First Day in Beijing
We awoke this morning well rested! After our interesting breakfast buffet, we boarded the bus for a tour of Tianamen square and the forbidden city.
(In the forbidden city, I got to use a 4 star bathroom! )
The Forbidden City was amazing. It was so much bigger than I expected. The CCAI guides, especially Alice, were so knowledgeable and we learned so much. If it wasn't so slow to upload pictures here, I would share more.
(Imperial Gardens)
We then took a rickshaw tour through a local hutong.
Most of the hutongs in Beijing have been demolished for new skyscrapers, but this one had been kept by the government to show off the history of the city during the Olympics in 2008. A hutong is a Mongolian word for a water well. It has then come to mean alley. Each alley has courtyards where families used to all live together.
We had lunch in the hutong at a local family's home. I was a little nervous about this, but it was great. It's nice to see how locals really eat. I learned that while Hunan food is spicy, and Sichuan food can be sweet, Beijing food is simple and somewhat salty. They use mostly just a little soy and oil to bring out natural flavoring.
Soon Doug and I are going to venture out to Wangfujing street and do a little shopping and check out the street food (scorpions and star fish on sticks, for example). Although we won't actually try anything, I'll be sure to take some pictures!