Day 101, Our 100th Day in China, Beijing Day 2

Today, on our 100th day in China, we went to see Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and a knock off market called Silk Street. Tiananmen Square was impressive, and there were many people. Most of them were there to go inside of Mao Zedong’s mausoleum. Also on the square are the Hall of the People (the Chinese Capitol Building) and the Museum of Chinese History. At the west end of the square is the entrance to the Forbidden City.

There are three gates you have to walk through before you actually reach the city, and behind each is a large courtyard. Behind the last, there is a canal carved into the courtyard in the shape of a bow, and the path leading from the throne room out to the square is the arrow. Everything in the city is impressive. We saw the political buildings, along with the living quarters for the emperor and empress, and also the living space for the emperor’s concubines. After those, we also saw the Imperial Garden, which was impressive but not as impressive as the Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou.

Tony took us from the palace to the Temple of Heaven, the pagoda where the emperor and his advisors would pray for good harvest. It was beautiful, and the temple is the highest building in the surrounding landscape (it is situated in the middle of a large garden), so on a clear day it gives good views of the surrounding skyline, which was still visible on our moderately clear day.
After the temple we went to lunch, which was quite good, and then went to visit Silk Street, where we were given several hours to wander and shop. I didn’t buy anything today, but we are planning on coming back another day. After the market we went back to the hotel and got dinner before relaxing until we went to bed.