We made our way to the Forbidden City in the morning a little on the late side but without any issues. Fortunately we have not had any major problems with jet lag yet. Im positive now that I made the correct choice in pulling an all nighter before traveling. The forbidden city itself is much larger than I ever imagined. The central aisle through the city is a grand entrance way with massive gates and thrones. The main gates all look very similar to the untrained eye. The very back center of the
city is a beautiful rock and tree garden it was very nice, but like the central ally, crawling with tourists and people trying to take you to the great wall. The real treat is in the side courtyards and rooms. They are less crowded, very quiet and each has its own unique features. The names are great: gate of supreme harmony, throne of loyal obedience...) One little courtyard leads into another and each is more interesting than the next.
The forbidden city is right across the street from Tianamen Sq - after spending about 3 hours in the forbidden city (and feeling like I could have spent a week) we rolled through Tianamen in about 15 minutes. Its exactly what you see in textbooks, a square. If it weren't for the historical context it would be completely unremarkable.
From Tianamen Sq we took the subway to the Temple of Heaven - a 250+ acre arboretum. After an hour trip trying to find some good food, we had to rush through because it was getting dark. The temple itself was already closed but looked impressive from the outside. There was a giant, elevated, stone pathway running between the main temple and another alter, this was probably the most interesting thing we saw there. We also really enjoyed the Long Corridor, a covered pathway filled with musicians and a number of Chinese playing cards. The musicians were plentiful, usually a couple (male and feamale) none were asking for change like you might expect in the states. Occasionally people would walk by singing in the other parts of the park but most of the musicians seemed to stay around the corridor. About 20 yards away from the corridor all the sounds blended into a cacophony of shreiks and string instruments.Today on the schedule: Llama temple, Silk Market, Drum & Bell Tower, Houhai, Beihai Park
2 comments:
Quite a whirlwind first day! Keep up this pace and you'll do the world in two weeks! Sounds wonderful. Thanks for posting...we're all living vicariously.
I had the exact same thoughts on Tianamen Square...it is a square. Literally, that is it.
ps- Please tell me that you bought one of those awesome Mao watches that the people try and force down your throats.
Also, I might be using this blog in my classroom (with homeroom) because we're doing country reports and learning about foreign culture.
Post a Comment