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We finished meeting at the branch and went downstairs. Today was a “rest day” for us, so we were just playing it by ear. We hadn’t had any breakfast, so we decided since we were in a nicer part of the city that maybe we could get some type of meal that was healthy but not just yogurt and orange juice. We had also set today as the day we were going to visit the Forbidden City, which is right across from Tianeman Square, and remembered that there was a really nice downtown Oriental Plaza Mall close by, where maybe we could get some “healthy” food. So we flagged a taxi and asked him to take us to Tianeman Square, knowing that he would know where that was and that we could navigate from there. He dropped us off and we went inside. My hunch was correct. They had a “food court” where they had a Starbucks (which had sandwiches), a French café (where they had sandwiches) and even a Fruit Smoothie place. So we had a lunch in China – and had ham and cheese sandwich, a tuna fish sandwich and two fruit smoothies. Such a cultural experience.
Then we headed off to the Forbidden City. This is one of the must see tourist sites that everyone sees when coming to Beijing, so we had to do it too. It is a massive “mini-city” that was constructed in the 1400s housing the emperors and their people/concubines – and was forbidden for the common people to ever enter. Of course, since we hadn’t really planned our day, Emily was walking around in her Sunday church dress, I was walking around in a long white shirt and pants – but most conspicuously, I was carrying around my Book of Mormon from church, since we hadn’t stopped back at our hotel to change. I smiled “inside” at the thought of how many people had ever brought a Book of Mormon to the Forbidden City but made sure I was careful the rest of the time.
We walked into the first large inner courtyard area and stopped to sit down for a moment. Emily and I were talking together when a giggly school girl sat down next to Emily. She didn’t say anything to us and Emily and I continued talking. But then I noticed that some people were taking pictures and videotaping in our direction. I laughed and told Emily that I wondered whether they were really trying to videotape their girl next to Emily with blonde hair. We had already had this happen once on our trip. When we went to the Summer palace, a girl came up to Emily and asked if she could take her picture with Emily – and so they did, and then I took a picture of the girl taking a picture with Emily. Emily looked especially pretty on Sunday as she put her hair up and had a really pretty dress on. One of the locals said she looked like a Hollywood movie star. I thought she looked especially pretty that day – kind of like Reece Witherspoon. Evidently, she made someone’s day.
We walked into a another huge inner court area and then another where lots of vendors were selling stuff. We saw what appeared to be a type of “ticket booth” which had prices of 5 yuan and 10 yuan, but all the instructions were in Chinese. I told Emily that I wasn’t sure now what to do. We could go up to the counter and buy something – but I don’t think we would even know what we were buying or if we were buying tickets for the entry or not. It was kind of funny. But we didn’t see many people stopping there and they all seemed to keep going, so we did too. Next we got stopped by a Chinese local student who had obviously practiced their “pitch” to people like us. She asked us where we were from in a way that I knew she was going to try to sell us something since she almost didn’t wait for us to answer. Then she told us she was an international art student and that today her art was being shown in a booth “over there” and that she just wanted us to go and see the art exhibit for her. I thanked her and told her “maybe later” and then she quickly gave us a slew of reasons why we should do it now. I thanked her and told her “maybe later” and she gave us some more reasons. I was starting to want to tell her that mostly I didn’t like Chinese art, but I held back. She finally let us go. We kept going toward where the rest of the crowd was going. Maybe a minute later a young man came up to us and asked us where we were from. Again, as soon as we answered, he introduced himself as an international art student…with the same exact pitch. We “thanked him” in the exact same way – you have to give them credit for trying. We walked past another American man who had been confronted by another enterprising sales man who was offering him “a great deal.” He too was smiling, in a kind of “how do I get out of this type of way” and said something like “I’m sure it’s a great deal but I’m not interested”. We soon exited that courtyard.
Then we came to another courtyard where we finally saw the ticket booth with instructions in both English and Chinese. There was an option to buy a self-guided walking tour, which we really liked because today we wanted to be in charge of our schedule, so we bought those tickets as well. But when asked where we got the audiophones, they just pointed in my in a direction and waved me off. I could see the entrance, but realized we had no idea how to find the audio phones. We approached the entrance right at the same time as what appeared to be a 50 person school group, They had a security x-ray screening line so Emily had to get in line for that. In this line, you put your bag or purse on the conveyor belt and then went to a small booth to pull it back out. With the school children, it was pandemonium. There was no official on the other side to pass out the bags, so everyone was crowding around this window and grabbing bags helter skelter. I immediately went over and watched everything coming out of everyone’s hands. I thought this was the most insecure security line ever – a bag could be easily stolen as it seemed that there were 15 people reaching and grabbing all the bags. Luckily Emily was able to grab her purse and we escaped the security line.
Then, of course, we entered into another courtyard – and still no sign of how to get our audiophones. We went to a little kiosk and they just pointed up stream again. So we went to the next big building and finally found the self-tour stand. They outfitted us with a pretty neat device. It was a GPS like device that automatically launched a specific portion of the tour description based on where we were walking. There was also a map device with a light that showed us exactly where we were in the Forbidden City. We coul go anywhere we wanted and in essence have our own private tour. Clever. We learned more about the emperors, empresses, concubines, and Chinese traditions and history. Finally we finished at our own pace and went back to our hotel.
Then we headed off to the Forbidden City. This is one of the must see tourist sites that everyone sees when coming to Beijing, so we had to do it too. It is a massive “mini-city” that was constructed in the 1400s housing the emperors and their people/concubines – and was forbidden for the common people to ever enter. Of course, since we hadn’t really planned our day, Emily was walking around in her Sunday church dress, I was walking around in a long white shirt and pants – but most conspicuously, I was carrying around my Book of Mormon from church, since we hadn’t stopped back at our hotel to change. I smiled “inside” at the thought of how many people had ever brought a Book of Mormon to the Forbidden City but made sure I was careful the rest of the time.
We walked into the first large inner courtyard area and stopped to sit down for a moment. Emily and I were talking together when a giggly school girl sat down next to Emily. She didn’t say anything to us and Emily and I continued talking. But then I noticed that some people were taking pictures and videotaping in our direction. I laughed and told Emily that I wondered whether they were really trying to videotape their girl next to Emily with blonde hair. We had already had this happen once on our trip. When we went to the Summer palace, a girl came up to Emily and asked if she could take her picture with Emily – and so they did, and then I took a picture of the girl taking a picture with Emily. Emily looked especially pretty on Sunday as she put her hair up and had a really pretty dress on. One of the locals said she looked like a Hollywood movie star. I thought she looked especially pretty that day – kind of like Reece Witherspoon. Evidently, she made someone’s day.
We walked into a another huge inner court area and then another where lots of vendors were selling stuff. We saw what appeared to be a type of “ticket booth” which had prices of 5 yuan and 10 yuan, but all the instructions were in Chinese. I told Emily that I wasn’t sure now what to do. We could go up to the counter and buy something – but I don’t think we would even know what we were buying or if we were buying tickets for the entry or not. It was kind of funny. But we didn’t see many people stopping there and they all seemed to keep going, so we did too. Next we got stopped by a Chinese local student who had obviously practiced their “pitch” to people like us. She asked us where we were from in a way that I knew she was going to try to sell us something since she almost didn’t wait for us to answer. Then she told us she was an international art student and that today her art was being shown in a booth “over there” and that she just wanted us to go and see the art exhibit for her. I thanked her and told her “maybe later” and then she quickly gave us a slew of reasons why we should do it now. I thanked her and told her “maybe later” and she gave us some more reasons. I was starting to want to tell her that mostly I didn’t like Chinese art, but I held back. She finally let us go. We kept going toward where the rest of the crowd was going. Maybe a minute later a young man came up to us and asked us where we were from. Again, as soon as we answered, he introduced himself as an international art student…with the same exact pitch. We “thanked him” in the exact same way – you have to give them credit for trying. We walked past another American man who had been confronted by another enterprising sales man who was offering him “a great deal.” He too was smiling, in a kind of “how do I get out of this type of way” and said something like “I’m sure it’s a great deal but I’m not interested”. We soon exited that courtyard.
Then we came to another courtyard where we finally saw the ticket booth with instructions in both English and Chinese. There was an option to buy a self-guided walking tour, which we really liked because today we wanted to be in charge of our schedule, so we bought those tickets as well. But when asked where we got the audiophones, they just pointed in my in a direction and waved me off. I could see the entrance, but realized we had no idea how to find the audio phones. We approached the entrance right at the same time as what appeared to be a 50 person school group, They had a security x-ray screening line so Emily had to get in line for that. In this line, you put your bag or purse on the conveyor belt and then went to a small booth to pull it back out. With the school children, it was pandemonium. There was no official on the other side to pass out the bags, so everyone was crowding around this window and grabbing bags helter skelter. I immediately went over and watched everything coming out of everyone’s hands. I thought this was the most insecure security line ever – a bag could be easily stolen as it seemed that there were 15 people reaching and grabbing all the bags. Luckily Emily was able to grab her purse and we escaped the security line.
Then, of course, we entered into another courtyard – and still no sign of how to get our audiophones. We went to a little kiosk and they just pointed up stream again. So we went to the next big building and finally found the self-tour stand. They outfitted us with a pretty neat device. It was a GPS like device that automatically launched a specific portion of the tour description based on where we were walking. There was also a map device with a light that showed us exactly where we were in the Forbidden City. We coul go anywhere we wanted and in essence have our own private tour. Clever. We learned more about the emperors, empresses, concubines, and Chinese traditions and history. Finally we finished at our own pace and went back to our hotel.
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