Day 6 - The Forbidden City

We are at another Peninsula Hotel in Beijing. Breakfast was a little different though with only a few buffet items and more to order off the menu. Coral ordered French toast which was good and I had eggs and bacon which was ok.

We met our group in the lobby at 8:30 and got on our bus.

Our first stop was a park where locals, mainly retirees, hangout. We stopped and watched some women practicing with nunchucks and men doing pull ups. Then we had a Chinese yo-yo lesson. Neither of us were any good but it was still fun!

From there we walked about 15 minutes to the Temple of Heaven. It is where the emperor used to go to pray for a good harvest.

On the way back to the bus we walked through the match making park. Parents were lined up with a sheet of paper at their feet with fun facts about their grown child(ren) and other parents were walking around and reading the bios and sizing up the parents!

We got back on the bus to go to lunch. Ugh! Food again already! It was only 11am or so, I was still full from breakfast, and it was too hot to eat. Again, this is one of the drawbacks of group travel. Anyway, we went to the restaurant, Chinese again. I only had a few bites but didn’t think it was as good as last night. Everyone else at my table said it was the best meal so far though.

All the kids ended up sitting together at a table so I sat at the adult table. I told Coral that she couldn’t ditch me on this trip but I guess it was inevitable. When we got back on the bus all the kids went to the back. So I guess I’m traveling alone now. Of course all of the other couples are lovely, friendly and welcoming, but it isn’t the same.

In the afternoon we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. There’s not much to the Square. We were told we couldn’t speak of the “incident “ that happened there or about Tibet or Taiwan.

The Forbidden City was pretty though. It was the Emperor’s palace and government headquarters and has 9,999 rooms. It was a full city that had everything he needed so he never had to leave. It’s called the Forbidden City because the commoners weren’t allowed in. 

We finished up around 4pm and got back to the hotel at about 5:00. Dinner was on our own (thank goodness!) so we went up to our room and were done for the day. 

The weather has been stifling. It was so hot and humid today that it really decreased my enjoyment of everything. I’m not easily bothered by the heat, but it got to me today. Even my handheld battery fan wasn’t much help. 

Total Fitbit steps for the day: 13,810