We were dropped off at the top of Tianamen Square and were going to walk from here to the end which is The Forbidden Palace, this is approx 5km but we did it at a pretty relaxed pace so didn't feel that far. Don't get me wrong, it was a lot of walking but we were always looking at something, listening to Jasmin, taking photos, trying not to lose the group or pushing our way through the crowds to realy notice the distance we covered. Jasmin had suggested we all get ear pieces so we could easily hear her without having to all crowd around her and she didn't need to shout. This work out really well. We could still enjoy being in the Square and, to an extent, wander around on our own while still listening to Jasmin and not losing our group. You knew when you couldn't hear Jasmin or it was starting to break up you were getting too far from her.
China have been celebrating 70 years of being The Peoples Republic of China so there were things up all around the square relating to this including a massive bowl of flowers.
The smog in Beijing is something else. I knew of it but just not to the extent that it was, so smoggy. We didn't see the sky at all today, the smog covered it.
As we were at Tianamen Square and the Imperial Palace on a Saturday it was super busy, it's always busy, but Jasmin said the Square in particular was busier than what she had thought it would be. Many many people! The queue to see Chairman Mao's body (it gets risen up from the freezer each morning for a few hours) was mind boggling. I don't think I've ever seen a queue so long!
It felt quite sureal being in Tianamen Square. I don't know if it was because of the amount of people there but it wasn't quite what I had expected. It's very touristy looking not 'for the people' which I had felt it was and would feel like.
After we got to the end of our walk we met up with our bus to head to an optional show. We didn't book this so were just going to wander around for an hour or so before meeting back with the group. I think there were about 6 of us that didn't do the show. We drove through Beijing to get to the theatre, it was actually in an amusement park. Traffic and smog and scooters.
Unfortunately there wasn't a great deal around where we were dropped off. We had seen a largish shopping centre with a Tescos so thought we'd head there for late lunch early dinner and to grab a couple of things at the supermarket but it had closed down. We went into McDonalds to use the bathroom hoping they'd have a sitdown toilet, they did! and then ended up at Pizza Hut lunch/dinner. There was another couple from the tour so we sat with them.
The pizza was good and the place was so busy considering it was about 4.30pm it was weird it was so busy. For the most part it looked like locals there too not tourists.
We met back up with everyone and boarded the bus for our trip back to the hotel. I think we got back at around 6.30pm. Seeing as we'd had a big yummy pizza we didn't bother with dinner and just had a cup of tea. We were going to walk around the area but there was nothing to walk around really and the park we'd been told about we weren't sure about walking around it in the dark. Considering we'd had practically no sleep for the last 48 hours an early night sounded good anyway!
Tomorrow: The Great Wall of China
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