China Day 8

Today we went to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and took a 3 wheeled scooter ride through the Hutongs of Beijing. 

Cool Building we saw on our walk to Tiananmen Square

 Tiananmen Square, Monument to People's Heroes and Mausoleum of Mao Zedong

  Tiananmen Square, Tiananmen Tower (Gate of Heavenly Peace)

 

  Tiananmen Square, National Museum of China

  Tiananmen Square, The Great Hall of the People

Kirt made a bunch of friends in Tiananmen Square

 The Forbidden City is a palace complex in central Beijing, China. The former Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty (the years 1420 to 1912), it now houses the Palace Museum. The Forbidden City served as the home of emporors and their households as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government for almost 500 years.

 I guess fires were really common, so they had lots of these large vats that they kept full of water so it would be close to put out the fire.

All the roofs of the buildings we very ornately decorated

 The Hall of Clocks and Watches in the Forbidden City

 Imperial Treasures Museum in the Forbidden City

More people who wanted a photo with Garret

We walked up the hill to this Pavilion in the Jingshan Park to see a view of the Forbidden City

Views from the Pavilion

 We took a 3 wheeled scooter ride through the Hutongs of Beijing. The guy told us when we started that it would be 200 Yuan for 1 hour for all of us.  When we finished, he tried to charge us 800 Yuan.  He said that it was 200 per person not 200 for all of us.  Kirt argued with him for over 5 minutes.  We ended up paying him 500 Yuan.  I am glad Kirt was there.  I am such a chicken.  I don't like confrontation. Afterwards a Chinese guy came up to us and said that we totally got ripped off, which we did.  

This was a really fun pedestrian area near our Air B&B that we walked through today. We also had dinner here.

 This was a cool looking theater near our Air B&B.