CHINA DAY 3

Dion and Melisa in Tiananmen Square

Dion and Melisa outside The Forbidden City's First Gate

Dion outside The Forbidden City's 3rd Gate.

Melisa in The Forbidden City by one of The Emperor's Lions.

Dragon Boat on the man made lake at The Summer Palace.

Dion and Melisa on a Dragon Boat about to go out out on the lake.

Summer Palace. The Empresses Marble Boat where she held parties.

A river running through The Summer Palace.

Beijing Cranes. The Chinese have to stop building by the end of this year because of the Games, so they are really busy 24/7. The Beijing skyline is littered by monstrous cranes.

Day 3 Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace and The Silk Market.

We were off at 8.15am with Uncle Benny zooming us 5 minutes to Tiananmen Square where he dropped us off to walk around. The square is the biggest city square in the world and as we were walking towards the middle we were attacked by swarms of tourists and peddlers trying to get us to buy their souvenirs. Wendy taught us the Chinese words for "no" and "I don't want it" which we used a lot. Chairman Mao's Mausoleum was closed for renovations so we walked through the square and then walked to the First Gate of The Forbidden City. There are 3 Gates before entering The Forbidden City and we finally reached the third gate and passed through into a huge courtyard. The place was packed but we easily walked the 1.5km through the city to the back gate and then along the river to where Uncle Benny patiently waited. The Forbidden City was interesting because of its history and it was home to the Emperors. After that we went to a Pearl Factory where the guide told us about Chinese Pearls and then encouraged us to buy jewellery. We got a small momento then ate lunch next door. It was a relief to sit down and drink and eat before crossing the road to The Summer Palace. One of The Emperors built The Summer Palace for himself and The Empress to spend the hot summer months there. We were pleasantly surprised to find it one of the most beautiful places we'd visited in Beijing. There was a huge man made lake with a beautiful 17 arch bridge over it. Tourists could hire small boats to go on the lake or cross the lake past the Palace on a boat with a dragons head on it, which we did. It was so refreshing on the lake and we sat with a bunch of singing Iranian Tourists who entertained us. When we reached the other side we saw The Marble Boat. One of the powerful Empresses had it built especially for her dinner parties and also because she wanted to be remembered forever. We continued walking through The Summer Palace grounds past a winding river until we reached the back gate. We went on another tour to hear about Chinese Medicine before being dropped off at The Silk Market. What an experience. It was a building which had 5 gigantic floors of fake labelled clothing, handbags, souvenirs, shoes and various items. We had a rough idea of what to pay for things and were determined not to get ripped off. We ended up visiting 2 floors before getting tired. The first floor was mens clothing where we bargined hard for a t shirt and winter jacket. Then we went to the handbag and shoe floor where Dion bargined a good price for some shoes and Melisa bought a wallet but she missed out on a handbag by leaving the stall too soon. Everywhere we walked the sellers were saying things like "Wanna a bag lady ?" and "we have Louis Vuitton, Prada..." and then they would shove a bag catalogue in our face. Some sellers even grabbed our arms and pulled us into their stalls. It was a really good experience and an eye opener. Finally after having enough we left without even visiting the other floors. It was a busy day and time to hit the hay.