May 28th, 2011

It’s basically our last full day in Beijing (we leave tomorrow to go to Kunming) and I have committed myself to the hotel room.  My feet are in ruins.  I have blisters the size of quarters under the thick calluses of my heels.  I also have other blistered areas on my feet and my foot bones feel like they are broken.  The swelling in my feet and ankles has not totally gone away either.  Maybe I am a total wimp but pain is pain and I am out of the game for now. 

My cankles and blister (Ok maybe not as big as a quarter but seriously painfull)

I am having culture shock and I hope I get over it soon.  So beware if I have nothing positive to say in this post, but China is kicking my butt. 

Yesterday we were told by the hotel staff that we could easily walk to the Forbidden City so we did.  It ended up taking an hour.  Also, we met this very helpful English speaking woman on the street.  She told us how to get there when we were lost.  She also invited us to visit her art gallery, only a slight detour from our destination.  I was about to say no thank you when Steve happily agreed to go with her.  We ended up buying some art work and she drew Daisy and Zack's names in Chinese for free.  Later I was reading in our guide book and it said "beware of scammers who invite you to tea ceremonies or art galleries, you will end up paying way more than you should!"  Oh well, we like the art we got.  

We went through the whole city, it was slightly interesting, there were big crowds and everyone wanted Zack’s picture. 

At the start of the walk through.

Threre were many buildings...

many statues...

 

And many thrones.

There were naked babies...

huge crowds...

and lots of people taking pictures of the white haired boy.

At the end there was a neat garden area with these crazy rocks.

There is a moat that goes around the whole forbidden city.  When they dug the moat they placed all the dirt across the street and made a big hill.  There is now a park there and a temple on top of the hill.

The temple at the top of the moat dirt hill.

When we came out, there was a cool park so we went to that and climbed a big hill to a temple at the top with views of the city.  It was great!  I love to see the view of a city from up high. 

Gardener watering on the steep climb up.

The view of the forbidden city behind us from the top of the hill.

The forbidden city goes as far as you can see.

A view of Beijing.

Toy seller at temple with his magical rings.

Where can I get one of those cool visors?

Up in the temple. It was very pretty and colorful.

After the park visit, we walked to Tiananmen Square, another heinous 40 minute walk.  It was a big cement square with lots of people milling about and no benches to sit on.  Chairman Mao’s picture is really, really small in case you were wondering.  

One end of the square.

The other end of the square.

OK, so his picture is actually quite big, weighing in at 1.5 tons.  It just looks small from far away.

The picture is changed out every year before Oct 1st, which is the founding day of the Peoples Republic of China.

On the way home, I insisted we figure out the subway.  No more walking.  So we did and it was really easy to use and cheap. 

We came back to the hotel and rested for so long that it was late when we set out for the night market at Wangfujing Street.  I bought some new shoes on the way hoping it would help my feet to have a change.  It helped for a little while.  Having not eaten lunch, we were anxious to find dinner but got lost trying to find the noodle house we wanted to try.  We gave up and just headed back to the market and thought we would eat there but there was no food except KFC and McDonald's.  Weird.  Oh, and the mystery meat on a stick and live bugs on sticks that people were eating.  So, going against our own rules again, we ate at KFC.  Gross. 

Then we went home, to our hotel.  Forgot to wear my pedometer again!  Double blast!

TMI warning:

Right now the others are out exploring while I sit and rest.  I am not myself and needed to just chill.  The problem:  destroyed feet, fatigue, culture shock, germaphobia, PMS and the worst period I have ever had.  Period.

Tonight we are going to eat Peking Duck and then to see an evening Kung Fu show at the theater.  No walking needed.  I am looking forward to it.   

Tomorrow we will pack up and fly out around 3:30.  Two more days till we meet Daisy!