May 27, 2007 - Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Hutong Tour

One year ago today, we toured Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City (where the emperors lived), and took a tour of the old hutong houses. It was a long day of touring in very high temps (mid-90s) with lots of walking. It was quite exhausting. Here's our beloved guide, Rose, at the beginning of the day:

I like this shot of EJ looking at the students patrolling one of the monuments, while one little boy gets his picture taken against a gate:

The Square has a lot of interesting buildings...in this shot, the building in the background is where lawmakers meet. The Square is a public gathering spot where families flew kites...

...children played...

...and soldiers patrolled...

Here we are on the side of the Square with the entrance to the Forbidden City in the background. You can see the famous portrait of Chairman Mao above my head.

Here's a better shot of him:

The Forbidden City is enormous...a total of nearly 10,000 rooms. Once inside, you can walk over one of five bridges. Our group chose the Bridge of Knowledge:

Many temples are being restored in time for the Olympic tourist rush:

I never remember what these little creatures on the roofline are called, but the more of them there are on each corner of the roof, the more important the inhabitant of the building.

Rubbing the gold knobs on the huge doors will bring good luck!

Here's a cute little guy wearing his split pants. Babies in China aren't bothered with diapers, they just squat and go.

After several hours in the Forbidden City (which, by the way, has a STARBUCKS inside it!), it was time for a hutong tour to eat lunch with a local family. This was a totally insane thing to do...to get there, we rode in rickshaws...in totally insane Beijing traffic. K's driver was fired at the first stop for getting a little too close to a speeding bus!

The view from inside the rickshaw:

I had packed lots of snacks in my backpack this day, because quite honestly, we were a little nervous about eating at someone's house. Would the water be okay? Was the stuff cooked enough? Once we got there, the smells were amazing, and I can report that this was by far the best meal we ate in China. My favorite was the pork with garlic shoots in the lower left corner of this picture. I'd love to have that recipe!

Here's EJ in the small kitchen in which the meal was prepared:

After lunch, we were able to tour around the hutong (a house set in a quadrangle with three other houses, most occupied by members of an extended family). Many of the old hutongs have been destroyed by new development, but there is renewed effort to preserve them now.

They are very proud to be hosting the Olympics this year, and had news articles about it hanging up!

In the courtyard outside the hutong.

Next, we walked several blocks to the Bell Tower Tea House for a tea tasting.

After a full and exhausting day, we went to the Beijing airport and caught an evening flight to Nanchang to meet Sophie the next day. Poor EJ was so tired that she crashed at the Nanchang airport while we were collecting our luggage.