The Forbidden City

Well, today didn't start out too well. We were suppose to meet a tour group outside of my school between 7:30-8:00 this morning. We were there on time and waited about an hour and fifteen minutes in 13 mph winds. Not so fun! We went back dejected. We got through to the company and they were pretty jerky and said it was our fault for not seeing them... We are going to try again tomorrow by getting to the Great Wall by the fast train.

We rallied and decided to go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. I have only visited Tiananmen Square once before, but it was at dusk, so it was pretty awesome to see it so full with people. We took a lot of pictures and asked a lot of people how to get to the Forbidden City! Eventually, we decided to follow the crowd and we made it to the Forbidden City.

I had read a lot about the Forbidden City, but I was still in awe of how vast and grand it all is. You walk up and down over numerous towers that are full of different rooms. My favorite part of the Forbidden City are all the gorgeous and vast gardens. We also went through the Museum of Treasures that took two hours. We went from room to room viewing all the jewels and treasures from the different emperors and their families. My favorite room housed a bunch of drums. On each drum was etched a section of a poem about a group of men that went hunting. One talked about how they left the city, the next talked about how they encountered rain, the next talked about how many animals they hunted, the next talked about their rough journey back and the final one talked about how they celebrated when they returned. It felt like a story told at the pub that was exaggerated over and over again. So funny.

We also got to see the emperor's own Opera House. There is a full blown opera house in the Forbidden City. So crazy... but also beautiful.

It took us about an hour to walk back to the front gate. We watched the military academy practicing their flag ceremony.

Finally, we tried to find the Hard Rock Cafe. I had been past it before on a taxi, but didn't know which exit! We got a bit lost and had to go into a hotel to ask for directions. It was pure happiness when we eventually found it! It felt like I had been transported back to the U.S. They had lots of fun memorabilia including a cool outfit worn by Stevie Nicks and one of Eric Clapton's guitars.