Long Vacation: Day 6

We woke up with the intent of seeing the dead body of Mao. If you don't know who that is, google him. The Readers Digest version: he established communism in China. His methods were questionable so whether that makes him the good guy or the bad guy, I still haven't decided but all I knew was that his body has been preserved and I was going to see it. It's the guy whose face is on all the paper money, can you blame me? ;) We went to Tiananmen Square determined.

Off the subway..

..and we found a building with his face on it. A good sign, no? (It was way cool to be in a place I'd seen tons of pictures of! Very stereotypical Beijing picture, I love it). Something about language barriers makes sight-seeing a problem--asking directions being the main concern. So although we really had no idea if Mao's body was through the tunnel that seas of Chinese people were walking through we decided to follow them anyway. We walked a ways and realized that we were in the Forbidden City. Surprise! After a little bit of deliberation Amanda and I decided that we didn't want to pay 65 kuai to go in..so we decided to head back to Tiananmen Square to find Mao's body again. After a bunch of wandering around like chickens with our heads cut off from the north end to the south end and back again, we figured out where the entrance was. Woot. But just as soon as we joined the thronging masses to be checked by security, a guard with a megaphone barked something at us and signaled us out of the line. We thought maybe it was because we were foreigners but eventually realized we couldn't bring our bags in. Annoyed and tired at this point we bagged that idea and impulsively decided to go to the Temple of Heaven.

Another cool park with dancing old people. Very quaint :) Here are some pictures..


(I think I need a new jumping pose. Still fun nonetheless!)






Here's something we never get home in Zhongshan--clear skies!!! I was definitely soaking it up, I miss blue skies so much.

We went to an open market for souvenirs and then for dinner we had famous Beijing duck! Oh but first...

...we met a turtle. And then they cooked him up and we ate him. This whole situation was very weird but I kinda liked it.


The duck! Yum :)


The cooked and plated turtle. I found it a little inhumane that it was all chopped up and cooked and arranged like a live turtle. I ate it's leg. Hehe :) It tasted pretty good. But mostly it was just cool that I was eating a turtle ;)



Once again my fascination with the sky. Something else I miss: sunsets. Beijing gave me a great one :)


And a random photo tip:

How to not get robbed on the metro