Finding my way around the Forbidden City, eventually!

I had arranged to meet two friends at the entrance to Tiananmen square at 10am this morning, BIG MISTAKE! The whole area is a total nightmare. The journey to the nearest station Tiananmen East was easy enough, i had oodles of time to get across the meeting place. Pah! I could not have been more wrong. I could see where i needed to be and the green man at the pedestrian crossing kept on flashing up indicating that it was OK to cross the road, but no one was making it over. I went to cross the road and was hollered at by a very angry policeman brandishing a baton, “NO!” he shouted and ushered me into a pen jammed full of people.

The pen was full of people jostling, pushing, snorting, spitting, children hitting me on the head with their Chinese flags all ridiculously excited to be waiting there within spitting distance of the square. I wasn’t. I really was not feeling the vibe. I pushed my way out of the first pen seeing that some further down the way were smaller, they weren’t moving any quicker but at least the mass was smaller. One hour later after hitching onto the back of a group of Chinese tourists i made it through the “security check” It’s all a bit of an act as the machines do not appear to be turned on, it just seems to be a way to control people.

Success, i had finally made it onto the square and made my way to the meeting point we agreed only about 45 minutes late. There were hundreds if not thousands of people milling around, i quickly realised that there was not a hope in hell of meeting up with the guys. So i started my tour of the square. It’s a very odd place, very soviet in it’s feel with lots of 1950s and 60s buildings surround the edges of the square and some rather random adornments. Like the giant bunch of roses at the far end close to the entrance to the forbidden palace.

There were swarms of large groups of Chinese tourists who seemed beyond excited to be there milling around taking lots of very formally posed pictures. Which belied the edge that was created by the large numbers of police and security forces that were patrolling the space. There were soldiers marching around, guarding everything from monuments to coaches and empty spaces. Along with uniform police, what i can only assume was special forces in very cheap looking black suits and finally the undercover police. Which i saw burst out of a minivan in a group of about 12 to wrestle a man to the ground for daring to sell a Del boy style jacket full of hats on the square. It’s a very interesting place (in the British sense of the word!)

I’d had enough of the atmosphere around the square and wanted to see the Forbidden city so headed in the general direction that i needed to be in. Which works much better for me than map reading generally! It was far easier to get off than on the square, and i was able to saunter under the walkway to get across the road to the entrance. I knew i was in the right place when the hoards of tour groups started to gather and stop mid walkway to take obscure photographs. Including lots of me… I am a novelty, tall, pale skin and curly hair. I would bet money that i am in a number of peoples holiday albums on Facebook. But more on that later.

I bought my ticket from the foreigner queue, woe betide anyone that steps into the wrong lane. Then headed into the palace

complex, past the lady in the Biella jacket. I could not believe my eyes when i saw that! By all accounts Wednesdays are supposed to be quiet here, but it was heaving. Tour guides hollering at their obedient flocks through portable microphones while they shoved and spat their way through the smallest of spaces 5 at a time. I took the automated GPS guide but ignored the specified route in favour of a “see tour, walk in the opposite direction” strategy. Which resulted in very peaceful walk round for the most part. You don’t get any additional information from the tour guide, it reads out what is written on the placards in each area. However, it’s handy to know where you are and with the amount of people in each space you may not get to see the information otherwise (unless you have very sharp elbows!) so it’s worth picking one up. It was harsh on my freakishly small ears though, i had to walk round holding it to my ear looking like a wannabe secret service employee or stage hand!

It took a good couple of hours to explore the nooks and crannies of the palace, including a couple of extra exhibitions featuring the jewels and a crockery display. All were very nice but lacked any information about where they came from, how they were made or what they were used for which is the kind of thing that i like to read about when looking around this kind of thing.

I was ready for some fresh air and a change of scenery so i crossed the road to the parks just north of the forbidden palace that my guide from the station had told me about. I had just purchased my ticket when i bumped into Conor one of my friends from the train. Beijing it seems is a very small place despite the hoards of people! So we had a walk round the smaller Jingshan Park to start with, which was a steal at 2 Yuan to get in! It was so much more peaceful than the madness of the Square and the Palace with some beautiful little temples to have a look round. There were also incredible views of the city, which was fab for us as it was a relatively clear day!

This park also had the cutest little feature as you walked in there was a giant QR code

clipped into a bush which if you scanned it would play a special sound track to listen to while you are exploring the park. A nice little fact for all you marketing geeks out there! I thought it was brilliant.

I was peckish by this point so when we stumbled across a street full of bakeries selling all sorts of pastries, biscuits and sesame bars i went to town. Astonishing the poor girl in the shop by trying a little bit of almost everything between us. These were the perfect snack to keep us going as we ventured further along to the next park, Beihai which has a very nice restaurant right in the middle surrounded by what is billed as the Northern Sea. We got lots of odd looks tucking

into the random snack bags, as everyone else just seems to buy a bag of one thing. There were even more of those thrown around when we stopped for a photo shoot on a cute little bridge.

We became the subject of a photo shoot when ordering dim sum at a little place inside the park, none of the menu was written in English so not only was a it a feat that we managed to order but then people took pictures of us eating AGAIN! I really don’t like that, i don’t want people taking pictures of me while i eat. I don’t take pictures of Asian people eating with forks, it’s rude!

I took my grumpy self back to my hotel via some cake shops, where i tried some

very light but not very tasty chocolate cake. I think it’s because they don’t use butter, but that’s one to add to the research list! I skipped a last night drinking in Beijing, as frankly i needed a rest and to pack the beastly bags again! It gave me some time to write more and prepare myself for Hong Kong.

A still very excited Cake Lady…