We were scheduled to visit the Tian’anmen square, Forbidden City, and all centrally located tourist spots. We head off to Tian’an’men East station.

Tiananmen Square

It was cloudless and very humid that day. We took some pictures of the square, its surrounding buildings, before finally proceeding to the Forbidden City. The National Museum could also be found here. Fact: Tiananmen was also known for its 1989 Tiananmen massacre wherein protesters, mostly students were killed in order to stop their protests for democracy.

Forbidden City

Forbidden City is walking distance from the Tiananmen Square. This was where the last emperor, Henry Puyi lives until he was thrown out in1924. Forbidden City was a series of halls, palaces and squares. We couldn’t even remember how far and how long it took us to get to the exit. We didn’t even bother checking out the halls and palaces located at the sides of the city. In order to properly appreciate the Forbidden City, one must alot probably four hours because of its size. A lot of relics could be found here as well. If you are a fan of Chinese culture and history, this is one place you should not miss. At the exit, you will find another tourist spot located a top the hill, the bell and drum towers.

Due to fatigue, we were unable to check out other tourist spots like Temple of heaven, The National Grand Theatre, the Drum and Bell Towers. Among these, I’m mostly interested in the Temple of heaven since it was previously used in offering sacrifices to their gods.

Our next stop was to have lunch at Quanjude Peking Duck restaurant at Qianmen. For the first time in our journey, we took a taxi since the next subway station was really far. Though we tried, we didn’t find the bus stop or the right stop going to Qianmen station. It was almost 2pm and the restaurant was closing because lunch time is over. We’re unable to taste a real Peking duck.

At night we planned to checkout another night market. Unfortunately, we were unable to find this because of very confusing street names. While walking, we found a barbecue store and ordered chicken barbecues and duck. At last we have tasted peking duck. Unfortunately, we didn’t like it because it’s too fatty. We never finished the duck. Even the barbecues didn’t taste like the barbecues we’re used to. Perhaps the barbecues and the duck would go well when served with beers.

Entrance:

Forbidden City: 60

Temple of heaven: 30