Tuesday : sunny

Up nice and early today we had a lot to see, no burger breakfasts today, we had a healthy breakfasts, Kim had muesli, and I had noodles.

We were at Tianmen square by 10am and it was open, well sort of. They had everything barricaded off, with soilders on picket guarding everything that was of some significance. large sections of the square were no go zones, people couldn't go near monuments, the flag pole, even flower gardens were out of bounds, it was quite funny. There was so many security cameras on every light post, it's far from a public square, especially when the whole place is concrete. We had a quick walk around, but were careful not to make any sudden movements, and trying not to draw attention to ourselves and get taken out by snippers.

We then headed across the road via a tunnel to the gate of heavenly peace. The gate is that building with the bloke's (MAO) face on the front of it. We made our way through all the different tunnels and gates, until we came to the palace and forbidden city entry.

It was pretty busy at that point, so we took a side gate and there was a moat with a road that followed beside it. There was a lot less people there too so we kept walking, it was quite peaceful. Soon we were on the other side of the palace, where people were exiting. We decided to go around the other side and head back to the entry to see if the crowd had died down. We didn't have to walk all the way back to the entry, we caught a ride from a golf cart which was fun.

The crowd had died down considerably, lunch time seems to do that. So we bought our tickets and went into the Forbidden City. it was still busy but not packed.

One thing I did notice about this palace that I found very silly, was that the emperor had way too many temples with only one chair in the middle of the room, and only he was allowed to take a seat. There must of been half a dozen of these rooms. Greedy

The place was enormous! Far too big, they really thought big these emperor dudes. He even named one of His gates the meridian gate because he believed that the meridian line ran right through the centre of it. Come on!

It was an interesting place definitely a must, the cyprus tree garden out the back was cool, the way they shaped all the trees, and the different rock gardens and ponds. Would of been very peaceful for the lonely emperor.

My favorite part was when we walked through the temple of supreme harmony, and it led us out into a giant courtyard. That could hold 100,000 people, I could just imagine how it looked back then. Standing up on a balcony looking down at the people all formed up with flags waving would of looked awesome.

It was almost 2pm by the time we had enough of the city, and we made plans to catch a drum performance at the drum tower at 2:30 we needed to walk quick. We just made the show by 5min, it was good too, glad we walked the thousand stairs to the top. There were 5 drummers all hitting those big Chinese drums, they had impeccable timing.

Then we went to the bell tower, didn't have to go far for that, it was across road. Still had to climb like a thousand steps to the top though. The bell was a big 46t, incredible how they got it up to the top of the tower. The views from the top would be good apart from the thick air. Not feeling the smog as much today, compared to yesterday, our walks are definitely not as hilly though. Have to see how the wall goes tomorrow.

After the bell tower we went home via a big lake that was very nice. It had lots of little shops, bars and restaurants. Lots of peole flying kites and resting up. We stopped for awhile at a cafe for some iced coffee and snacks, we picked up some bread for breakfast. the coffee went down a treat. A lot more expensive for coffee in China, cafe's are definitely not as common here as Vietnam, they prefer the tea.

We came to a road that we had to cross to continue the lake walk, but we had to pay for tickets to enter that area. We chose not to pay and walk around, it all worked out, we stopped at a shop to pickup a gift that we have been on the hunt for. The gift is for some a friends and their baby.

We walked all the way back past the forbidden palace and it's moat. Back to the square and there was a crowd that has started to form. It was for the flag lowering performance.

We huddled in to get close enough to see the performance. This square is ment to be the largest public square in the world over 1000000 people can gather here. I believe it too, after how many people squeezed in front and under us to see the flag get put to bed. Kim bailed from the tightness, I stood my ground and waited. They took there time we waited for 45min, glad i waited it was good to watch the soilders do their march. The police closed off the road and the lads marched across and pull down the flag, they march every night and morning.

We finally got moving again back to the hostel to drop my bag off and then went to go get some dinner. I was pretty hungry, hadn't eaten since breakfast. It was a good meal real authentic restaurant scenery, we had plenty of dumplings too.

No more walking after dinner, just went to the shop for some stock up on water and get some noodles to have with our bread for our room breaky tomorrow. No hostel breakfast tomorrow, we need to be up early for the tour.

Back in the room glad to have a shower it was probably our longest day of walking since we climbed Fansipan back in Nam. Got a big great wall walk tomorrow too, can not wait for that.