Life of Megan

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

China, Part 2 - The First 24 Hours

The first thing one does upon arriving at his or her hotel room when on an interesting vacation is to take a picture of the room and the bed. So, naturally, that's what I did. Behold, our room in the Sihe Hotel.



As it turned out, Judson and I were given the largest of the rooms among the family, and we could never figure out why. We are somewhat inefficient when it comes to space, so we were grateful for the extra room.

Anyhow, photos taken, we sought food, which was easy to find, since someone had recently made a trip to a local grocery store. Judson, Marc, Audrey, Grandma Franke, Austin, Dawn (Austin's girlfriend), and I all joined in and enjoyed the food and a beer or two. It was pretty tasty stuff. It's tough to find fresh lychees in the US, so those were a real treat.




I'm not really sure about what happened next. I think we sat there for a while and talked and drank. At any rate, we eventually wound up at a restaurant that specializes in Peking duck (and has won the award for best Peking duck in Beijing several years in a row). You'd think that in its city of origin, Peking duck would be unbeatable, but I wasn't really impressed with the whole meal. I think the best part was the squirrel fish. I am fairly certain I've had better Peking duck in Chinatown. But maybe that was all just the effect of jetlag. I don't know--the duck seemed dry to me, and the skin should have been crispier.

The next day, we set off for our real adventures. The agenda: Tian'amen Square, The Forbidden City, and Prospect Hill. The weather: extremely rainy. Judson and I went on this trip solo. We had planned to start at Prospect Hill and then work our way down to Tian'amen Square, but we couldn't seem to communicate that to our cab driver, who happened to understand Tian'amen very, very well.


A view from Tian'amen Square


Another view from Tian'amen Square. I think Chairman Mao's body is in that building for viewing. Mao apparently disliked Mondays as much as the next guy; the viewing/museum was closed.


Worker's Statue thingie on Tian'amen Square


I'm not really sure what one is supposed to do at Tian'amen Square. Judson's parents somehow spent an entire day there. Of course, they were able to see Mao. They report that he had a giant head. We just wandered around for a bit, took some pictures, and admired the Beijing police's really neat rain gear.

Soon enough, we were in the Forbidden City. It's not so forbidden anymore, but it is a gigantic compound. We had a great time exploring the buildings and seeing the architecture. We were able to look into many rooms to see how they would have been decorated during the various dynasties. There were a few really interesting exhibits about such topics as imperial pottery, weddings, and about the emperors themselves.







Finally, we moved on to Prospect Hill, also called something in Chinese, sometimes called Coal Hill. This hill was built using the dirt that was displaced when the moat was built around the Forbidden City. The top features a series of beautiful pavilions that overlook various parts of Beijing; some have wonderful views of the Forbidden City. The Prospect Hill area is part of a lovely park that features a number of beautiful gardens. It was a really nice place to visit, despite the weather. My camera stopped working before we reached the top of the hill, so the best I can offer is a picture of one of the Prospect Hill pavilions as seen from the Forbidden City.



For lunch, we ate at the restaurant at the Forbidden City, and the food tasted like an Asian-inspired microwave dinner. Dinner Monday night was Sichuan. It was tasty enough, but there was nothing really memorable.

Our shoes were dry sometime late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

1 Comments:

  • Good pictures. And funny stories.

    By Anonymous Audrey, at 8:59 PM  

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