China - Day 2

The second day of China was busy form the start. We woke up at 5:30 in order to be at Tiananmen Square by 7:00 to meet up with Norman for the dawn flag raising. It was interesting to watch, everyone who was watching had to line up a certain distance from the flagpole, and couldn't go any closer until the ceremony was over. They played some music, and a double line of Korean police/soldiers marched from The forbidden city, crossed the busy street they temporarily blocked, and surrounded the flag pole. They then slowly raised the flag to music. It was really interesting to watch.

After the flag raising, we wandered around the square, taking pictures and looking for some friends we were to meet, we found out later that they had made a last minute decision to sleep in. After not finding them, we decided to head over to see Mao's Memorial. It turned out, they don't allow you to bring in any bags or anything, so we had to walk across the street to pay to have our bags stored for us. Since The memorial itself was free to get into, I believe that this is how they made there money because they charged per bag, and also per camera. It was 9 yuan for my purse and camera and only slightly more for Cody's backpack and camera. Granted, 10 yuan was less than $2, but still...

After dropping our bags off, we headed over to Mao's Memorial. We were immediately subjected to the fourth security check of the morning, and ushered towards the memorial. On the way, we were allowed to purchase yellow carnations for 3 yuan, which Cody did, because he decided he wanted to honor Mao. We entered the building and immediately formed 2 lines, one with carnations, and one without. The people with flowers were able to go close to a statue of Mao and place them on a huge table covered with flowers (we found out later, yet another money-making ploy, as they re-used the same flowers throughout the day). Then, warned by signs to keep quiet, we paraded past the crystal tomb. Under the lid, we could see Mao lying there, looking waxy because of how he has been preserved. It was kind of cool, yet creepy to be in there. After looking at Mao, we walked around a corner and were bombarded with souvenir stands. I couldn't believe it. One minute we are being quiet and respectful, the next, we are getting harassed to buy everything you could imagine with Mao's picture on it.

After making our way out, and only buying one or two Mao souvenirs, we made out way to the Forbidden City and spent the next three or four hours wandering the labyrinthine halls and palaces. It was pretty amazing, and we didn't see a third or so of it because we had a hard time getting out of the North West section, and were really tired once we had made it.

After the Forbidden City, we attempted to head to the Lama Temple. We were really excited because it's an actual working temple, rather than a pure tourist trap. Unfortunately, we didn't make it. We located the temple only five minutes after ticket sales had ended. Discouraged, but resolving to go another day, Norman headed to his hotel, while Cody and I went to our hostel to freshen up. After that, we met at the Wangfujing Market Street and headed to a restaurant to try our first ever Peking Duck. It was fabulous, and fatty. You definitely should not eat it too often, but it was delicious.

We were really excited because we ran into our friends who we were supposed to meet that morning at the restaurant. We hung out a little bit, and made plans to meet the next night for dinner.

After we parted ways, Norman, Cody, and I headed into the Wangfujing market again to do some shopping. I grabbed a Starbucks, while Cody and Norman had some Blizzards from the Dairy Queen we found there, and we wandered through a side alley where they were selling everything and everything. This is when I first tried my hand at bargaining. I chose a little chess set that I decided wasn't worth more than 15 dollars, as you could tell it was made from poured resin. The lady immediately claimed it was ox bone pieces and said it was 650 yuan (about $130). I laughed and said no, no more than 10 yuan, she went to 500, and we went from there. I stopped at 50 yuan, refusing to budge from there. After much arguing and me walking away many times, she finally accepted my offer of 50 yuan, less than $12. It felt good winning and not getting taken advantage of too much.

After my acquisition, we all decided to part ways for the night, and Cody and I headed back for the hostel for some much-needed nights sleep, as we were leaving the hostel at 7:30 am to visit the Mutianyu Section of the Great Wall of China!