Tuesday, May 28, 2019: Day 2: Beijing; Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Tea House, Kung Fu

Yesterday evening, we had our first encounter with the Great Firewall...the firewall won. Neither David or I could access some of our favorite applications on our cell phones or on my iPad. This was curious to me since I had earlier successfully accessed Google and Dropbox on my iPad and iPhone after turning on the NordVPN. Now, the VPN cannot connect. When I set up my computer and launched the VPN, it recognized that I was in a restricted country and asked if I wanted to initiate their "obfuscated" servers. I said "yes" and have been able to access my blog. The cell phones and my iPad did not give us the option of initiating the alternate servers.

This morning, we will have breakfast at the hotel before meeting the tour in the lobby at 0800 hours. Then we will be visiting the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. According to Ray, this will be the most strenuous portion of the entire tour. This afternoon, there is an optional tour "The Legend of Kung Fu". This is a stage show of "Astonishing Performances of Acrobatics and Dance".

Yesterday, Ray warned us that it would be getting warmer today and suggested shorts, walking shoes and sun screen were warranted.

Hotel lobby

 First stop today was Tiananmen Square.

Imperial Gate

Mao's mausoleum

 We did not go inside the mausoleum. Ray said there really isn't much to see. Mao's body is in a glass box that you cannot get very close to and he looks much as he always did. Besides, the waiting line to pass through was hours long.

 Located at the center of Beijing, Tiananmen Square is the world's largest city center...and we are going to walk across it.

Monument to the People's Heros with National Museum in background

Entrance to the Forbidden City

Great Hall of the People (legislature)

 Looking back at Tiananmen Square from the other side of Chang'an Avenue.

We walked the entire length of the Forbidden City. Lots and lots of people. Mostly Chinese national tourists. The Forbidden City was started around 1420 and hosted 24 emperors, with the last one (Pu Yi, of the Qing dynasty) being forced to abdicate in 1912 after the Xinhai Revolution and the beginning of the Republic.

Man-made stream through the City

According to Ray, the two huge bronze lions in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony are uniquely Chinese. They always face outward (demon guard) with the female on the right and the male on the left. The female has a pup under her left paw while the male has a globe under its right paw.

Bronze lions

The Hall of Supreme Harmony. It was essentially an administrative building in the Forbidden City. Throughout the City, there are very high thresholds between rooms and buildings. Ray said this was a demon guard device since demons do not have knees and therefore cannot step over the thresholds.

Ray said the surface bricks, or stone pavers, are 15 layers thick due to the Emperor's fear of someone tunneling into kill him.

Incense burner

Incense burner

Copper and iron pots along the buildings were to hold fire water in case of fire.

Imperial garden.

Man-made hill using earth excavated from the Forbidden City

Moat surrounding the Forbidden City. Fifty meters wide and thirty deep.

For lunch, we went to a nearby restaurant and they served us a vast quantity of various Chinese dishes. All of it was very good, as was the local beer.

Then to the bell tower and drum tower, on opposite ends of a small square. They rang the bell during the day and banged the drum during the night. Not sure why...need to ask Ray.

Drum Tower

Bell Tower

On the first floor of the Bell Tower is a tea house. We attended a tea ceremony in which we tasted five different types of tea and had several customs explained to us.

We tasted five different teas: Ginseng Oolong; Jasmine; pu'Er Black (16 year old); Lychee Black; Fruit. We ended up buying four, all except the Lychee Black. We also were given two cups and two Lucky pee boys.

Tonight we dine early so we can attend a performance of The Legend of Kung Fu which is a dance and acrobatics program. It might be similar to the Shen Yun performance we attended a few years ago in St. Louis. It turned out not to be similiar.

Laura bought a couple of tee shirts for the kids and we each were given a short audio DVD of the performance's music. It was very loud, it was very energetic. I enjoyed it. They do two shows every night.

http://theatrebeijing.com/shows/kung_fu/

We had great seats.

Tomorrow, an early breakfast and then on to the Great Wall of China.