Yesterday disappeared in a haze of travel tiredness … 36 hours after leaving home we finally checked in to our hotel, lay down and woke up 12 hours later to the first of many busy tourist days.

So, Beijing, Capital of China. Population 26 million people – roughly the whole population of Australia in one city. 🏙️

First Impressions

• It’s clean, no rubbish anywhere
• The air is dense – looks like a fog but it’s not
• It’s safe. All the bicycles, scooters, mopeds and the like – and there are thousands of them – are parked without locks and no-one takes them!
• There are cameras everywhere – which is why no-one steals anything!
• Masses of tenement buildings, tall and crowded together to house all those millions of people.
• Huge modern shopping centres as well as street shops.

It’s Time To Be A Tourist!

First Stop – where else but Tian’anmen Square. Our guide Jessica is a wealth of knowledge and we are lucky to have her explain the significance of the buildings surrounding the square.

The Square itself will hold 1 million people. Surrounding the Square are 5 buildings, representing the 5 elements of water, wood, fire, earth and metal. Each element is also represented by a colour. In the order above they are black, green, red, yellow and …. I’ve forgotten the colour for metal 🥹

After showing our passports and having our bags checked we entered The Imperial Palace beneath the smiling face of Chairman Mao. This painting of him is about 5 metres high and is repainted every year.

It was very warm today and I wasn’t feeling the best so I was parked on a seat in the shade while Dave went off with our tour group ( there’s 40 of us) to view the Palace and Forbidden City.

Why is it called The Forbidden City? Well, it was where the Emperor lived and he was the only one who could come and go as he pleased. Everyone else needed his permission to leave the compound. That included his wife AND his 500 concubines! Busy man! He died at age 35, probably from exhaustion! 😰

I sat in the shade in this very ornate portico where girls in traditional dress paraded around for photo opportunities. They are employed to do this for tourists, both local and international.

After a quiet rest I caught up with the group to view the Empress Dowager’s rooms. She was called the Dragon Empress and was known as the ‘power behind the curtain’ as her son was only an infant when he succeeded to the throne.

Today was a huge walking day! Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit kinder on my knees … we’re off to The Great Wall. Somehow I think there’s a lot more walking involved!

Here’s some random shots from today’s adventure.