After another difficult choice over breakfast before we headed back out to the tube station heading South to Tiananmen Square to join the hoards queuing to pay their respects to Chairman Mao. As we’d come to expect, security was tight, with check points in underpasses to the square. Crossing the road and joining the continuously moving queue that snaked around the square. I feel that Disney could learn a thing or two about keeping an hour long queue constantly moving.
Relatively good natured queuing with the usual Chinese queue jumpers weaving their way through the tightly packed punters. Once again, we’d been spotted as ‘foreigners’ and noticed the lady in front of us using her phone in ‘selfie’ mode to snap a picture of us. We spotted her and posed, waving !!! She turned, smiled and looked a little awkward. Another picture of us was snapped right on the steps of the Mao Mausoleum by one of her family too. Ushered strictly through yet another bag check and security check we were then roughly man handled in to pairs to file past the body of Mao with strict instructions to keep walking and not to stop. Despite expecting the passing throng to be reverential and solemn they all chattered loudly as they passed the body. Slightly bizarre as a holiday ‘To-Do’ but most definitely worth it for the experience.
Mao visited we crossed back past the Metro station on our way to the Temple of Heaven. Our route passed along a relatively smart shopping street lined with many Western brand shops. Quite a walk but the weather was good and we passed the Natural History Museum, teeming with families queuing to get in.
Tiantan Park, another pay to enter park, followed by several pay to enter temples, was delightful and tranquil. Walking amidst the trees and rose gardens was delightful, lacking the usual noisy hoards usually encountered. Visiting the Temple of Heaven required yet another payment fore joining the crowds inside. Beautiful in its shape, colour and proportions it was well worth the walk to get there. But the most enjoyable part of our visit to the park was unexpectedly bumping in to a couple of choirs singing, what appeared to be very patriotic Chinese folk songs, in the Long Hall. Wonderfully loud. Mesmerizing in its simplicity and beauty.
Exiting the park and looking for a convenient place to cross the busy road, we spotted the Pearl Market. We had read about this in the guide books, so crossed the road and entered. Not the nicest place to shop with very pushy and persistent vendors hassling you constantly. More like an enclosed market with separate stalls selling all sorts of goods. So aggressive was their sales pitch you couldn’t even pause to look at anything as you would be pounced on instantly by the stall keeper. There may have been bargains in there, but the atmosphere was so aggressive we didn’t hang around to find out.
After a brief rest from our afternoon in a park, we walked through the Hutong to the nearest tube station and travelled out to the Olympic Park to see the famous ‘Birds Nest’ lit up after dark. Sadly, as we approached the tube station we could see the that the weather was closing in and rain was forecast. Exiting the station the signing was quite poor, despite being a huge International venue but we found the park and once again had to go through the usual bag searching to get in. Wandering around taking pictures of the Olympic characters and the now illuminated stadium, it suddenly began to rain and the park instantly emptied and we soon followed suit and headed for the tube home.
We gave up trying to find something to eat at a nearby shopping arcade as nowhere had anything advertised in English, not any menus with helpful pictures on. Being creatures of habit and knowing what good food is, we ended up back in the Hutong right across the street from The Orchid in Mr Shi’s Dumplings. Once again a plate of fried dumplings and a Tsingtao beer hit the spot perfectly.
Having filled our bellies we crossed the street and snuck down the alley to The Orchid, bumping in to a fellow guest heading out to hit the Beijing night-life. and dodging the rain. The reception area at The Orchid doubles up as a lounge/bar, so we cosied up on one of the sofas and enjoyed a couple of beers and a coffee or two chatting to another of the guests about our days adventures in Beijing.
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