Finally, the Forbidden City

This week has been very busy, and Thursday, we started out at a new place, Anzhen Hospital, which took us about 90 minutes to get to. The day was pretty exciting, as we started out with a cardiologist who had done some training in Galveston (what a small world). In the afternoon, we went around the pediatric cardiology wards and were able to listen to a bunch of murmurs.



We had a long lunch break, and we were already in the northern part of Beijing, so we decided to walk up and see the Olympic park, with the National Aquatics Center and the National Stadium, or Bird's Nest as it has come to be known. They are both very impressive structures, but we weren't allowed to get very close from the direction we came.





A group us us decided that we would take off on Friday, and try to fit in some more sight seeing. So we got up early and headed to the Yonghe Temple, 雍和宮, known as the Lama Temple, one of the holiest Buddhist temples in China. The place was very impressive, topped off with a statue of Buddha 18 meters tall (that's about 60 feet) carved from 1 piece of sandalwood.



After this, headed southwest to the Confucious Temple & Imperial College. This primarily contained rows upon rows of tablets with inscriptions of the names of those who had mastered the philosophy and completed the final test which consisted of spending 3 days in a room measuring 1.5 square meters. According to my book, those who didn't pass either died or went crazy. But the centerpiece of the temple is at the west end, where I believe the remains of Confucius are.







We were getting hungry by this time, and I found a British owned place nearby in my book called the Vineyard (seemed like it would be safe for Laura). It took us a while to find as it was tucked away in a hutong off the main road. The food there, while not local cuisine, was quite delicious.



Lindsey and I went to Ditan Park, while Laura and Caraleigh went to Olympic Park, as they had not seen it the previous day. There wasn't anything too exciting at Ditan, but it was a nice place to sit down and relax for a bit and I was even able to get in some exercise!





We meet back up with them in a hutong near the Drum & Bell towers. By this time it was close to 5pm and we only had time to see one of the towers so we chose the Drum Tower, which had been used as a clock for the city in times past. After walking up a very steep set of stairs, we reached the top for an amazing view of the city. At 5pm we went back in the tower and watched a brief performance on the drums.







Between the two towers was a little bar, naturally called the Drum & Bell Bar, so we stopped by for a couple of beers. Afterwards, we headed off to Sanlitun to find the Tree, a pizza and beer joint that most of our friends have been to and raved about. While the food was amazing, the atmosphere of the place left something to be desired as it was very crowded (as is everything in Beijing) and smoking (where is the smoking ban!?)




(on the way to the Tree)

Saturday morning we woke up early to finally go see the Forbidden City. While we were there right after the gates opened, it was still one of the most crowded places we have visited so far. And at almost a complete square kilometer, we had a lot of walking to do. The bad part is that it is going over some extensive renovations and we weren't allowed to go into the centerpiece, the Hall of Supreme Harmony. However, we were still about to spend about 3+ hours exploring all of the other numerous halls and palaces.







After this, we decided to go to Grandma's Place, a small restaurant that Lindsey had really wanted to go to. Even though we have been eating too much Western food lately, this was one that will have to be repeated. They serve Western style breakfast all day, something that I have not had in over 3 weeks.

Next, we headed north to Jingzhao Park. This park contains a large hill that was created from all the dirt that was removed around the Forbidden City to create its moat. Upon climbing the top of the hill, there is an impressive 360 degree view around the city, with all of the Forbidden City visible to the south. While it was very hazy, it was still quite an impressive sight to behold.



One of the most surreal moments of the trip came Saturday night when eight of us headed to Tim's Texas BBQ for Aggie Muster with the Beijing A&M Club. While it wasn't celebrated in the traditional way of Muster, we all got together and had some very good barbecue, along with ice cold beer.







Today we area heading to Behei Park, just northwest of the Forbidden City.

Photos coming soon!

再见,
Adam