There was a palpable sense of trepidation as we landed in Beijing. Several in our group were convinced that giardia, SARS, or some bizarre hybrid of both would be unavoidable during our stay. I was just worried about our tour guide being at the airport. The little we knew about Tokyo was a Fodor's library compared to what knowledge we had about China. If something went awry with our tour, there was a very real possibility we wouldn't make it out of the airport. Fortunately, Sam, our tour guide, met us outside customs. He ushered us to the van that would be our transport for the next four days, and we drove to the hotel.
Our first stop on the tour was the Forbidden City. One of the Ancient Wonders of the World, it takes up 720,000 square meters and only 1/3rd of it is open to the public. But you can look that up anywhere. What I can tell you is that it's effing huge, and if you take pictures of the guards you, "disappear quickly". Fair enough. There's a "four star toilet", which is extremely subjective, as the toilets in Japan had heated seats and the toilets here were barely a hole in the ground.
Lies. All Lies.
Right outside the Forbidden City lies Tiananmen Square, which was a bit of a cursory stop on our way to the Summer Palace. Apparently, the Chinese government has done a great job erasing any record of what happened there that you can't find any western publication from that week anywhere. Pretty spooky.
The Summer Palace is another sprawling testament to the Emperor's wealth and need to show off said wealth. We hiked our asses to the top of this thing, and were rewarded with some pretty good views of the Beijing skyline.
All in all, not a bad day. Oh, and I saw a midget. Pretty rare in China, from what I'm told.
Right outside the Forbidden City lies Tiananmen Square, which was a bit of a cursory stop on our way to the Summer Palace. Apparently, the Chinese government has done a great job erasing any record of what happened there that you can't find any western publication from that week anywhere. Pretty spooky.
The Summer Palace is another sprawling testament to the Emperor's wealth and need to show off said wealth. We hiked our asses to the top of this thing, and were rewarded with some pretty good views of the Beijing skyline.
All in all, not a bad day. Oh, and I saw a midget. Pretty rare in China, from what I'm told.
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