This was to be a day visiting some of the touristy highlights of Beijing.
At 08:00 we assembled in the hotel foyer and walked to the nearby sub-way station and caught a train to Tiananmen Square. Security was on high alert as is always the case but especially so due to the visit of the Angolan President.
The crowd density was unbelievable and in some sections of the underground the atmosphere was oppressive and a little threatening with people pushing past and others desperately trying to sell you post cards, trinkets and other delights.
Paul, our guide gave us an overview of the history of Tiananmen Square but no reference was given to any of the actions taken against dissidents in the past.
The square was an open 75 hectares until the Chinese government built the Monument to the Peoples Heroes and the Great Hall of the People. The queue to visit Mao’s mausoleum was many hundreds of metres long so we decided that having seen it in 2003 we’d give this a miss.
The next few hours were spent in the Forbidden City.
This involved a progression through outer sections until we reached the centre with the impression being that each stage of further entry meant a ‘ground-hog day’ as the buildings, courtyards and marble staircases were repeated each time we progressed.
The number of visitors to the Forbidden City made the experience a little daunting with people pushing and shoving to make progress but we soldiered on in warm to hot conditions and clear blue skies and none of the smog we’d been expecting.
After finally reaching the end we walked a kilometre or so through a hutong (narrow alleyway) to a restaurant for a lunch break. A sumptuous meal/banquet cost us a mere Y35 per person ($7.50).
We then strolled along the banks of a small lake and entered a hutong area that was originally a region where tobacconists congregated but now it seems that all matter of wares are on sale.
A bus trip back to our hotel was next on the agenda and there we collected our bags and caught the underground train to the West Beijing Railway Station. The crowd on the underground train was amazing and to get on board with our bags we had to push people inwards so as to make room. The locals regard this as standard procedure and although the ‘sardine can’ effect was barely tolerable, we all made it to our intended destination.
Our departure hall (number six) must have had over a thousand travellers jammed into an area designed for half that number so all we could do was to pile our bags in one section and stand and wait the one hour before boarding the train to Xi’an commenced.
We had a ‘hard-sleeper’ cabin which means six people sharing the small compartment with three bunk beds on either side of the cabin. There was hardly enough room for our luggage but we managed to jam it under beds and on a shelf above the door. Only the bottom bunks have room to sit up so we congregated there until sleep time seemed the best option at around 21:30 pm.
Toilets in China vary enormously in form and cleanliness. The one for our carriage was a foot-plate style toilet which was to become increasingly disgusting with use. The recommended plan is to use it before the masses and this is what we did.
In front of us was a fourteen hour overnight train trip to Xi’an and we were all feeling weary after our nine or so hours of walking around Beijing this day.