The Heart of Beijing
| We took our time getting up and getting ready this morning, sore from our Great Wall hike yesterday. And yes, we ate at McDonalds for breakfast, knowing it was fast and we didn't have to think about it much - we know we'll have many authentic Chinese breakfasts in the days to come! |
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| After breakfast, we strolled around a huge grocery store across from the Beijing train station. It is so much fun to look at all their food offerings, looking at all they have in common with U.S. grocery stores, and pointing and taking pictures of all the cool, odd, and downright bizarre things they have that aren't anything like we've ever seen. It's also fun to try to guess the food item when there is no English on the package!! One stick of sausage had a picture of a cow (beef), the next had a chicken, and the next had a lion? We didn't know whether to try it out of fear or curiousity. We'll try it another time! Among our other findings were milk-in-a-bag, chicken feet ready-to-eat, donkey-hide gelatin flavor wild sour dates, and roasted ducks (with heads still attached!). We headed for the heart of Beijing - Tianenman Square and the Forbidden City. These are places of such magic and lore -   I can't explain the feeling of standing in the place where I watched tanks roll when I was in 8th grade. Tianenman Square was filled with people - Chinese and foreign - all impressed with the surroundings, Mao's mausoleum, The Hall of the People's Heroes, and the Chinese National History Museum. It all recalled pictures in my mind of a more strict period of communism in this nation's history, but today, the countdown to the Olympics betrayed their past. Quite a sight to see!   We ventured into the Forbidden City, the ancient compound of all the Chinese emperors from the Ming dynasty onward. It was huge and magnificent - and under construction!!! The main throne rooms were covered with scaffolding and the sound of jackhammers and saws could be heard throughout the area. Oh well, they're getting ready for 2008... and we saw just about all the royal bedrooms and side throne rooms that we wanted. It was bigger than I imagined, and very grand! One more sight on our list for the day was a church in the main shopping district of Wangfujing. It stood by itself amongst all the shops and stores - an ancient church which was still operating today, despite the communist crackdown on churches. It was very cool to see pictures of services and sunday school classes. We stood in front of the church until darkness fell and the lights of the church began to glow.For dinner, another pass at the Dongcheng night market and another look at the crazy food offerings of the vendors. Forget the Minnesota "on-a-stick" claim to fame, these people put ANYTHING on a stick, fry it, and call it food!! Wow! I stayed with the fried ice cream and the lamb kabobs. We also ventured into the Beijing Olympic store to purchase some momentoes of the coming Olympics - three pins with different symbols of the Beijing Olympics. |