BEIJING I decided not to take the official tour of the Forbidden City but to take Malky's Tour of Beijing (Around Beijing in 80 minutes).
We scoffed down breakfast and met in the hotel lobby, my guide for today was Malky a retired Architect and his assistant Sandy....Malky had been on a previous trip to China, so he knew the sites or so I thought...Sandy was to do the commentary (he had great difficulty remembering the names of anything!!!) A quick head count and the 3 of us are off.
First stop the Beijing Zoo, straight to the Panda House, first time I had ever seen a Panda..Malky shouts "TIME UP", and we're off again, that was some zoo, 2 Pandas, 4 Sparra's and a Magpie.
"Taxi for Tie Me Doon Square" shouts Sandy, Tian'anmen Square is huge, nothing prepares you for the experience of being in the
square, the first thing that you notice is the giant portrait of Chairman Mao, this is what travelling is about, seeing all the famous sites for real, I take lots of photographs in the square.
Next it's off to the Forbidden City, what a place. It's the largest palace complex in the world with 9999 rooms (imagine keeping that place clean, and when I go home my missus will be moaning aboot keeping our wee place tidy, hehehe). For over 491 years it was the residence of 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The ordinary Chinese were barred from entering.
Another quick headcount and we're off once more, this time to Starbucks for a coffee stop, I felt strange being in a Beijing Cafe and hearing the Eagles "Hotel California" playing, after that down to Silk Alley for some serious shopping for gifts for the long suffering family back home.
We grabbed a taxi back to the hotel, for a quick shower and out for dinner, as this is the last evening in China we go for a Peking Duck Banquet......Brilliant, what a day this has been. Typical sightseeing sites in Beijing
MUST SEE THE FORBIDDEN CITY The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, and the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.
TIANANMEN SQUARE
Located at the center of Beijing City is Tiananmen Square, where you can visit Tiananmen Tower, Monument to the People's Heroes, Great Hall of the People, Mao Zedong Memorial Hall and see the national flag raising ceremony. Thousands of people come to the Square every day. It is the must place to visit in Beijing City.
FAMOUS FOR1989: Massacre in Tiananmen Square
Several hundred civilians have been shot dead by the Chinese army during a bloody military operation to crush a democratic protest in Peking's (Beijing) Tiananmen Square.
Tanks rumbled through the capital's streets late on 3 June as the army moved into the square from several directions, randomly firing on unarmed protesters.
THE ZOO The zoo has developed rapidly and by 1987 covered an area of over 40,000 square meters. Bears, elephants, pandas, lions, tigers, songbirds, hippopotami, rhinoceroses, antelopes and giraffes were brought in the late 1950s, and a gorilla cage, leaf-monkey cage and aquarium house, was opened, containing specimens of over 100 species of reptiles from all over the world, including crocodiles and pythons [AND THE PANDAS]
Bairds travels [the company that takes mad people to mad places ]. |