My trip to China / The first day in Beijing Part 2

Dear Steemians,

The endeavour:

After a very short night following my arrival with a heavy dealay with the flight, which was diverted to Shengyan due to a Sandstorm in the Gobi Desert, I remembered not having mentioned it in my previous blog (see part 1) during a conversation I had last Friday with a former colleague of mine. I had a very early wake up on the very next day.

Going in the breakfast room, it was the opportunity to see for the first time the people of the group I would be part during the trip through China. The least I can say is that as a 40 year old guy I would have appreciated to travel with people of the same age as me or younger than me. Welp, except one 30 year old man accompanying his 57 year old mother, the remainder of the group was aged above 60.

They all seemed to not have been informed correctly about why I could not make it on time on previous day and thought I did a no-show. I would not have done a no-show for this very first trip out of Europe. So I had to explain to everyone what happened, up to now I do not think they understood, this is not important now.

I was eager to enjoy a astonishingly good breakfast in the hotel chosen for accommodation and we had a very tight schedule for the visits of the day.

Tian´Anmen:

The very first site we had the opportunity to visit was the Tian´Anmen place where the student revolt took place in 1989, from Apr. 15th to June, 5th. Next year will mark the 30th commemoration day of the massacre.

Interestingly, it is not possible to access this place like we would go on any other place, avenue, boulevard in the world. Indeed, due to security reason and as the President´s residence is not far away from the place. Only a limited number of people are allowed to visit this place against payment and sometimes have to queue 1 hour prior being able to go on the site. All the relevant details for access authorization are also recorded on the ID cards of the Chines residents including the passport details of people they accompain for a organized visit.

Fortunately, we did not have to wait that long and were on the place within 10 minutes as groups over 10 enjoy a priority access.

Below are some pictures I did from the place, I was happy to be there and it was a great experience to be on the place filled with history.

The Fobidden City:

Below you will find some pictures of the Forbidden City, this place is impressive and the picture of the Great Helmsman Mao Tse Tong dominates the access.

It is worth to be mentioned that for some reason, we had to go very fast in the court as this could lead to some issue with Chines authorities, It is quite quaint for European people and we had to comply with the facts.

I must say that I was impressed by the grandness of the area and the huge number of visitors in the palace. Despite the turbulences of the previous day, I was quite in shape and appreciated every single moment.

Following photography show the emperor´s throne. It was probably the most stressful moment of the journey, as a lot of visitors, mainly from China´s countryside, were there to photography and see this part of the palace. It has a huge importance for Chinese people and is a must see for them, it is a once in a lifetime chance for them as I guess that the travel costs are very expensive for them.

The rooms:

Here you can see how the emperor and his deputies were living. It is relevant to note that the comfort may not seem extraordinary, but the heating system was under the beds. All I can say is that I was pleased to learn a little bit more, even if in a group it is seldom to acknowledge all the flood of information and important dates provided by the tour guide in the midst of a noisy environment and also we get easily and positively distracted by the marvels we were about to endeavour further.

We also visited some temples, which pictures will be shown in the next blogs.

Fun fact:

• As we were one of the seldom group of occidental people and there were mainly countryside people on the site, we also became kind of an attraction for them. We were photographied and also some chinese folks stopped and tried to understand what our guide was saying in french. It was amusing.

Questions for you:

• Which season do you think is recommended to visit China?
• Are Vaccines compulsory for every spot?

I hope you enjoyed this blog.

Stay tuned for more with some astonishing and wonderful spots. All I can say is that some monuments are breathtaking both literally and physically.

I wish you a lovely Sunday guys.
Yours
@joel0101