Early day today with an 8am departureick. Lots of dumplings at breakfast and a rarity for me a Berliner actually TWO Berliners they were the best doughnuts (jelly, as in President Kennedy) that Ive had in my life. Couple of pieces of sushi and some hash browns, and lox no eggs, no sausage, but grapefruit juice and coffee.
Off to Tiananmen Square this morning first stop while a couple of people were in the happy house was for batteries and a good thing. The first shot I made zapped the last of the old ones. Good timing. Apparently the square will hold half a million people (and a couple of tanks).
It was a big open space with lots of people and David said that it wasnt very crowded since it was a workday (Monday). Looked crowded to me. Marty and Eric turned into a tourist attraction of their own with lots of the Chinese tourists wanting to have their picture taken with the big white tourists. One of the signs hanging from a building ringing the square is an Olympic Games countdown clock.
Apparently they have the same changing of the guard ceremony with the raising and lowering of the Chinese flag that most other countries have with soldiers guarding it during the day, with Mao stareing over their shoulders Mao hangs over the Imperial Entrance to the Forbidden City.
After Tiananmen Square, it was off to the Forbidden City with its 9,999 rooms needless to say, we didnt see anywhere that many rooms though I think the plan is that we are walking three to four miles today. I cant imagine doing this tour in the other directions where you would still be jet-lagged at this point. The Forbidden City is just across the street via an underground tunnel.
The Forbidden City is just massive thats all that I can say about it pavilion after pavilion after pavilion quarters for the emperor, empresses, and the league of 500 eunuchs to service the households needs like a household NEEDS 9,999 rooms. All those rooms and not a built-in bathroom while it was still a palace, the eunuchs just followed them around with gold buckets to collect their waste.
Amazing detail work on the buildings all the gold color is actually gold leaf (saw them applying some when we were at the summer palace).
We only did a hand full of the rooms looked in to a bunch more spent about an hour poking around sort of like trying to do the Louve or the British Museum in an hour. Guess this means that Ill have to come back to Beijing but not for the Olympics.
David, the taskmaster, flogged us on to the bus after the Forbidden City for a short ride to a restaurant for lunch liking the tail end of the tour when they just put a set number of bottles of beer, soda, and water on the table means a lot more beer for those of us who drink beer. The downside is that these restaurants are usually attached to some sort of shopping opportunity. Today is was fresh water pearls. Makes me wonder if Viking River Cruises actually pay for the meals or if they are just a cost of doing business for the large merchants giving them a semi-captive audience. Lunch was an odd combination of Chinese, American, and Italian food fried chicken, fried pizza, kung pao chicken, really delicious lamb, pepper steak, French fries, steamed rice, braised vegetables a true mishmash of dishes served buffet style, which is a nice change from the lazysusan that always runs out of room.
After lunch we are off to the Summer Palace which really was quite nice. More walking, but it was one of the nicest gardens that we had toured so far Im starting to feel like Marty who wants more plants in her gardens. Again, more crowds, and a warning about vendors and pickpockets Ive only had to swing at one vendor so far but with the heat and humidity, my patience is thin. The finale of the Summer Palace tour was a boat ride across the man-made lake where the dragon lady empress hung out in the summer because is was supposedly cooler than the Forbidden City. Today is was just hot and muggy with occasional sprinkles that seemed to just add to the heat. An interior shot of the boat is below.
Got back to the hotel room at about 3:50 only to find that my room hadnt been made up which also meant no ice for the scotch. They havent quite gotten the western standard service concept down yet. A call to the desk solved the ice problem, and eventually the room tidying (and fresh towels) problem.
With a bus to dinner leaving at 5:50, at least I have two hours to shower, change, download the photos, write up the journal, and drink scotch.
During rush hour, getting to the hotel and opera house takes us about 40 minutes rather than the usual 30. We actually had ALL of our group join us for the last meal the two Franks, who havent been seen for days (they were in Beijing last year and had seen the sites we were seeing), and one other couple who was pleading a very early flight and no time to pack group pressure (and me telling them they had two hours) finally convinced them.
Eric bought a round of beer for the table and we all had a good time watching them carve the Peking Duck tableside was a site I want that guy at Thanksgiving! By far the best dinner, both in the quality of food and the presentation. The presentation was stunning. Lovely bamboo serving platters.
After dinner we all went upstairs to the opera hall. Open seating and plenty of seats on a Monday night. Didnt feel like anymore to drink (as a cost factor) so was happy with the free jasmine tea. The show was comprised of three sections. The first was a cultural show about a specific Yellow River region, the second was a Peking-style opera with the martial arts, the acrobatics, the high-pitched singing and the third was five smaller acts of regional significance.
I must confess that I liked the acrobatics of the opera but the high-pitched singing was like a cat being gutted out. The live musicians for the other parts of the show were some of the best Ive heard I probably would have been happy just listening to them.
The show lasted just an hour and I had to borrow Marty and Erics camera to get my shots of the opera and dinner since Id left mine in the room. Too bad as there were some hotties on the stage that Id have like to have at 8x zoom. The bus took just 25 minutes to get us home, and back to the room for scotch, packing, filing out immigration and evaluation forms, and repacking to make room for all the toiletries that I cant take on as carryon.
A last note about my hotel here in Beijing look out my window in one direction and you see the China headquarters of Microsoft, and look in the other direction and you see the new American Embassy under construction.
Time to write a note to include with my tip for David and seal that envelope and stack it on the rest of the paperwork to turn in tomorrow.
Luggage out at 7:30am, get on the transfer shuttle at 8:30am think it will be Dick taking us to the airport since he picked us up there. David will be in the lobby to see us off.
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