Another Big Day!
We had another super busy day in Beijing today: Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and Temple of Heaven were on the agenda. This meant HOURS of walking, and sadly, it was not a blue sky day. It was pretty smoggy, and we came close to breaking out the masks.
We started the day in Tiananmen Square. This time, unlike our previous trip, we were able to get close enough to the outside of Chairman Mao’s tomb. We didn’t go in, mostly because the wait is HUGE. Everyone in China wants to make the pilgrimage to see Mao. We settled for a picture outside instead.
After walking the length of the largest public square in the world, we entered The Forbidden City. It is truly spectacular. You can’t imagine the scope of it until you’re actually there. It was just as impressive this time as it was 6 years ago. Jack had a ball rubbing the gold knobs on each door for good luck!
We took a break for lunch at a hot pot restaurant well known for its dancing noodle pullers. I’ll eventually get around to a more in-depth recap of that (complete with video!) but for now I’ll just say that it was both delicious AND super fun. Once we were sufficiently fed we headed to the Temple of Heaven. Again, you cannot fathom how beautiful it is until you’ve seen it in person. Yeah, I know Epcot’s version is pretty, but nothing compares to the real deal.
Finally, we ended the day with dinner with our dear friend Jerry and his wife Ivy. They’ll get a whole post to themselves (hopefully I’ll have a bit of time on the train to Xi’An tomorrow), but for now I’ll just say how unbelievably lucky we are to have him in our lives.
Now it’s time for sleep, and not a minute too soon. This mama is tired!
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