Our first day we hit the ground running!! We got to be around 1:30 or so and woke up at 8:00am. Not so bad! We were very happy with our hotel and EXTREMELY happy with our breakfast that was included! Honestly it was the biggest buffet breakfast that I have ever seen...and GOOD! All the normal hot foods, cereal, yogurt, and they would make you omelets, pancakes (with any berries added...yum), waffles (yes waffles), and crepes! It was delicious! They even had coffee/cappachino/espresso maker. So we had an awesome breakfast and then headed off for our first day! The first place we went to was Tiananmen Square.
Monument to their soldiers.
Mao's burial place
Monument dedicated to the People's heroes.
Huge TV screen! They broadcast some of the Olympic events on it!
I forget how many thousands of people can fit in this square, it may even be a million, but it is huge!! It is located directly in front of the Forbidden City. Wendi was telling me about a horrible story that took place here back in 1997. Our tour guide didn't mention a word about it and I guess is told NOT to talk about it! Next time we go, I'm going to ask about it to see what she has to say. I guess many, many people were killed here, as many as 9,000 I think Wendi said.
Standing in front of the Forbidden City!
We thought this was cool, an Amish family adopted a Chinese girl. You don't see that every day but we thought it was very neat that they were bringing her here to see her country, or at least that is what we think they were doing!
Notice the larger opening in the middle, only the Emperor was allowed to use that entrance and many other entrances that you will see in upcoming pictures! The walls of the fortress are 30 feet high and surrounded by a mote that was 160 feet wide.
The Emperor and Emperess and I'm not sure who the other one is, welcoming us in!
Shooting some hoops!!
A SERIOUS game of ping pong going on!
Concubines that surround the outer walls. Only certain people were aloud to cross certain bridges depending on their stature. The Emperor was the only person who may walk down the middle of any of the passage ways.
The two guardian lions are always at the entrance of every house or important building to protect it. The one on the right always has his paw on ball which stands for wealth or riches and the lion on the left always has his paw on a baby lion for fertility. They want many riches and lots of family. Funny how that is different now days here. Only allowed to have one child for most families.
There is so much detailed work in the arches of these buildings as well as stories and pictures to go along with it as well. Wish I could remember more of them. I wish I had a tape recorder with me because there was so much information!
This picture shows the openings a little better, most of the people had to go through the far side openings and only the emperor could go through the middle entrance. His high officers had to walk through a certain one and his family had to walk through another. Only the Emperor may wear yellow. It was a symbol representing the prestige of being the Emperor. No one in the country was to wear that color. Notice the buildings roofs are a yellow color as well. This was reflected back to the home of the Emperor.
This is the second building in line. This one is where the Emperor did all of his business. I'm pretty sure the Empress was not aloud this far up in the Forbidden City. There are actually 8 (and that number being of the most important number in China still today) buildings and courtyards/gates before you could actually get to the Emperor. Each courtyard area having guards to protect the Emperor and his family. The Forbidden City is located on 170 acres which houses 3,000 eunuchs, as well as maids and concubines. There was 9,999 1/2 rooms in the Forbidden City. Around 8,000-10,000 people lived here. A little background knowledge on what a Eunuch was...in order to be a Eunuch you were chosen by the Emperor as a small child and then taken to live in the palace at a very young age. You were trained and educated and then at a certain age were castrated to protect his Empress and concubines (thoughtful fella huh?) We learned many, many interesting facts! Eric wonders how the people of China, still today, allow this city to be standing. It stood for a lot of bad things!
Concubines that surround the outer walls. I can not BELIEVE all of the people that once lived here. There is so much space in between the buildings and we asked if there were any trees ever! She said that they didn't ever have trees in these areas. Only the garden. So much concrete! The Empress had a separate sleeping quarters which was surrounded by his most important concubines.
There used to be guards on all of these different levels protecting the living quarters of the Emperor and Empress.
What a DOLL!
Wendi got a great generations picture of another family! Both sets of grandparents with their grandson! So cute!
Such detail in EVERYTHING! I am amazed at how much detail there is in all of the stone, metal, wood, so gorgeous!
The Emperor and Empress' private garden behind their living area! HUGE garden!
I think this tree was around 600 years old!
The Pagoda on the hill is a park across the road from the Forbidden City. Beautiful!
This is the mote that surrounds the outside of the Forbidden City! Amazing what they did back then for protection and how they built their palaces and fortresses!
The last Ming Emperor, after killing his family, hung himself from a tree here in 1644, during a peasant uprising; the tree survives yet today!
Most of the Forbidden City was renovated in 2008 for the Olympics so we really got to see it at its best which was very nice!
Then we were off to lunch at a Dim Sum Restaurant!
The food was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! Chicken, sugar peas, rice, roast beef, and a few other dishes! Yum!
Nice job, a peanut that she picked up with her chopsticks!!!
Yup, she had to go bad enough! Gotta do what you gotta do! She was nervous but she did it! Once you have gone on the squatters, you have been in China! Just to let you know, this is a VERY, EXTREMELY clean squatter! We weren't always so lucky!
Rickshaw that we took to tour the Hutong area. An area preserved by Beijing city of
The owner of this home. He is a Kungfu teacher at a very prestigious Kungfu school nearby. His son is currently living in Texas and instructing students there in Kungfu. A few of his students will be in the London Olympics in 2012.
Spinning a yo-yo on line. It makes a loud humming/whistling noise!
Local family who allows/gets paid for, tour groups to come into their home and tell us about their lives.
Our guide YoYo, who took us around the Hutong area. She is standing in front a an officials house. The more beams you had at the front door represented higher status and rank your family had. Four was a lot. You could not marry a person with a low status. So four beamers married four beamers, and two beamers married two beamers. We would call this an arranged marriage. Lucky for Eric, him being a two beamer was lucky to marry a four beamer! Would make us three beamers?? Just kidding...thought that was pretty funny! Not so sure he would! He would say it was the other way around, hee hee!
Bell Tower
69 steps, straight up!!
There is a drum ceremony that takes place every hour!
This is a picture of the only original drum that was not destroyed.
In the distance is the Forbidden City. They say the city with this street here is shaped like a dragon with its buildings being it's back and tail.
Huahai lake with restaurants and bars surrounding it.
They had five drummers, each on their own drum that lasted for about 5 minutes or so.
We are told that this is the construction of a home for Prince William and Princess Kate. We are a little skeptical on that one. It is near this little lake but don't quite understand why he would want to build there.
After the Hutong tour we went an AMAZING acrobatic show!
Ok, you see this pyramid looking thing, well the next picture is trying to show how the guy walk/jumped with his one arm DOWN each step and then he went back UP each step with the same arm. He kind of just bounced! I think we were sweating as much as he was! So difficult to do! I thought his veins were going to burst!
Not the best picture but I tried. He is doing this with the same arm all the way down and then back up! Our jaws were on the floor!
Thenhte guy is riding down on his back, so incredibly strong!
This ballerina would walk across his arms!! He is incredibly strong and she has amazing balance!
Yup, not sure how to explain this one! Just pure crazy! Five women contorted in a tower!
9 girls on a bike! You can't see the one actually pedaling but there are 9!!!! We'll have to try this next year at the beach for sure!!
There were many other stunts but I'll show you from when my mom and Beth Ann visited! AGAIN, jaws were on the floor, I even have a picture to prove it! Cambry and Reese did not budge the entire show, just staring!!!
Sorry for the lack of blogs, I just feel like I'm not doing the tours justice because we learned so much and it is hard to write about the pictures and not tell you EVERYTHING! So, guess you will have to visit if you want to learn more!
