Here is the Square, largest public square in the world, built to allow 1 million people to attend, and the place where Mao declared the People's Republic of China in 1949.
Here is the Mao Tse-Dong mausoleum on the Square, there were hours-long lines to get in, and we didn't.
The admission lines to see a brief glimpse of Mao's embalmed body:
The National Congress building across the street from the Square:
Various scenes from the Forbidden City, residence of the emperors where commoners were forbidden to enter during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1400's to 1911):
All the buildings had yellow roofs (a symbol of Earth) and lots of dragons...only the royal family was allowed to use yellow and dragons. The movie The Last Emperor was actually shot here (we will see it later on our cruise). The actual Last Emperor lived here as a prisoner after China became a republic in 1911...he was taught by a Scottish guy, loved bicycles, basketball, and a bunch of other trivial details I quickly forgot. A 50 meter moat surrounds the old Forbidden City
We then went to lunch at a local restaurant, the food was served family style on a lazy susan. We had some Chinese beer (not bad!). There were way too many courses (including one dish they called "fungus") and we all ate too much
After lunch and Diane's food coma, we went thru a local neighborhood, saw some mah jong players
saw the "drum tower" where they would beat the drums every other hour in the old days
and the "bell tower" where they would ring a huge bell hourly
beneath which we attended a tea tasting of 5 different types of teas. A small tall cup was used for smelling the tea, and then the other for tasting (best slurped!)
After dinner at the hotel, we took a bus to the "Legend of Kung Fu" show, lots of dancing, martial arts, and nodding off by folks suffering from jet lag:
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