Forbidden City and getting around Beijing

Yesterday we took the subway which is about a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Subways are not a normal thing for us anyways, we are just country folk, but when in a foreign city and it is in a different language- wow, not easy! But we managed to make our way to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. 

The Forbidden City is like a castle and courtyard that never seems to end.We walked through it which took a couple of hours and on the way out we were snagged by a rickshaw driver which took us through 700 year old Hutongs. Amazing. Then we got out and walked and walked some more through the city. We found our way back to the hotel and crashed for about 4 hours. Dead asleep. Exhausted. 

I hadn't eaten anything all day and had been really looking forward to eating peking duck at this restaurant named DaDong. It took us awhile to get there. When the Chinese say it will be a 30 minute walk- for us we realized that we should tack on another 30 minutes because we obviously don't know where we are going. We got to DaDong at 7 pm. Waited an hour and a half for a table and boy, was it worth it! The best duck I have ever had. It was a very contemporary, fancy restaurant, yet very friendly and laid back. The courses kept coming out- we weren't exactly sure what we ordered, except that the waiter took one look at us and said half a duck was plenty for two. I was skeptical because I was hungry... really hungry, but sure enough it was plenty. For $30 we ate like a king and queen and then walked back to the hotel. 

It was dark, and there aren't a lot of street lights. There were still lots of people, even kids, out at 10:30 pm. The smells on the streets are strange around here, some bad, some weird and unidentifiable, but mostly not good. The smog hasn't lifted in the three days we've been here and it is like a yellow fog everywhere. Some people wear masks. I really wish it had been clearer. But, now we are off to our next destination Taiyuan, which is said to be the most polluted place in the world and the coal producing capital of China. 

We are heading out to look at our last sight- The Dongyue Temple, a small temple, not a tourist attraction, but the temple that shares our daughter's name.  We take the bullet train after 4 pm and will arrive in Taiyuan about 7 pm. Looks like we will be picking Ava up tomorrow afternoon from the Civil Affairs Office! I'm excited and nervous about that but trying to focus on soaking up as much Chinese culture as I can before then.  Here are some pics of our adventures: