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This morning we got up in time to try the buffet breakfast at our hostel...and we ended up wishing that we hadn't! It consisted of stale coffee, squashed stale bread, boiled eggs and cake - not the best; plus the fact that there was no-one else there was a telling sign!
After our bread and cake, we headed back towards Tianamen Square for our first stop of the day - the Chairman Mao Mausoleum, where Mao's body has been preserved since his death in 1976. The security around the area outside was very tight and we had to cross the busy road to check our bags in before we could joing the main queue. Hundreds of Chinese people and a handful of Westerners were heading inside, snaking aroudn the long queueing system which actually moved quite fast once we were in it. The mausoleum was similar to Ho Chi Minh's in Saigon - a vast Soviet style building with guards everywhere. Like last time, we were ushered through the room where Mao was resting quite quickly, and only got a brief glimpse of the man himself, who had the same orange glow to his face as Ho did. A strange experience to see him after seeing his huge portrait hung on Tianamen Gate.
Our next stop was the enormous National Museum of China, with about 8 floors of exhibitions. We had a coffee in the cafe and were impressed with the high-tech buttons on our talbe that you could press to ask for the waiter or the bill...until we found out that it didn't work and was apparently just for show! We spent a couple of hours wandering around the Ancient China exhibition, as well as an exhibitio9n on modern China. The Ancient China floor was huge, and we saw hundreds of objects dating from prehistoric China through to the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911. The next floor was a propoganda filled display telling the story of China from 1911 to the present day, but completely missing out two important events - the Cultural Revolution under Mao and the Tianamen Square massacre in 1989...I wonder why?!
Our final sightseeing stop fo the day (our legs were getting weary by this point) was Tianamen Gate itself. We bought tickets and checked our bags in again (!) and climbed to the top of the gate, which overlooks Tianamen Square. It's from here that Mao declared the foudning of the People's Rebuplic of China, although the actualo spot where he stoodw as roped off inside a small square. We did manage to get some good photos of the square though!
Later in the evening we went to Nanluogu Xiang, a traditional 'hutong' area of alleys filled with tiny bars and restaurants. It took us ages to walk there from the subway stop in the rain and we got lost at first, but we eventually found it and stopped at a tiny restaurant where I had some delicious duck. We finished off the night at a couple of bars - Passby Bar and 12sqm, once the smallest bar in Beijing but it has now expanded. Another busy day! Off to the Forbidden City tomorrow...
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