Next, we went to the building where Mao Zedong is entombed. The building is only open from 8-12, and it was 12:30. We all thought it was silly for such a popular location to be closed! (No worries though, we went back today.) In our walking around Tian'anmen, many people wanted to take their picture with us. They'll just come up and grab you and try and show you their camera so you get the point... I started to wise up and have them take a picture with my camera too! Here was one of the better ones:
We went back to Silk Street and had lunch around 1:30. We had PIZZA and shared a salmon dish and caprese salad. Mmmm cheese! (Not as good as we're used to, but it still tasted great!) None of our close were ready for pick up, but we did get Dad's suit and all our shirts fitted. Somehow, we got on the topic of money with one of the tailors. He showed us his amazing collection of money from all over the world! He had money from at least 40 countries, 3 of which are illegal to carry in the US (Iraq, Iran, and Libya). The photos is of a bank note from Zimbabwe. I'd be happy with 500,000,000 dollars. Just throwing that out there!
I bought a bunch more souvenirs/gifts while we were at Silk Street. I'm really happy with my bargaining skills-I routinely get about 60-75% off of the initial asking price.We came back to the hotel to drop of our goodies, and then met up for dinner with Liu Kang and Professor Qu, from my field work. We went out to a hot pot restaurant called Donglaishun. It was the same as what I had when I first arrived in Beijing, and then I had it again on a day off in Tangshan. It is an enormous meal, but reallllly delicious!! We walked around Beijing for about an hour on our way back to the hotel. Dad bought a sweet potato from a street vendor, and Becca picked up some souvenir newsmagazines.
Now on to today! It's already midnight, so hopefully this won't end up being super long! (OK, we all know it will...)
Today we went back to Tian'anmen Square, and got there around 10 to see Mao's embalmed body. It was a little creepy, but overall really interesting. There were thousands of people lined up to see him, and were all varying ages and nationalities. A lot of elder Chinese people cried when they saw him. A lot of people bought flowers and put them in a room with his picture outside of where he lies in state. Basically, he looks like wax. The room his body is in was SILENT. (There are about 300-400 people in that room at any given time, so that was quite a feat!) Of course there are no cameras allowed. Here is the building which contains his body (notice all of the people pouring out):
Next we went to the Forbidden City! It is across the street from the north part of Tian'anmen Square, so it was just a short walk... that ended up taking about 45 minutes! More pictures, more people trying to sell you postcards, Mao watches and souvenirs, and trying to get you to feed their hungry babies. It is quite overwhelming. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the walk:
This kid looked like a Chinese version of Steve Urkel!
These 3 guys were from Tanzania, Cambodia, and the Seychelles (respectively from L to R). They are here receiving army training.
This little boy was beyond adorable, and took quite fondly to peek-a-boo!We finally arrived at the Forbidden City, and walked around for about 4 hours. It, too, was massive, and everything inside was really beautiful.
It was neat when I found 'ugly' parts that had not been recently repainted/refurbished. It was really obvious that those were the oldest parts and had not been reworked!
We stopped for some ice cream inside instead of lunch. It was about 85 and really humid, so we were all a bit worn out. It really hit the spot!
Besides the main gates/temples in the Forbidden City, there were many small side rooms. Some had intstruments, while others had weapons, and others contained clothing. My favorite two exhibits were on what the Emperor's weddings were like--quite interesting!
When we were looking at one of the thrones inside a building, someone unzipped mom's purse, grabbed her wallet out, and took the equivalent of about $125 USD (some US and some Chinese money). Then he or she threw the wallet back down at Mom's feet. Dad noticed and mom felt it, but the person was already gone. Luckily, the money was the only thing taken, and it was not as much as she'd originally thought! It really was a bummer, but all things considered, it could have been much worse. No one was injured, and it didn't even ruin our day! Mom took things in stride, and said that the person probably needed it much more than we did.
Moving on--we closed out our visit with a walk through the Imperial Gardens. This is where the Emperors would go to choose women to be in their harem. The grounds were quite picturesque, and the tilework on the ground was fascinating to look at, with a plethora of hand-crafted designs made out of pebbles.
We headed back to the hotel for an hour respite. Then we were off to Dini's KOSHER restaraunt! OH. MY. GOD. It was amazing! We had so much food! We shared 5 appetizers, and each enjoyed our own entrees. I had spinach stuffed tilapia. More exciting than eating fish was eating SALAD!!! The entire meal was incredible, and we all left extremely satisfied!
We headed back to Silk Street AGAIN. They finished the fittings for everything, but needed to do adjustments on most. The place closed at 9, which is when we were walking out. Even if their booth was closed, many people still tried to sell us things! "I give you best price!" Outside, there were many taxis, and even more people wanting to leave in them. We went up to a taxi, and they wanted to charge us 80 Yuan for going back to our hotel. With the meter running, its MAYBE 20. We said no. After being accosted by numerous taxi and rickshaw drivers, we decided to attempt the subway, at only 2 Yuan a head (regardless of the number of stops). I asked a young girl if she spoke English--it turned out to be Lucy, one of the girls I had bought tea from the day before. She helped us and took us to our appropriate subway train, and even showed us the stop to transfer at! It was very crowded, but MUCH easier than waiting for a cab at Silk Street--plus it was much cheaper! The station (below) was quite beautiful, and reminds me of Space Mountain.
Tomorrow will be a full but fun day. Also, hopefully our LAST trip to Silk Street! Its 12:45 here which means bedtime after a long day in the sun!
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