Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Tianamen Square

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

First thoughts in Beijing

The flight here from the states went surprisingly quickly - I sat down and promptly passed out for about 7 hours when I woke up we were just past the north pole. The quickest way between Chicago and Beijing is across canada, Russia, and Mongolia before reaching China. For the remainder of the flight I watched bad movies, drank wine, looked out the window and caught the occasional cat nap. Siberia looked exactly as you might expect it to but the scale was stunning - thousands and thousands of miles of snowy, uninhabited land. Mongolia was very similar except about a couple hundred miles after we crossed the northern border the snow had melted (or not fallen yet) and all you could see was dirt with no plants or signs of life for thousands more miles.

We couldn't really see anything once we crossed the border into china because of clouds - we couldn't even see much on the final descent into beijing. My friend Gabe and his girlfriend Ali assure me though that the lack of visibility has nothing to do with precipitation or weather and I believe them - the pollution is thick in the air and has a definite taste. Don't expect athletes to be breaking records in the 2008 olympics!

Another friend, Danny, showed up at Gabe and Ali's apartment just moments after Ellie and I arrived. We headed out to a restaurant for a delicious and much welcome dinner - I missed the last meal on the flight and was starving! When we got back, jetlag had the best of me and I was fast asleep on the couch in minutes.

Ellie and I are very fortunate to be staying with friends while in Beijing - its certainly a nice way to ease into this trip. Its funny though, we're surrounded by american friends and are staying in a very nice apt - in many ways its not different from home. I'm sure there will be a major culture shock when finally venture out today for the first time without friendly translators at our side! We will be heading out to the summer palace, Tianamen Sq and temple of heaven. Today will also be the first experiment in the subway - Ali has been great with sightseeing suggestions and directions so I feel well prepared. We're quite obviously not the first out of town guests they've had!

Pulling a Britney

Before:

















Mullet:














After: