The Yellow Roadtrip: Beijing Day 2: Walking in Fucheng, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and Xidan Shopping District

We went home a bit late the day before. Remember our drinking session in the Yinding bridge? Read it HERE. So the next day, our Chinese friends said we will not start the tour early. Too bad for us since we cannot force ourselves to sleep in late. We just decided to walk around the hotel's vicinity to find something interesting. Here's D doing some camwhoring -

See that red arc thing decoration up front? And the rock with red lettering? That's not there yesterday. And then there's this -

Fireworks!! Then it was followed by a convoy of vehicles going inside the hotel. Oohh someone's getting married pala. Akala ko naman for the Mooncake Festival. Actually, I've been expecting a lot since yesterday but I saw no grand celebration. It seemed to be a no big deal to them.

Anyhoo, we got tired of walking around that we decided to return to the hotel to avail our free breakfast. Look at this -

It's kinda healthy and unhealthy at the same time. There's a lot of choices! Well, we really like Chinese food so it's to our advantage. After breakfast, we went up to our room to prepare for our tour.

Finally, at around 11 in the morning, our friends came! We were again in a rented taxi. We dropped by KFC first to get to-go lunch.

As expected, there's no rice but it's ok. We had a very big breakfast naman. And oo nga pala! Our friend finally brought mooncake for us. I mentioned it the day before to them that I'm curious why I'm not seeing mooncakes when it's mooncake festival. Hehe. They gave us a mochi-type mooncake that melts like ice cream so we consumed it fast without remembering to take picture. I'm so sorrryyyy!

By around lunchtime, we were already in front of Tiananmen Square together with all the tourist who decided that it was the perfect time to visit the famous landmark! There's so many people! Argh! But shempre di kami napigilan magpicture.

After getting into the gates, you will now be entering the Forbidden City. According to them, during the ancient times, people were not allowed to enter the vicinity because this was where the Emperor or King lives. I do not exactly remember who, but D did. Akala ko magaling ako sa History nung gradeschool?! I'll ask him to kwento.

Here's the entrance to the city. Before this, there's counter for the payments. May entrance fee shempre!

The area was so big. You really need at least half a day to explore everything. If you will come with no Chinese friends, it will be better to hire a tourist guide to tell you the history. Or come prepared and research beforehand. Here's more of the city -

There's a lot of animal statues there. Particularly, dragon and phoenix. To the Chinese people, Dragon is to King while Phoenix is to Queen.

There's also a lot of alleys that will lead you to more exciting sites -

But the center of attention is of course the King's house. Trivia: If you cannot read Chinese, how will you know that you're looking at the King's residence already? Easy! Just look at the roof! Apparently, King's house is guarded by 9 dragons. Look at those little dragons at the peak -

At the end of the city, there's a beautiful garden. There's stores there also where you can buy souvenirs and refreshments -

Here's the view outside the Forbidden City -

See that tall structure on top of the mountain? You can climb that. Up there, you can see the whole lot of Forbidden City. Argh our feet was aching na by this time so we decided to stop na. We rested for a while here, in one of the most picturesque part of the city. It's outside the wall already actually.

We hailed a cab from here going to the Xidan Shopping District. While waiting, I was mesmerized by their E-bus. Ang galeenngg! Sana may ganyan din sa Pinas para no overtaking!

Before going to the mall, we ate in this BBQ grill area. I forgot to get the name of the place but apparently it's a famous restaurant. The food was superb! I just didn't like the roasted garlic. :P

My shoes were not doing good by this time so I asked to go to the mall so I can buy a new one. I saw a cute pair in H&M. Gosh we don't have that in Manila. After, we walked around a bit then spent the rest of the night in Starbucks.