Awesome Beijing

We had run into Barbara Geer, the president of NAME (Patti's professional organization) the night before and she was travelling alone. We invited her to go with us to tour Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.

We took a taxi and he let us off - we weren't quite sure where - but we wandered to over to what we thought was Tienanmen Square. It is HUGE. We read that it can accommodate a million people, and there were close to that many people there. As we we walking, people stopped us and asked if they could take pictures with us; we were one of very few Westerners in this place. It was kind of odd, really. After walking through the square, we look across the street and see what looks like the Forbidden City with a giant picture of Chairman Mao on it, so we headed over there.

Barbara with twins

With the other 8 kazillion people, we tried to figure out how to get in - and just follow the crowd. As we go through the first gate, several people ask if we want a guide. We kept saying no... until finally a young woman asked. By then we had seen that the place was enormous and we knew nothing about it. So we agreed on a price - $200 RMB which is $30. Our guide's English name is Angela, and the first thing she did was worth the price: She bypassed the long tickets lines because she was a tour guide leading a group.

Each time we went through a new gate into another section, we thought we were finally in the real Forbidden City. We didn't realize that there is an outer-outer-outer and an outer-outer-inner section -- layers and layers of walls and gates to protect the emperor because he was constantly threatened, even by his own brother. Angela was terrific -- she gave us lots of history and explanation about each section.

After three hours with us, Angela got a call from a friend who was in "big trouble." We weren't sure it was quite so urgent - maybe she had arranged a call to rescue her from these three gringos, but she showed us how to exit and took her leave. But not before quoting us a price on an excursion to the Great Wall and the Summer Palace.

Now, how to find a taxi to get back to the hotel? We approached a couple of taxis outside the gate and they said no. We're not sure why.  We kept walking and further down the road a guy approached us and asked if we needed a taxi. He said he had a car and we haggled on the price. We didn't realize it was a private car, parked a long way away, but he was very pleasant, spoke English well and talked about his friends in Chicago. His son was actually our driver, and we're not sure how long he had been driving. But he was very careful and quite sweet.  He took us back to our hotel, having a little trouble finding it.

We did our usual first aid - taped up Patti's blisters, Bio-Freezed Leanne's ankles and knees and both took 2 ibuprofen.

After dinner, we decided to see how close we were to the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium. We asked the bellman for directions and he pointed the way and said, "10 minute walk." By now we don't quite trust the Chinese time estimates, but this actually was a 10-minute walk. The Olympic park where the stadium is, is right next to the hotel. It was worth the trip.

There were so many people in this beautiful park - families, older people, little children. We first came across a little band of men sitting under some trees in the park, playing cymbals and drums and Chinese horns that sound like kazoos. They were having a great time. We listened a bit and walked on. The next thing we came across was a group of young people line-dancing to Chinese pop music. Further down  was a big group of people watching a traditional dance troupe in costume, doing some kind of folk dance, accompanied by drums and cymbals.

But the real attraction was the Bird's Nest stadium which you could see from anywhere in the park. We saw the tower that held the Olympic flame, which was beautifully lit. We saw children flying short kites that made a  very cool rustling sound... its a great park built for and used by humans.

We walked up as close as we could get to the stadium and it is a beautiful structure. We took lots of pictures of it and then walked across the park to the water cube. It was mesmerizing to watch the colors changing. We walked along the water cube, went into the gift shop and realized we were exhausted... and a long way from the hotel. We tend to do this - walk until we are exhausted and then realized we have to walk back.

Around 20 or 30 minutes later, we got back to the hotel.  More band-aids, more biofreeze, more ibuprofen ... but completely worth it. Those structures will be as impressive to people in generations to come than the Forbidden City. Or at least that's what we think.