Friday,
November 20, 2009
TIAN'AN
MEN SQUARE, FORBIDDEN CITY AND
HUTONG TOUR
Wow today was a cold one, with the wind it made it even
colder. We started off at Tian'an Men Square.
This is a large open concrete expanse in the middle of
Beijing, this was the site of the 1989 student protest.
The red columns along side the square were just placed
recently to represent the 56 minority groups in China. We
continued through the gate under Chairman Mao's picture to
the entrance of the Forbidden City. This was the home
of over 24 emperors for nearly 500 years. The City has
9,999 rooms ( 9 is a lucky number in China). There is only
one garden inside the Forbidden City and it contains rock
gardens and ancient trees.
For lunch we ate at a Hutong residence. The Hutong is a
look into the old Beijing. The families house that we ate
at had been passed on for four generations and is over 100
years old. They have one kitchen, and eleven rooms in all.
The bathroom is shared with the community. The food was
very good and we learned a lot about their family life.
After lunch we were driven in a Rickshaw, which is a
covered trolley that a bike pulls.
I felt sorry for the guy, he kept getting stuck ( I think
we were to heavy for him to pull). We have learned so much
about the Chinese culture in the past week and have really
enjoyed our stay in Beijing. We had a wonderful guide who
answered our millions of questions we had for her! We are
ready to move on to the next journey in our trip, meeting
our little girl! We will not post tomorrow since we will
be flying to Beijing but will post the next day. We meet Zoe on Monday at 2:30, so when you guys check for updates
on Monday morning we will have already met her!
Love you guys and miss you!!
Mom & Dad
|
Us at Tian'an Men Square
The 56 columns on the side of Tian'an Men Square
Roof Guardians to protect the building from fire
seen on the roof on one of the buildings at the Forbidden City |
