Saturday, April 1, 2017
Beijing: Late Start Tiananmen + Olympic Village
The squad ended up sleeping in for the entire morning after clubbing last night, and we finally got going around noon. We explored the surrounding area a bit and found a popular cobblestone side street with lots of shops and various food stores. I found these cheap ¥3 cups (the ¥4 or ¥5 ones are much better) full of a yogurt/milk style drink with probiotics (guessing here, but trial and error proved successful and this drink ended up helping my stomach greatly) which was very tasty. The street also featured freshly-squeezed fruit juice, and this incredible western-style restaurant resembling a beach shack which ended up being a hostel doubling as a restaurant. We ate here several times over the course of the trip, as this place had incredible variety (mac and cheese!) and was priced very reasonably.
Tiananmen Square was a short, 20 minute walk from our hostel, so we decided to check it our as it was getting late in the afternoon. The plan was to swing by Tiananmen and check it out, then head to the Forbidden City. Navigating around this area got more and more tricky as we got closer to Tienanmen, as there ends up being basically one-way traffic with no signs of where you’re allowed to go, just places that would be exits and are blocked off, guiding pedestrians. Any time you want to cross the street around this area requires you to walk underground and resurface, and I noticed that these types of areas in Shanghai usually have escalators even though they are outside, but Beijing being a much older city did not.
Everything right in front of Tiananmen spreads out greatly, from jam-packed street corners bustling with activity to an expansive sprawling sidewalk with gated-off entrances and exits, and a bunch of officers walking around in formation or standing at attention. When we finally reached the main gate, there was a big portrait of Mao Zedong overlooking the entrance, and an officer posted facing the portrait as we walked by amongst the massive crowd of people funneling into the main square. Once inside, the feeling of grandeur was very apparent among all of the great halls and other government buildings, which were very spaced out as well. We slowly made our way towards the Forbidden City, but when we finally reached the gate we were told that the ticket booth was all the way on the other side of the courtyard, and when we finally made it to the booth, it was closed by only a few minutes! The most unfortunate thing about this was that the Forbidden City would be closed for the remainder of our stay in Beijing because of the holiday break. With so many people traveling on this holiday, you would think they would’ve kept it open. Walking around the entire city in order to exit made me realize just how expansive the city was, as it took about an hour just to get out of there!
We were too late to make the Forbidden City, but we decided we could still make the most of our time in the Beijing and visit the Olympic Village, the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was pretty crazy to have watched these Olympics on TV about 9 years ago, and now to be standing in the place where some of the events occurred on the other side of the planet. The buildings looked like they were from another planet, towering over yet another very spread out and yet still crowded area. We spent the rest of the day walking alongside these iconic buildings, and stayed for a beautiful sunset over the towers. The weather in Beijing for the whole trip was fantastic! I haven’t been in shorts and a t shirt for this long since coming to China, and the whole trip really felt like vacation.
Wayfaring Wilson 