We headed out Thursday morning, to Tian'an Men square, which is the largest square in the world. Maybe 5 times as many Chinese people go to T square as go to the Great Wall. We saw some people carrying suitcases. They dream of coming to the capital once in their lives and may be able to afford to stay only one night. About 50,000 people a day visit T square.
We are in a central part of the city. Went by the national security administration building. You wont find it on google maps; it's blocked.
We wandered thru a park where retired men bring their birds for play dates every day. A bird can cost ¥500 - 1,000.
There are more western companies here than I expected. Apparently KFC was one of the first. The guide book says they serve some local food, and we tried them today. There was really nothing very good. I tried a local choice that is supposed to be Mexican. It is a strip of breaded, fried chicken with two cooked stalks of a green vegetable in a sweet spicy sauce in a wrap.
After visiting the Forbidden City we couldn't get a taxi, so we took a bus and subway to the Summer Palace. Once reserved for the emperor, it is now open to all and they do come. The palace took 50 years and 3 emperors to build. The emperor travelled a lot and built replicas of other places here. The scholar stones are stunning. There are over 100 bridges and none of them are the same. There are over 200 lions on the Marco Polo bridge and none of them are the same. We visited royal buildings and saw a grand corridor covered with many original paintings. The stone paths are beautiful. We took a motorized tourist dragon boat across the man- made lake, and visited the dragon temple where people went to pray.
Again, it wasn't easy to get a taxi. Over 3 million people a day take taxis, so no wonder they are busy. Our taxi was bumped from the back in transit. There are two ways to resolve such situations: car insurance or payment on the spot. This incident was resolved on the spot.
We had Peking duck tonight, complete with a personalized lesson in how to eat it - I'm sure Vanessa will write about it. (she was fed by a server in Beijing and I was fed by a server in Berlin! Hey, gotta learn somehow.) You really get a whole duck! Another item checked off on the bucket list. The entire meal cost ¥200, or $32. It was fun to have Peking duck in a good restaurant that isn't too fancy.
We walked past the Supreme Court on the way to the restaurant. I have more pictures of lions than you can shake a stick at.
Tomorrow is a free day - yay!
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