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Another long day today, starting nice and early of course! No time to be tired though - too much to see!! (And Alex was quite the attraction....!!)
Today we have been on a city tour of Beijing, seeing all of the most famous landmarks. It was another early start, out for 7.40am, and first to visit was Tiananmen Square. We didn't stay here for too long so didn't have too long to soak in all of the surroundings, think we might have another visit there on Thursday when we have a bit of free time to ourselves! This led on to The Forbidden City (otherwise known as the Palace Museum), when Lily said it was big we didn't quite realise how much area it would cover till we walked through it! We took some great photos, but again because of the smog the sky looks quite grey and doesn't show the colours on the buildings to be as bright as they should be. I've also added a photo that tells you more about it :)
Oh yes, Alex was quite the little superstar here..! We constantly get stared at and have 'not-so-secret' photos taken of us when they think we're not looking anyway (though it is blatantly obvious), but here the other tourists were actually asking Alex to have a photo with them, one girl even pushed her boyfriend out of the picture so she could have a photo with a 'westerner' on her own!! Was very funny, could have made a fortune from it if we'd charged!!
After this it was then time for another of those shopping stops I said about yesterday...today was time for visiting a silk factory. It wasn't too bad and less pressurised selling than at the Chinese Tea place!! We didn't buy anything though and made our escape.
After this we moved on to the Temple of Heaven. Temple of Heaven was where the emperor came every winter solstice to worship Heaven and to solemnly pray for a good harvest. (Thanks google..)
The Summer Palace was last on the tour today, it was a shame we didn't have more time at this place, but there was enough to see to last the whole day so I understand why we didn't see anymore than we did. If we ever come back I would definitely like to spend the day wandering around here, maybe even get a boat on the lake!!
Before we got back to the hotel though there was time to squeeze in one more shopping stop... A pearl factory this time. They showed us the different pearl colours and how to tell if one is genuine or fake. There was some pretty jewellery sets though they were far too expensive and I'm sure I've seen much cheaper on the Internet!!
We got back to the hotel around 4ish, we're having a bit of a rest now and then will head out again in an hour or so for some tea, and maybe Alex will try some delights from the night market!!!! Then it's an early night for us to prepare for our Xian day trip tomorrow to see the Terracotta Warriors, airport transfer is booked for 4.50am!!! Arghhhh!!
Xxxx
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