So I got off the night train and checked into my hostel. My first day in Beijing was a national holiday (didn't know), so once I got to Tiananmen Square I was greeted with a two hour line to get in!, security and guards everywhere!
Once in I have to say I was pretty disappointed in the square, really was nothing to it, just a big concrete square. I guess I should have seen that coming, but after that two hour wait I think I was only there for 10 minutes tops, honestly I would never bother going back to that square. There was one positive to it though, since I had cleared security I didn't have to get into the Forbidden City line which was huge!, at least a few hours, maybe more.
The Forbidden City was much better, and the size of it really is hard to believe, maybe getting close to the size of downtown Mount Maunganui in area, it took me about 20-30mins just to walk down one side of it without stopping. I think the only thing that made the city less special for me was that I had just come from Japan. Come on China!, there are more colours in the world than black and red with a bit of gold, eeeverything looks the same after a while.
Once finished with the Forbidden City, I walked up one of the few hills in Beijing, which gives a great view of the Forbidden City and Beijing (since it's so flat). From talking with people I found out that I had arrived in Beijing right after a massive storm which had blown most of the smog away from the city. Lucky for me because while I was in Beijing I thought the pollution was fine.
The next day I went to the Summer Palace, this is where I decided I had had enough of Temples, Japan really had spoilt me with them, now they all just look like run down, half arse buildings. No more Temples for me. The location of the Summer Palace was great though!, once again it was on one of the few hills in Beijing near water, back in the day the Royal Family would stay here for those same reasons. I found a great big rock at the top and settled in to read the last of my book IT from Stephen King.
This is the view from where i read my book
Once finished I got on the metro and found my way to Olympic Park to have the look of the signature buildings from the 2008 Beijing Olympics that clogged up the Discovery Channel back when they actually had shows that wernt about fishing, mining and moon shine. Seeing these in person was a surreal experience and I think I liked it more than the Forbidden City!
Finally I got back to the hostel, made a few friends then had an early night, ready to see the Great Wall of China.
No comments:
Post a Comment