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 thesquare, 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]