Day Nine

Tian Anmen Square - Forbidden City - Temple of Heaven - Markets

Early start but still very tired, this travelling business is hard work. On our way for breakfast we realised that spitting in China is absolutely accepted because people spit everywhere. The women are far worse than the men & they pull the nastiest grock from the back of their throats & they let loose by your feet - its vile!!! Breakfast at McDonalds (only place with normal type of breakfast) we headed on the bus for Qian Men Da Jie & Tian An Men Square. The journey was further than we thought. Off the bus we headed down a narrow bustling street which had lots & lots of shops selling all kinds of caper so we had a little nose. As it was so so cold I decided to look for a hat. After driving a hard bargain I got a funky grey one with bobbles at the end for £2.50 so that'll do me quite nicely. After the hustle & bustle of the market style streets we came out on to a lovely street which had lovely architecture, decor, nice shops & trams running up & down the centre. Across the street from the tram was more of the square. There was some lovely architecture & we passed some official government buildings. On the other side we passed the National Museum of China. It was absolutely massive & it was emblemed to the max.

At the top of that street we saw the Forbidden City which was a maze to get to. The roads were all railed off so the only way to reach the other side was to go down a subway & then up a subway. Security was tight in this place, every subway we passed under there was a big scanner which you had to pass your bags through in order to get to the other side. The Forbidden City was an array of buildings with traditionally decorated arches that were extremely colourful. Some stood in the middle of a platform area all by themselves, there was plenty of tourists around & venders trying to make a quick few quid. In all the hustle & bustle was police & government workers dressed in a very smart green attire - they looked very patriotic. There was one building at the far back which was smothered with the face of the Chinese President & lots of Chinese & Italian flags. This seemed to be the most popular one of the lot.

We paid to enter the grounds & garden of the Forbidden City & we walked around for hours. In the garden was beautifully decorated walk ways. There was little bridges that lead over a pond to more traditional looking Chinese buildings. The place was quite quiet & the weather being sunny made it more lovely. The place was so huge you could spend all week walking around & still not see everything.

After our stroll around we jumped the subway to the Temple of Heaven. Security was tight at the train stations to, you had to pass your bag through more security scanners before you was even allowed to buy a train ticket. The train was as we expected, jam packed with no seats & barely little standing space. The Temple of Heaven was pretty easy to get to. We paid our entrance fee & made our way around up to the main square. There were many other shrines around the main temple so we went to look at these first. In the grounds of all the temples was thousands of cypress trees which are hundreds of years old. When walking around we saw many many people touching the cypress trees in the gardens. Not only were they touching but they were literally rubbing every part of their bodies on the trees. It is believed that these trees give you good health & a long long life. We thought what the heck we'd give it a go too so we rubbed our hands (not our bodies or anything because we would just look silly) on the trees, I guess we'll see if the results were worth it in 40 years time.

The main temple, the Temple of Heaven stood on a circular platform raised in the air. There was lots of big white marble steps that we had to climb up to take a look. The temple was round & it was beautiful decorated & with many colours. We took a sneak peek inside to see what all this temple fuss was about. Inside there was shrines & massive gold ornaments which I presumed are part of the religion & the parts they pray to. After this we continued to walk around the grounds & find more & more shrines & temples to look at. Even though we had a map we still kept walking around & returning to the same place hahaha! All templed out we headed for the exit.

Over from the train station we had been told that there was a good market that we should experience. We entered the 1st place & it was called the Toy Shop. Crazy place, there was every toy possible in there. Aisles & aisles of bloody toys (some looking dangerous & unsafe that you wouldn't give to your enemies kids!), there was shouting galore - "Hey Mr, you want toy for your kid - best price", at that point we made for the exit. Market 2, gadgets & gizmos everywhere. Everything was more bent & fake than a £2 note! We decided to try & get a fridge magnet to add to our collection. We found a stall & managed to haggle one for ¥7 which is just under 70p - we could have probably haggled further but it was sweat raising stuff. Up the escalators to the 2nd floor of the market, wow the clothes & shoes section. Again they were trying to sell their soul to us. "Hey lady, you want to buy a pair of U-Gay (Ugg) boots?" at one point they had us cornered & were shouting at Andy "We got nice pooma (Puma) for you!" the trainers were that bad the logo wasn't a puma it was a p**** cat. We thought sod that headed for the escalators down & a sharp quick exit.

Back on the train & heading for the district where we were staying. This was going to be fun as we haven't got the train back to the area before only the bus so god knows how we will find the hostel. Off the bus there was a supermarket across the road so we went to have a look. It was mad & was nothing like Asda at home. We couldn't recognise what anything was at all. We grabbed a bottle of Sprite, some funny looking biscuits, a bag of strange crisps & a few Chinese pot noodles. It's hilarious because the food in China is extremely cheap but we haven't come across an item yet that has been in date so that's why we reckon it's soooo cheap!

Out of the supermarket & on a dark dirty busy street which way do we turn for home so to speak. We tried left at first but then we had to stop to enjoy some meat on a stick (we call it meat as we don't know what the hell it is!) from a street vendor. We reached a set of traffic lights & nothing looked familiar what so ever so we decided to try & ask for directions. The Chinese are quite ignorant & not very helpful. They don't want to take the time to stop & talk to you or help you. You would think that having the Olympics here in 2008 would encourage them - so so bloody wrong! The asking for directions thing wasn't working so we turned back & headed in the other direction. After squabbling of which way was best we walked in the way Andy had suggested for about 15 mins & we started to recognise the area - well to tell you the truth we spotted the McDonalds (we just hoped it was the same one)!

Next to the McDonalds there was the most amazing looking cake shop & us being greedy couldn't resist! How come we have not spotted this before?! We went in & there was all kinds, each cake looking as tastier as the next - decisions decisions! Cakes bought we headed back to the hostel to enjoy our cakes & pot noodles & in that order hahaha.

Showered & ready for bed we decided that we will go to Beijing Zoo tomorrow & a good nights sleep is needed to probably prepare me for the sadness of how these animals are kept!

Good night people.............