Eric and Stephanie's Korean Adventure: Day 2 in Beijing

Our second day started out similar to our first with our guide and driver picking us up at the hotel after breakfast. On this day we started out by going to Tiananmen Square which was actually within walking distance from our hotel. The square was expanded in the late 1950s to be the largest outdoor square in the world at that time (now the third largest). There really isn't much to see within the square but has been and continues to be used for many political events and contains many army guards standing very straight and tall around different parts of the square (it's a good idea to not take pictures of the guards as China is still very much a communist country and doesn't appreciate that much). There is a building in the square that contains the body of Mao Zedong. According to our guide people will stand in line for upwards of four hours in order to go inside for about ten minutes. Apparently most of the body is covered by the Chinese national flag but the face and left shoulder are visible (though some people believe it's a wax figure and not his real embalmed body). There's also a large television-like screen that was built in the middle of the square for the 2008 Olympics and hundreds of thousands of people would gather in the square to watch the games.

Across the street from Tiananmen Square is the Forbidden City which is where we went next. The Forbidden City is huge, it has over 900 buildings and is close to 8 million square feet. It's a UNESCO world heritage site and over 600 years old. It's called Forbidden City because it was was forbidden for anyone other than the emperor, his family and his political staff to enter. It was built in the early 1400s during the Ming Dynasty and was where the emperor, empress and his concubines (usually 3000 of them) lived. It was also where all of the political things happened so the emperors advisers and staff were also allowed into the Forbidden City. It was interesting to walk around and see just how big it really was (especially compared to the king's palaces in Korea). The architecture and gardens were really neat to see.

After leaving the Forbidden City we had another delicious Chinese lunch. This time we got to try Peking duck, which by the way should really be translated as Beijing duck since Peking means Beijing. It was really good! It reminded us a little bit of Vietnamese food in that it came with a steamed rice paper and different vegetables to add and roll up with the duck meat. They serve the skin by itself specifically to be dipped in a blueberry sauce and sugar. We tried it but thought the meat flavor with the sweet flavor was a bit strange. The rest was really good though. We also had lemon chicken which was delicious. We had already prepaid for our lunches with our tour package so we figured we might as well try as many different things for the money we had already spent! Once again we got very full though!

After lunch we quickly went to the Beijing zoo to see the panda bears. We were supposed to go to the zoo and have more time there when we got in on Wednesday but since our flight was delayed we didn't have time for that. Our guide was really great though in making sure we at least got to take a quick trip through the panda exhibit. They are very cute to see up close and look so cuddly and friendly! All of the pandas that live in zoos anywhere in the world, and any baby pandas born in any zoo, are really just on loan from China.

We had one more stop for the day at the Summer Palace. It is also a UNESCO world heritage site. It was built in the 1750s but a good portion of it was destroyed by the French and British in the 1800ss and later rebuilt by a very powerful empress. Originally the Chinese emperors only went to the Summer palace once or twice a year and spent the rest of the time in the Forbidden City. However, when the very powerful empress Cixi controlled China for almost 50 years, she lived there full time. After parts of it were burned by the British and French she had it rebuilt and expanded using a whole lot of money that was designated for the Chinese navy. There's a really beautiful lake (man made at the request of the Empress Cixi) and the longest outdoor corridor in the world on the grounds of the Summer Palace. There's a really neat marble boat on the lake also. The original one was made of wood but after it was burned the Empress Cixi wanted one made of marble so it couldn't burn. That's where she ate breakfast. Even though it's not as old as some of the other sights we had already visited, it was still very interesting to see how large it really is and all the detailed architecture as well. The outdoor corridor has 14,000 paintings along it!

We are in the process of getting all of our pictures uploaded to Shutterfly. It's kind of a slow process since it's been a bit of a busy week so far but they are coming!