Stuck in China! (so we do the Forbidden City)
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
1
98
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Beijing,
China
Monday, January 21, 2008
We arrived in Beijing three weeks before New Years. We only planned on being in China for three weeks in any case, and I figured if we didn't quite make it we could chill out in whatever town and wait it out.
What the guidebook forgot to mention was that people started travelling in China almost three weeks before the New Year even arrived. That meant it was almost impossible for anyone to get a ticket out of Beijing.
Now it wasn't the end of the world. We had flown into China on our last reserved ticket and planned to overland through most of Asia
Travis arrives at Tiananmen
. Our schedule was pretty flexible and we could afford to be held up a little. But there were other problems, like our visa, which was only valid for thirty days. We went through a bunch of scenarios in the first couple days, the most drastic was turning around and flying right out of Beijing. Eventually we decided to travel as we could and apply for a visa extension.Erin enjoyed our predicament immensely. She took to bed and slept most of the time. Granted, she was still trying to get over the cold that had been plaguing us both.
So basically, we might be spending a little more time in China than originally planned...
Good thing there are lots of things to do in Beijing. We started things off by walking through our little hutong (neighborhood) to Tiananmen Square. It's quite a little hive of activity. Everyone is riding bicycles around. Little hole in the wall restaurants and shops are everywhere. The shop-owners selling knock-off gear and communist souvenirs insist that you "Looka looka" as you pass. Vendors sell various street-food from makeshift stands. From here you emerge into the grandeur of the area surrounding Tiananmen and the Forbidden City
one of the many gates
. Tiananmen, the largest public square in the world, is full of people even in the freezing cold days of winter. There are also quite a few guards patrolling around as well. We make our way over to the North Gate, famous for its large portrait of Mao. Everyone wants a picture here. Some Chinese tourists want the strange foreigners to join them for pictures as well.
We crossed the bridge to enter the huge forecourt of the Forbidden City. Unfortunately, the biggest structure is under renovation for the Olympics. Nevertheless, the enormous sense of space created in here is quite imposing. We see some exhibits of banners and umbrellas and move to the next huge area. This one is more impressive because it doesn't have scaffolding. We make it into the Hall of Clocks to take a look around. This hall contains extremely elaborate clocks that were made in Europe and China and presented as gifts. Most of them involved spinning flowers, moving figures, and ringing bells. We were treated to a demonstration of three of the clocks. My favorite was the clock with a man that would write Chinese characters on a piece of scroll when the clock chimed. There was also a model room where most of the furnishings were clocks (pillows, vases, mirrors, etc.).
the square
It was quite impressive.My favorite parts of the Forbidden City were the roof decorations. Each corner has a string of animals, the number displaying the importance of the building. The roof struts were also a brilliant blue, green, and gold. We peered in several pavillions to see the interior decorations, and also took a peak in the imperial gardens in the back. The Chinese really have a thing or interestingly shaped rocks. A lot of the imperial garden is rock actually. Also some really old and knobbly trees, including two that have entwined their branches.
We could have spent more time in the Forbidden City, but it was really, really cold. So we decided to find somewhere warm to eat and then retreated back to our hostel.
~Travis
