Today we woke up bright and early to spend a day full of sightseeing with our tour guide Lee. We met Lee in our hotel lobby and by 9 am we were off! Lee told us our hotel was located in the 3rd circle road of Beijing, there are 6 in total and we would be driving to the center, which is the first circle. As we drove closer toward the center of the city, the busier it became. Lee told us the day would be busy and we would walk 3-4 miles in total (boy he wasn't kidding)
Our driver dropped us in front of Tiananmen Square and we were off. It was an overcast day and very cold and windy. Lee was full of information and told us all about Tiananman Square. As we walked around the square we began to receive more and more attention from the Chinese people. Lee mentioned now a days more Chinese people are able to travel and therefore most of the people were from the other areas throughout China and may not have seen many foreigners in their lifetime. We have read that blonde people will get lots of attention from local Chinese, so being brunette, we weren't expecting such a spectacle. People asked Lee if they could take photos with us, it was hilarious! One women even tried to take Scott to her daughter, as she always wanted her to marry a tall foreigner.
The Entrance to the Forbidden City is located directly behind and across the street from Tiananmen Square and we walked under a tunnel to get there. The crowds were growing as it was a Saturday and like Lee mentioned many Chinese people took vacations to Beijing to see the sights. Forbidden City was amazing. It was enormous and so old, truly amazing to walk past the architecture and buildings that have been around longer then anything in the US. The Forbidden City is where the Emperor would live with his Empress and his mistresses, and staff. It was stunning, and again Lee was right, we waked for a very long time. I can only imagine how beautiful it is in the spring or summer.
We waked around looking at all of the building as Lee told us about the history of the Chinese Emperors and the dynasties of China. We took many photos and took in the sights and sounds around us. We continued to have many photos with the locals--it was fun to interact with the Chinese people even without speaking the same language. It was a great start to our day, and we met up with our driver and he took us to lunch...next, The Great Wall.
No comments:
Post a Comment