Day 2

Friday morning we met at Forbidden City after walking through Tiananmen Square. The smog was amazing – completely covering the sky and making visibility incredibly poor. In the square, there seemed to be little reason for pictures as everything just appears white. Forbidden City was very beautiful and very large. We walked from one end to the other and it just kept going and going. The garden was one of my favorite spots, but the Chinese architecture was also beautiful. For those unfamiliar, Forbidden City is where the emperor and empress lived.

After getting through Forbidden City, we entered a park with a temple on a very high hill. It provided great views of Forbidden City and the rest of Beijing. Unfortunately, the smog was so horrible we weren’t able to see far – plus it made for a tough walk up the many small stairs.

Next we attempted to go to Summer Palace, but couldn’t get a taxi to take us. We got many aggressive offers from rickshaw drivers, but it was quite far. At one point, we had 4 rickshaws swarming around us. They just don’t give up! Eventually, we abandoned our plan and settled on Temple of Heaven, where the Emperors went to worship the heavens. Again, we saw much Chinese architecture.

In the evening, we went to a Chinese Acrobat show. It was pretty interesting what they could do. Afterwards, we had dinner at a Japanese restaurant.