Forbidden City again

Above:  Tiananmen Square as viewed from the Tiananmen Gate Tower of the Forbidden City.

Getting going

Rather unusual of us, we had 11 hours in bed and woke around 0800.  Breakfast wasn’t included in the hotel rate so we had a light feed of muesli before heading out.  For today, we didn’t feel like the full buffet breakfast which was very reasonably priced at CNY30.

We grabbed a more substantial breakfast at McDonald’s near Tiananmen, comprising of a McMuffin and a local-style item which I quite liked.  It was a chicken or beef patty with salad and a deep-fried rice patty (like the Japanese Mos Burger), wrapped in tortilla.

Mao’s Mausoleum

At Tiananmen, we joined the queue to Mao’s mausoleum.  Kim and I had to take turns as no bags are permitted, and we had a small one with us.  We saw his lifeless body but the highlight was the loyal citizens buying plastic bouquets to put in front of him.  The bouquets get collected at the close of the day to be re-sold the next!   I wish I could find a business proposition like that!

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Forbidden City

We headed to the Forbidden City, starting with a climb up the Tiananmen Gate tower.  Again, we had to take turns to go up.

Once inside the Forbidden City, the place was very busy with local tourists and some Continental Europeans.  The place was as impressive as ever, if not more.  Our very first time in 1998, we went as part of a day tour and we were taken to mainly around the centre.  This time we had the liberty to roam to various apartments on the west side.  We were a little worn out to explore the east side.

Many of the apartments were filled with furniture, glassware, clocks etc.  One was filled with items of the last emperor Pu Yi.

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After

We taxied back to the hotel stopping at the Henderson Centre, near the hotel, for lunch.  We ended up eating at Yoshinoya before returning to the hotel for some rest.

I wanted to go to the Lama Temple after our rest but Kim didn’t feel like it.  We ended up back at the Henderson Centre for reflexology which came with some back and neck massage.  We didn’t venture very far and were back at the hotel for dinner again, two nights in a row.