The Great Wall of China, Tienanmen Square, and The Forbidden City

While on our China trip, in order to get to the Great wall of China, we first had to get up very early (about 6am) to meet with our tour group in the morning. It was totally worth it to get up even a little earlier so we could beat the crowd down to the full-service breakfast that had so much good food. So after feasting like kings on French-style pastries, fresh fruit, baguette French toast (delicious!), bacon, and other breakfast foods, we met with the bus to leave for the Great Wall of China.

The area we went to was actually a very refurbished section of the wall, so it was very tourist-friendly. However, many of the steps were fairly uneven, some higher, longer, or steeper than others. So it was a very beautiful part of the great wall, and a fairly non-challenging hike. Once we got there, Kait and I decided to book it up to the top so that we could beat the crowds of people that would come before very long. This way, we could do our photography and videos on the way down. Once we got to the top, we felt like out-of-breath heroes (because apparently, according to the tour guide -- and Chinese legend -- only heroes hiked all the way to the top).

All along the wall were several guard towers that were no doubt constructed to fend off Mongolian invaders. It was clear that some of these were for show in that there was no actual roof access to them, which would have been a major design flaw with any defensive building like that. But it was okay because we could get on top of at least a couple of them, albeit by taking some very steep, narrow stairs. Also on the way down, we noticed a sharp difference in the willingness of the tourist shops to barter with you. Kait wanted to buy a t-shirt that said something to the effect of "I climbed the Great Wall of China," but the first shop we went to refused to lower his prices to something that was actually reasonable. (He wouldn't go below US $25 or so for a regular, screen-print t-shirt.) So we went to a tourist shop that was just a little further down the hill, and found the same shirts for roughly half the price, which seemed a little weird to us, but we just rolled with it.

Once we met back up with the bus, we were ready for a lunch in another tourist-trap restaurant that sold, well, vases. That's right, we got a tour of a vase shop, which was neat and all to see, but probably not altogether worth our time (in my humble opinion). During the lunch, we had what I like to call "hero juice," a kind of liquor that, apparently, only heroes drank. It was a 56% alcoholic drink that burned like crazy and had a particularly awful taste. I just had one small shot, then I dumped the rest of the contents of the bottle into a glass (no one else wanted it either,) and pocketed the cool-looking bottle as a souvenir.

Later we went to the Forbidden City. This is where the emperors and their numerous concubines lived. It has immensely high walls, and it has several different layers of walls inside. Apparently, one emperor lived in the inner court while the outer court was allowed for public use for a period of time. Sadly, we did not have much time with our tour group to spend in the Forbidden City, so we walked in a straight line from the entrance to the exit, taking pictures along the way. There were still a lot of cool things to see, like giant water vases used for fire, giant bronze lions and other animals, and giant incense burners as well as stone carvings all throughout.

Once we were finished here, we went straight to the Tienanmen Square, which is located directly south of the Forbidden City, a 5-10 minute walk. It was here that we found ourselves in the middle of more people per square foot I have ever experienced in such a large area. Once we were in the square, we took a bunch of pictures of Mao Tse Tung's mausoleum, the national museum, and the parliament building that surrounded the square. On the gate to the Forbidden City, there is a large picture of Mao, left as a memorial to his period in office and the changes for the better that he made for the Chinese people. While on our tour, the guide spoke nothing about the atrocities of Tienanmen Square nor those of Mao himself; he spoke nothing about these things because even if he were aware of them, it would be illegal for him to talk about it. I read online that most of the youth in China today don't know about the uprisings that took place in Tienanmen Square.

Once finished with this day, we went back to the hotel to get a good night of rest - after some sauna action - before our very early flight in the morning.

All in all, we had an excellent trip. The best thing was that we really didn't have to worry about anything; it was completely low stress. The bad part was that we were taken to a lot of random places that we really didn't care to see all that much, and that were total tourist traps. These include the jade and pearl markets, a tea house, the vase shop, and a "kung fu" show that we went to. It would have been nice to have used this time at the end of each day to go to someplace - perhaps an open air market or a row of authentic restaurants - where we could just wander around and actually experience a place in China that had local Chinese people in it who weren't directly connected to any tourist service. (This is something that we really did not do throughout the whole trip!) So in hindsight, I think it will be a while before we do any kind of tour like that again, but at least we had a very good time.