A weekend in Beijing , Tiananmen Square & The forbidden City. (part 2)
Following my visit to the Great Wall, I was also lucky enough to see a few other amazing places in Beijing. The list of things to do in Beijing are vast and the city has something for everyone, due to me and my girlfriend only having a couple of days there we decided to hit the top three.
Next stop the Forbidden City, it is very hard to miss this place as it is located right next to Tiananmen Square and if you are not sure where to go then just follow the crowds that visit the area every day of the year. Once you have passed through numerous checkpoints along the way which seem like a bit weird as they are just located randomly on the sidewalks and have the same security as the airports and train stations. They will scan your belongings and check your identification and you can have a good staring contest with the very serious armed guards standing on small stages at every checkpoint.
Anyway, after pretending to be Jason Bourne for a while we eventually got to the entrance of the Gardens near the Forbidden City which made for a great change of scene away from the hoards of people in the streets.
The garden was very nice and had many different areas to explore, they also had lots of memorial structures and statues for past leaders and military figures. You don't have to walk far to see some great historical sites and most of them have English descriptions.
After walking through the peaceful gardens we soon came across some larger structures and huge walls and realized we had arrived at the main entrance to the Forbidden City. Unfortunately like so many times before traveling through China the main attraction was closed and with no explanation. This was very frustrating as we could see some people inside, I would guess that they were entertaining some political or personal friends at the expense of the public but that is nothing new. We still managed to take a few good pictures and we made the most of our free time walking around Tiananmen Square.
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The Square is huge and surrounded by big buildings like the Tiananmen gate, the national museum of China, the great hall of the people and the mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Within the Square is the Monument of the people's Heroes and many other structures and decorations and of course lots of Chinese flags. The whole area is quite amazing and great to see but you have to remember that a lot of bad stuff went down here including the massacre of 1989 but like most bad things in China most people will not speak about it or they just don't know as they only get told what the bigger powers what them to know and think. The majority of the Chinese people that I have met over the past couple of years are really great people and will happily go out of their way to help you and just be good friends but unfortunately their filtered version of the internet does not portray the truth about people they consider heroes but I'm sure this will change for the greater good as the country continues to develop and gain more freedom of information.
A few subway stops from the square we found an area with small but very nice traditional streets and buildings full of local foods and gifts. It was a very busy area but this just added to the great atmosphere there and like lots of places in China people wanted to take pictures with me, I guess because I'm a little larger than the average guy you see on the streets but I don't mind and most people are very polite and friendly so I just go along with it.
Later that night we met with some friends that were also spending the weekend in Beijing and we met them at the Slow Boat Brewery. This place is at the top of my list of places to go in Beijing even more so than the wall and the Square as they serve the Best burgers I have ever eaten and also some of the best beer imported from all over the world and also some beer they brew in-house. They have won multiple awards for their Burgers and Beer so I would highly recommend this place for a great meal and a drink or five, there are also lots of other great bars in the area.
We were quite happy with everything we managed to do during a single weekend and it was a nice weekend away with the missus.
I hope you enjoyed this post about Beijing and hopefully, I can visit again with some more time to explore this amazing city.
If you want to read more of my travel blogs please give me a follow and an upvote it goes a long way. Also here's a link to part 1 of this blog.
Thanks again for reading.
https://steemit.com/travel/@burkulese/the-great-wall-a-weekend-in-beijing-part-1-31-pics!
love the work you put in! keep them coming, looking forward to part 3
Thank you very much. Thanks for reading.
Great travel post! We visited China last August as well and fell in love 😊 Seems like you had a blast.
Thanks for reading and yeah I traveled to many different parts of China and it really is an amazing place.
oh and i really liked your san fransico post, great pictures! I have never seen so many seals that close to a populated area.
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Nice post..
Thankyou
Excellent. A shame you couldn't get into the inside of the forbidden city. It's absolutely magnificent. Tienneman square was really intense for me. I felt a little weird with so many people seeming so casual about it. I just wanted to sit down and cry. We found the same thing with people either believing filtered stories or knowing the truth but being unwilling to talk about it. I went to a Tibetan Buddhist temple in Beijing, and it was very beautiful. I very quietly mentioned to our guide about the Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama and what we know about their situations. He quietly acknowledged but definitely didn't want to talk about it.
Yeah I know what you mean, I guess it's either ignorance is bliss situation or the average person just doesn't know. They worship Mao and look at all the terrible things he has done but I really do think it's a lack of education on the truth because, for the most part, the people in China are good people just unaware of their government's issues. either way thanks for reading.