Beijing Diary: Part 4

Two previous posts have disappeared! So this a repeat, sort of (I've shortened it).

Friday 15 April.

I got up rather late at 9.30, still aching from the unaccustomed exercise of the previous day. Again too late to try the hotel breakfast, we got by with an orange each and a couple of mince tarts that Heather had brought along from Perth. I don’t seem to be suffering from the smaller amount of food…

Having asked the staff at the desk to write the address in Chinese characters for where we were heading, we flagged down a taxi and were soon deposited… at the wrong place! Instead of the entrance to the Forbidden City, we were at the entrance to the park on the North side of that complex. Of course, we did not discover the error until after we had paid to get in and got to the top of the artificial hill built to create a cooler place, above the heat of the city, for one of the Emperors (details in the map we bought).

We enjoyed the visit to the gardens. The tulips were just coming out, but the peonies were just budding, or about to blossom. We walked to the top of the hill to see the various pavilions, a very steep climb that we took in easy stages. The view from the top pavilion, which contains a massive statue of Buddha, was breathtaking. The haze was not too bad so we could see almost to the horizon. To the north stretched a long, straight avenue that forms the axis for Beijing City, and to the south, also on this axis, lay the Forbidden City. Sadly, my camera’s batteries gave up at this point ( and I seem to have not brought my spares – aargh!!), so I’ll have to rely on Heather’s images.

After a snack of a couple of short, sweet hot-dogs (and a magnum for Heather), we decided to walk around the perimeter of the Forbidden City to get to the entrance.  We chose a different path to go down the hill, perhaps not wisely since the steps were made of rough-hewn stone set at uneven heights. It was slow going, but it brought us near to the South Gate where we had entered. Everywhere there were guided tour groups, some quite large, and most of them wearing distinguishing caps, quite a formidable sight when you see them advancing along a pathway towards you.