Invasion of The Forbidden City

Had a well needed night of relaxation last night, stayed in the hotel and watched The Strangers, read, than fell asleep fairly early.  Jed went for a walk to Tiananmen Square while I surfed the net, and planned out what we would do the next day.  We settled on The Forbidden City, home to the two Chinese dynasties.

We woke up around 9AM, and shuffled down to breakfast.  This was our first day of making a hotel breakfast, and it did not disappoint.  They had traditional Chinese food, as well as western breakfast.   I got pancakes, and a chocolate croissant, which was delicious and a great break from the local fare we have been having.   Got back to the room, and found we neither had clean clothes.  The laundry situation is pretty dismal in Beijing, and we were at the mercy at the hotel, where they charge about 5 dollars to wash one tee-shirt.  Picked my three favorite to wash, and put on my least dirty shirt, which says "I <3 HK" so much for not sticking out as a huge tourist.

Walked to The Forbidden City from our hotel, took about 20 minutes.  When we arrived I was reminded why China is the most populated country in the world.  The square to get tickets was insanely crowded, there had to me thousands of people waiting to get in, but the line to buy tickets was pretty fast.  We opted for an automatic guide, kind of a like an audio guide, but you have no idea when it goes off.  Mine was a bit more sensitive the Jed's, and would go off always like 2 minutes before.  The Forbidden City itself is just too cool for words.  It is immense, and it took us over 4 hours just to visit every building.  The architecture is just about as authentic as you will ever see, and it gives a great sense of what it was like for the Emperor living in the city.  There is a path made out of white marble that only the Emperor was allowed to walk on, so naturally we spent the whole say only walking on that path.  We felt pretty regal and decided that it would have been good to be Emperor.

We left The Forbidden City and went to explore Tiananmen Square.  It was pretty cool, but surprisingly enough, it doesn't have a warm feeling to it.  It's immense, but everyone seems like their kind of walking on egg shells, while visiting.  The whole communist style architecture that makes up Tiananmen can be described in two words:

Stone and Massive.  It has a 1984 vive, and with all the cameras, you can be sure that Big Brother was watching.

Went back to the hotel after getting a quick lunch.  This hotel is so great, we discovered that with our upgrade we now have access to a happy hour in the premiere lounge, which basically means free drinks and food for two hours a day.  Signing off now to go pick up our 30 dollar laundry, and see what to do tonight.