Hey again everyone! So as promised, day 4 will probably be much more of what you were expecting from a trip to Beijing. The previous afternoon, noting how my earlier attempts to do things on my own, while not disasters, had also not been exactly as planned, I had booked a $40.50 USD Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square tour on GetYourGuide. I know it is not very “adventurous” but those of you who follow me know that I generally recommend this tour aggregator, and so far I have not been especially disappointed. According to the booking, we might not be able to actually get into the square, depending upon the political events of the moment, but it seemed that there would be no problem entering the Forbidden City.
I was out the door in Shunyi at 10:19 AM, once again headed to the nearby Capital Exhibition Center subway/metro station.
In general terms, if possible, I like to use public mass transit, and in the particular case of Beijing, I have not been able to get the ride hailing app to work! As I am assuming that anyone who is reading Day 4 will already have seen my information about taking the subway/metro, I will not share any details beyond the most basic information. My ticket was once more 6 CNY ($0.82 USD), so I assume that around that amount is what it would generally be.
Having already done it a couple of times, the trip was now mostly unremarkable, and at 11:34 AM I was off the subway and trying to figure out how to exit and then get to the meeting place at the Grand Hotel lobby. My only complaint about the Moovit app in Beijing is that the formatting on it is off on the Android app, so you cannot see what exit you are supposed to take when coming out of the subway station. Perhaps they will get that fixed soon?
So, while trying to figure out where to exit, I somehow ended up in a mall and couldn’t easily find an exit. However, I then saw a delivery person at 11:42 and reasoned that if I were to follow him, there was a good chance he would be heading outside. As luck would have it, that was the case and at 11:48 I had arrived at the rather fancy Grand Hotel Beijing lobby.
As had been projected, our guide James arrived at 12:00 PM sharp and we waited a minute to get everyone checked in. In contrast to earlier days in Beijing, I now saw quite a few people who appeared to not be from East Asia. He gave us these handy little single-ear earphones which were connected to his Bluetooth microphone transmitter. Perhaps for others, these are common, but it was the first time I had encountered them, and I thought they would be a great idea for when we take our students on trips and tours from my school. Even with a group of no more than 10, it can otherwise be really hard at times for everyone to hear a guide.
Not having waited too long, at 12:08 PM we set off walking, and once again at 12:14 PM had a passport check. This was followed by some other sort of check at 12:19 which the guide managed without us showing any documents, but then again at 12:21 PM there was another passport check; in contrast to the earlier checks, they actually took our passports for a moment this time and appeared to be genuinely looking at them. Then at 12:23 PM we had a full airport style security checkpoint.
At 12:37 PM, while walking, we came across the Gate of Heavenly Peace. From there, in the distance we could see a pillar, and behind that is the Chairman Mao museum. We did not go there, but evidently that museum has a crystal coffin with Chairman Mao, but I understand it’s hard to get tickets to enter. The National Museum is the building with the red banner and star at the top.
At 12:44 PM James explained the design of the flag, with the four stars representing the four social classes of people. This was new information for me. Then at 12:55 PM he told us that the reason for the white and blue flags was because the president of Finland was currently visiting.
At 1:03 PM we decided to exit the square and head over to the next location. In case you are wondering, YES, I had some misgivings about visiting this place, but I also wanted to see where it all had happened. Even our guide quietly acknowledged that there have been terrible things happen here, but he also wanted to highlight that many good things have happened since then and before then as well. So anyways, yes, I was morally conflicted, but no, I was also not clueless about where I was standing.
At 1:07 PM James suggested that we do a quick bathroom break, as there were not many in the Forbidden City. Oddly enough, the bathroom building also had a gift shop and snack shop . . .I mean why not?
Then at 1:12 PM I noted that visibility was not so great, and James indicated that while air quality had been greatly improved in recent years, the visibility today was affected by a combination of both fog and smog. While walking, he also suggested that we come back on our own to this area when we have the time, since there are many museums around the square which have free entry to the public.
Having now seen several dragon images, at 1:20 PM the guide explained that the number of fingers/claws on the dragon tells us the type of dragon. Five fingers mean it is a king dragon, 4 fingers is a common dragon, and 3 is an evil dragon. Then at 1:24 PM we started to cross the bridge that before 1911 was only permitted to be used by high-ranking officials.
Looking at the map at 1:31 PM we learned that the gray area of the map is still not open to the general public. As we were getting ready there, he also told us that foreigners can buy an entry ticket on the same day, but Chinese citizens have to book their entry seven days in advance, and it is hard to get the tickets since they generally sell out completely within 30 minutes each morning. His explanation for this was that the Chinese government recognizes that for foreigners, this may be their only opportunity in their whole life to visit the Forbidden City, and it is unlikely that a foreigner would have known about the advance purchase rule. However, Chinese citizens should be able to adequately plan in advance. Still, this evidently causes some obvious discontent among the locals, so if asked when getting tickets, he told us to say that we were visiting on our own rather than with a group.
While standing in line at 1:39 PM to get my ticket, I was thinking that maybe this walk-up ticket purchase thing only functions if you already have a Tiannamen Square pass? Certainly, two days ago when I tried to get in through a different entry point, they did not let me do so because I did not have an advance ticket. Note, as my tour had been all-inclusive of all entry fees, the guide had given me 60 CNY in cash to pay at the window. The line itself was not terribly long, but it took some time. Incidentally, they don’t actually give you a ticket; rather, they record your passport information.
At 2:00 PM I was back at the table area waiting for everyone else to finish getting their tickets. While sitting there I ate one of the granola bars that Melody had thoughtfully put in for me in the morning. It was a Giant Bar blueberry flapjack bar, and it actually did taste like a blueberry pancake. Thanks Melody!
At 2:18 PM we were finally entering. Unsurprisingly, the automated passport reader did not work for me, but they just waved me through anyways. Starting from now, there was a lot of information given, most of which I was not able to write down.
For instance, at 2:28 PM James explained the difference between the male and female lions of the “lion gardens”. The female lion can always be recognized by the cub, and the male always has a ball which symbolizes unity of the state. While our guide did not tell us this, I think in a different tour I had been told that these sorts of stylized creature were not actually “lions” but I may be wrong. Regardless, they sort of look like lions. Again, there was a LOT of other information which I am not sharing, but you can definitely do a deep dive into everything found in the Forbidden City by looking online if you really want all the details about the symbolism and function of everything. I will just mention the random things that for whatever reason stood out for me.
On a practical note, at 2:37 PM the guide told us that the huge cauldrons here were actually water recipients for the purpose of fighting fires. A separate note of security was that there were 15 layers of bricks underneath the square in order to make it more difficult for an enemy to tunnel up from underneath.
At 2:41 PM we saw the hall of supreme harmony. This is where the Japanese signed their surrender in 1945. Then, at 2:46 PM we learned that up until 1924, the last emperor still lived in this palace. But at that time, he was completely removed, and the space became open to the public. While seeing the throne room at 2:53 PM (from quite a distance), we learned that through the 1950s, visitors were still allowed to enter the throne room, but they closed it off due to the room starting to be damaged with so much traffic. I think he said that this place is also called the hall of supreme harmony.
At 2:54 PM we were told that the crane and the turtle stand for long life. Separately, throughout the visit, he several times mentioned that there were not many visitors today, and that this was a positive thing. It was unclear to me if this was because it was late October, or if this was just a slow day. Regardless, I certainly appreciated that there were fewer people.
Even through I certainly was not really absorbing everything the guide said, at 3:22 PM I reflected that while coming here without a guide would not be a complete waste of time, it would certainly be far less interesting. Don’t get me wrong, but after a while, most things seemed to look more or less the same, but the tour spiel kept me engaged. So the takeaway is that if you come here without a guide, you will still probably like how many things look, but you will also probably get bored rather quickly.
At 3:37 PM we were in the garden of tranquility and benevolence. I think he said that the temple here was for the emperor’s mother and his concubines. Then at 3:39 PM I got a nice interior furniture picture at the palace of Longevity and Health.
I didn’t really understand why, but there was this golden pagoda we saw at 3:51 PM which was there to keep the emperor’s mother’s hair. Then near that, at 3:54 PM was a hall of Budhist sculptures and a few of the terra cotta warriors (not replicas).
Then at 4:06 PM we were entering the inner court. This was followed by the imperial garden and the study of the last emperor at 4:12 PM. Next, at 4:24 PM I appreciated the mosaics which were on the passageway.
Then at 4:38 PM we started to finish up and the guide gave us a small parting gift, a refrigerator magnet. I believe it is the character for luck. I would never actually buy something like this, but I admit that I took it home with me, and it is on my refrigerator today. All in all, I thought the guide did a very good job, so here is a positive shout out to Catherine Lu Tours, who were the actual tour operator for the tour I had booked through GetYourGuide. If anyone from the company reads this, I hope they will also note the great work which was done by our guide, James.
We could stay longer on our own, but I had made plans to meet up again with Csilla in the evening. Thus at 4:44 PM I looked for an exit, and by 4:48 PM I was walking outside towards the nearest subway station.
The walk itself was nice, and I arrived outside the Tiannamen East Station at 5:26 PM, but this time the ticket was only 3 CNY ($0.41 USD), since I only had to go 5 stations. It was a quick trip, so I was already back on the sidewalk again at 5:45 PM.
I lucked out, because Amap worked for where I was going when I wrote the name in English. I have probably already mentioned this in an earlier entry, but Google maps does not work well at all in China. IF you use an Android phone, Amap works great for walking and driving instructions, but the app is all in Chinese. For Iphone users, I understand that Apple maps works well in China.
So at 5:56 PM I arrived out in front of Beersmith with four minutes to spare. There were many beautiful building to see in this area, especially at night. Csilla arrived shortly thereafter. I had a very good hamburger and a 4-beer sampler for a cost of 214 CNY ($30.03 USD).
The original plan had been to stay later and listen to the live music, but Csilla was not feeling so well, and I also had an early start the next morning, so at 8:18 PM we were already back at Csilla’s place, having previously taken a couple of minutes to get some ice-cream at the shop across the street. After a brief chat while Csilla helped me get ready on her couch for the evening, we both turned in for the night.
So, what did you think? Was this more along the lines of what you had been hoping for when I said I was going to Beijing? If so, I think you will be even happier with Day 5, because it was a big one! As always, thanks for continuing to read along, and let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
Travels with Jay 