumplings dumplings and more dumplings, chicken, mutton, and the list goes on.. for a whopping 26 yuan (< $6!). It was so so good!

Today we went to Tiammen Square and the Forbidden City. Words cannot explain how amazing that place is and HOW BIG. I mean its like you are walking through football field after football field after football field. Something like 76 hectares. It's incredible. The parliament buildings are along the square and it was so neat to see the soldiers march back and forth. There were two soldiers who had to stand on either side of the CHinese flag.. it made me laugh.. yeah.. I am going to climb up a 100 foot pole and steal the flag.. yep that's worth protecting :).

The forbidden city or Imperial Palace is incredible. Moreso on the shear magnitude of this place. Today I met the nephew of the last emporer of China. Seriously. He works inside the city as a caligraphy artist. We could get our names and such written in Chinese, or well wishes, but really it wasn't that important to me. If I do get a chinese symbol it will be in the form of a tattoo somewhere, not as a wall hanging. Anyhoo, the corridors stretched forever and one building after another emerged. When you finally walk through the entire palace, you cross the 50 m moat that surrounds the palace, that was manmade. All the material from the moat was piled on the north side of the palace and became a manmade hill. Following tradition of my travels, if there is a hill or if there is stairs I must climb it. Getting to the top was incredible as it overlooked what I just walked through. Unfortunately my pictures do not give this justice as the amount of smog in the city today makes for all my pics to be hazy. It's supposed to rain tomorrow which will help clear the skies.. mmmm.. acid rain.

We then went our separate ways and I ventured to the shopping district called Warfunching) (?) street, there I had a relapse of Peru, and this man would not stop pestering for me to use his rickshaw that eventually I snapped and stomped my feet and told him to get the heck away. The funny thing was the stomping of the foot. Apparently I throw temper tantrums when being hassled..

ANyhoo, the shopping is insane. It's weird though, I have no interest. I thought I would come here and do all this shopping but in the end, I Just want to visit all the tourist places. So no shopping for me. I'll save my coin and do it back home.

I then walked all the way down the street grabbed the metro and heading to the lama (budhist temple), one stop short of where I was supposed to be, I ended up walking down this amazing street (unfortunately in the wrong direction), but was able to see such an amazing aspect of the Chinese life. It was rows and rows of comb shops, seafood shops (crabs alive were crawling everywhere), red laterns scattered the streets, men were sleeping in their wagons and i just took it all in. I then realized I was going the wrong way, hopped on the train again (granted I had no idea which direction but luckily I am a master of the transit and was where I wanted to be in no time), and I ended up at the lama temple. THis temple wasn't too much to write home about, but it really is interesting watching people pray to the various budhas. OUt of respect I didn't take any photos, but literally sat on a bench and just watched. It was like a dance watching them go to each budha offer their incense, pray, kneel, stand, kneel, burn the incense. It was a very surreal moment for me.

Thoroughly exhausted from exploring I am back at the hotel. Time for a shower to wash the smog off my body and group dinner again tonight. I'll see if my theory works in that I don't need to where sunblock when the shear volume of smog in their air blocks the sun rays from penetrating my skin.. ha ha.

Funny things about China for today:

Babies / Toddlers: They don't where diapers. They have a hole in their pants, more like a slit and when they go, they go. Their parents just move them to the grass and let them do their do. Weird.

I am a celebrity: Daily I have been grabbed by the numerous chinese villages to get my photo. Mike and I (a guy on the tour) are just starting to do crazy poses each time... why not!

Lotus Flower Root is INCREDIBLE. So so good. A must for everyone!