Our fourth and final destination was Beijing, China. We decided to visit China this year because we have a Chinese visa. When we came to Mongolia last August, we had to get a Chinese visa to transit through Beijing. However, instead of getting a one-time transit visa, we got a one-year multi entry visa. We figured that we had already paid for this one, and we wanted to visit China sometime anyway, so why not go this year? Other than Chiang Mai, this was the main stop of our trip. Our original plan was to fly into Beijing, spend a week sight-seeing, and take the train from Beijing to UB with our teammates. A few weeks before we left UB, our teammates were asked to visit a friend's family in the country before our return date, so they decided to return a little earlier than us. After we parted ways in Bangkok, we were on our own mostly until we arrived back in UB. We were alright with that though. We were a little nervous but not about to miss out on an opportunity to visit China.
Our first day was interesting. We were unable to buy our train tickets before we left UB, so our first order of business was to get tickets back home.
After spending the entire day trying to figure out how to get train tickets to UB, we ran into the right person and ordered our tickets. While we were waiting for them to be processed and delivered, we took a walk. This building stands not far from the train station. It is part of the old city wall built during the Ming Dynasty about 500 years ago. This was the south-east corner of the city and a primary defense point against attack. Attached to this fortification was a section of the wall about 1.5 kilometers long. We had nothing else better to do, so we walked the whole section.
This section of the wall was hollowed out to make way for the first train line heading out of Beijing. We thought it was pretty neat to be that close to such history, but this was only a drop in the bucket compared with the next two days.
After the train ticket ordeal, we got down to being tourists. The first and only order of business for the next day was visiting the Forbidden City. It was our only planned event because it is, after all, a city. This is a picture of the iconic Tiananmen gate of the Forbidden City that looks out across Tiananmen Square. It is also the primary entrance for the Palace Museum.
Here is Jennifer in front of the gate. It was quite chilly the day we went, and we had just come from Thailand. Come wind, come cold we were not going to be discouraged from spending time at such an historical site.
The Forbidden City, named so because no commoners could enter, was built during the Ming Dynasty some 560 years ago. It is a self-contained city and the largest palace complex in the world that once housed around 10,000 people. Not all sections are open for visitors, but a large portion is. We were able to get an audio tour program in English that was GPS tracked and would tell facts and stories about the palace as we walked. Walk we did! We spent 5 hours roaming around the palace but did not see the entire place.
There are multiple palace buildings with thrones throughout the complex used by the different emperors for different events. This throne however was the grandest of them all and was located in the central and largest palace building.
There were different galleries throughout the complex that highlighted life in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. This was one of our favorites out of the display items, a pair of chopsticks made out of gold and jade. As outrages as this might seem, we also saw a golden toothpick.
Joshua stood at the door and knocked, but there was no answer. It was probably a good thing. Our feet and legs were already worn out. We had a blast, but there was only so much we could do.
This is a rare thing in Beijing. Jennifer is standing alone in a large open area. There are hundreds of buildings, walkways, alleys, and open courts throughout the Forbidden City. A few times we got a little lost and had to keep walking until we found where we were again.
We had such a great time! It was incredible to be able to walk around in the Forbidden City, a place that neither of us ever thought we would get to visit.
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