April 11

I must admit, I was worried about having cases of writers’ block when figuring out what to write about. Fortunately, today was so utterly fantastic that the words are just about flying out of my fingers. We began with the breakfast buffet where I managed to consume something so spicy that the taste stayed with me for hours. The food there was delicious, though, and we all filled up our stomachs to the brim and then some.

We then blocked in the lobby for a head count and proceeded to our buses. Our first stop would be Tianamen Square.  While in the bus, our tour guide, Michael, explained some things about Beijing. He talked about how the streets were laid out like a chess board and how the city had expanded in rings. He also talked about how the Chinese believed that they were descended from dragons and that the emperor always called himself “the real dragon”. 

The large amounts of traffic made our journey towards the square almost five times as long as it could have been. It’s outstanding how twenty million people are able to cram into one single city. Contrary to what we heard about the “smog ceiling”, the sky was actually a wonderful blue and the weather was absolutely perfect. We arrived in Tianamen Square which was filled with other tourists groups. We took pictures and rambled around the square a bit. 

We then traveled an underground tunnel to the other side of the street where the entrance to the Forbidden City was. It was phenomenal walking through the entrance and seeing the first of many magnificent and beautiful buildings. The Forbidden City was actually closed to the public until the early twentieth century. Originally no commoners were allowed to enter into the giant complex as it was reserved for the emperor and his court. The roofs of the buildings were all yellow as that was the color of royalty. Walking through the city was absolutely fantastic and I think the following pictures will do a great job of illustrating that.