Wintertime in the Void
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We slept in a bit, and
had a quick breakfast in the very pricey restaurant in the hotel foyer,
but we were hungry from not having eaten last night, and decided better
to get ripped off here, than go out there starving and not know what's
going on.
We headed out on foot,
walking in the general direction of the forbidden city. It was our plan
to get out there and see what was going on. The area was different in
daylight, colorful in places, gray in many, and busy. Traffic was insane,
the sound of car horns was the never-ending background track to the trip.
We were lucky to have nothing but beautiful weather for the whole trip.
The daytimes were cold, but not too cold. Night time was very cold. We
were surprised how quickly the temperature dropped after the sun went
down.
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Before long we were
facing some old structures. We only had a basic map, so we followed the
walls till we came to an opening.
All we knew was these
were the walls of the forbidden city.
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There was a great moat
running around most of it too. When we finally came to a gate we had a
choice of left or right.
Good thing we chose
left, it led us to the much smaller temple complex of ancestor worship.
This was more in line with the time we had, and would have been disappointing
if we had waited till after the forbidden city to go. I was accosted by
some guy trying to sell me tour books. I bargained him down some from
100 yuan, to two for 50.
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| Dotted along
the walls surrounding the city were these great towers. Looking like some
defensive structure from some Microsoft Historical RTS, they were none the
less impressive. |
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The fist thing that
I noticed is that most things were made from stone. So much stone. It
was great.
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Andy
Poses for Alex.
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Ok, some explanation
about this. Asians know how to build a really cool looking roof. Often
the corners are adorned with cool monsters. This is something which I
assume Japan took from China, since they took everything else.
This leads to soooo
many pics of rooftops. If you find them boring, sorry, but I think they
are cool.
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One of the main halls
in the palace for the worshipping of Ancestral Tablets.
Grand.
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Beijing tourism rates
toilets around town by stars. We found in the long run that their ratings
were, for the most part. Useless.
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One of the
cooler aspects of Chinese architecture was these stone walkways running
up the middle of all stairways. These were strictly for the use of deities
when climbing the steps. They are found everywhere and are stunning pieces
of masonry. |
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Another
great hall.
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Anyone who wants over
this bridge is gonna hafta deal with the American twosome, seen here sporting
their least amused faces.
(Andy on the Left, Alex
on the Right, for those of you back home who haven't figured it out yet.)
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As we continued to
poke around the complex we ended up in the playground of the crown prince.
It was a cool park which seemed to be piles of wild stone, but in actuality
had many well laid out, paths. I thought it would have been just about
the coolest place when I was a kid.
Ah, to have been born
a crown prince...
Meh, I think I'll
take warm homes over cool playgrounds...
Which leads me to
wonder why I live in Japan...
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The playground of the
crown prince.
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After we were done
playing in there, we headed out and took the right where we had before
taken a left. We found ourselves in the courtyard between the forbidden
city and Tian An Men square.
We experimented with
using my cameras two shot mode to take our picture together without
having to give the camera to a stranger.
The result. One tiny
Kuma.
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By this point our lack of
organization became apparent. We really didn't know where we were, and things
seemed to be closing down. We figured out that all major tourist spots close
at 4pm. I had noticed back at wangfujing a bookstore that advertised English
books. We decided we would have a look at Tain An Men, and then call it an early
day. We would stop in that bookstore, get a travel guide, and then retire for
the night, get up early and tackle the city proper.
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The Gate of the forbidden
city across from the square.
Featuring everyone's
favorite Chairman.
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The
gate from Tian An Men.
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The monument to the
peoples heros.
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We headed back to Wangfujing
district, where I took the obligatory "Look what McDonalds signs
look like in this country!" pic.
We stopped and did some
shopping (which really means recreational bargaining) I bought a silk
tie and some pipes and stuff. Then we decided to get some dinner...
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We sat down in this
small restaurant at the back of some small alley. We were handed a menu
we could barely read (I say barely because Alex and Andy know Kanji,
so we could at least identify animals) and ordered a dish and some beer.
When it arrived we decided it wasn't enough and let Andy order some
more.
That was our Mistake.
Andy ordered up more
food than we could possible eat. Seen here are the remnants of Peking
duck, duck soup, spicy pork soup, meat dumplings (60!), fried egg yolks,
a whole fish (which they actually brought out to show us before cooking
it...) and 5 750ml Beers.
Total cost of dinner:
About 18.00
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After dinner, we headed back
out to the alleys for some more shopping. Alex and I bought some pipes, and
Andy bought some small glass bottles with river scenes painted on them. He later
regretted this purchase, and I thought I one point that those bottles would
be the death of me. I can't explain it in typing, you will have to ask me in
person. We headed up to the bookstore where we were able to get a lonely planet
guide to Beijing and the great wall. It was odd. You picked out the book, when
and paid for it, then brought back a receipt, and then they gave you the books.
Andy had read that this was how it was done in Russia too...
Turns out the book was a godsend.
All of a sudden we had maps, addresses, itineraries, costs, everything we needed.
I didn't believe in books when I traveled across Europe, but man! This one was
great. We were glad for it too, cause this day was sort of spent wandering...
not really knowing where to go for lack of knowledge of what to go see.
We wouldn't make that mistake
twice.
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This guy deserves a
leather hat. He hustled Andy and pushed and prodded. Easily the most persistent
salesman we met. In the end I had to wander over and Intimidate him into
leaving Andy alone.
Shaved heads are handy
when traveling.
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Everything can be
bought in the wangfujing night markets. Alex took a liking to these
little chemical packs to keep your hands warm.
Cheap swords, chess
sets, personal seals, it's all here, and it's all low quality!
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