July 5th in China, the Forbidden City!!!

Well this was by far one of the most busy days I have had yet! We all met at 8:15 am in the lobby to get on the buses. I got on a bus with a tour guide named Steve. He was a very happy chinese man and he spoke great English. It was raining when we headed out but by the time we got to Tian'an men square it was just a lil misty out. We were able to take pictures and view several things in the Tian'an Men square such as Zhengyang Men, Mao's Mausoleum and the Great Hall of the people as well as the monument to the people's heroes.
We walked through the Tian'an Men building, which is the one that has Mao's portrait still hanging on it today. While heading through the building and as we got closer to the Forbidden City, we were hassled by so many people trying to pawn things. The biggest item that folks seem to be selling is a Mao watch. The watch has a picture of Mao in the middle with his arm constantly waving at you.
When we arrived in the outer court of the Forbidden City we had to wait while Steve bought all our groups' tickets. While waiting for him Whitney, Allie and I looked around at some of the souvenir stands and I bought myself a coca-cola. While waiting in line we met another American who was visiting the city. He was from New York. He was seriously one of the only Americans that was not with our group. Because there was so few of us visiting the Forbidden City, it was not odd to have someone chinese ask to take a picture with us or hand us their kids. People really want pictures with Americans! It is so weird.
After we got our tickets and went through security we headed out on our tour and crossed over the Golden Water and went through the Gate of Supreme Harmony. We enjoyed seeing many great courtyards and detailed buildings as well as hearing many stories of the city's history from Steve. There are many carvings of dragons and lions, there are also guardians on the roofs of most of the halls. They are perched like gargoyles on the edges of the roofs. We also saw statues of cranes and turtles as well as the tradition lions that guard many entryways. The male lion has his paw on a ball, and the female has hers on a cub. Also we noticed many carvings of dragons and phoenixes together. The dragon and phoenix symbolize the emperor as dragon and empress as phoenix.
The biggest hall in the city is the Hall of Supreme Harmony where the emperor's throne sits. We were able to peer in and look at the gold and bejeweled throne. It was magnificent! We were able to enjoy many more halls and view many more courtyards. Something else I noticed is that there are several large bronze cauldrons placed all over the city. these were in case there was ever a fire so they were always filled with water. About this time during the trip I filled up the camera card I had in my digital rebel and had to switch. The sad thing was my 1 GB card would not work in my camera. I have no idea why but it still won't work. I was able to delete some pics and change some things on my camera so that I had room enough for more pictures throughout the day, but I was not happy about deleting pictures!!! Finally the last thing we saw in the Forbidden City was my favorite. We got to tour the Imperial Garden. I loved it, with all its plants and temples and beautiful rock sculptures. There was also a giant pot like urn in the middle of the garden and it was said if you threw a coin into the top of it through one of the holes that it was good luck. I made it through one of the holes but later one of my friends told me that they think I actually through the coin in one hole on one side and out the other hole on the other side! haha! That would happen to me! :)
We departed the city through the gate of Heavenly Purity and headed back to the buses and they took us to lunch. We ate at a restaurant nearby. It had good food and served us several different and interesting chinese dishes. The restaurant was decorate really neat and was very pretty but the bathrooms threw me off guard. They were nice but weirdly the back wall of the restroom is a 1 way mirror so you can see out to the stairs leading up to the dining hall but when you are on the stairs it just looks like another mirror. Very odd indeed.
After lunch we headed back to the buses and while on the way to them I ended up making a purchase from a street vendor. I bought a set of keychains that were the Olympic mascots for 1 American dollar. Not a bad price, but then again everything over here is pretty cheap! We got on the buses and went to our next part of our tour for the day which was the drum tower and bell tower. We didn't get to go up into the bell tower but we did get a chance to go up into the drum tower to see the city from a high vantage point. The only bad thing was, to get to this vantage point we had to walk up the steepest, tallest, scariest stair well I have ever seen!!!
From the top of the drum tower you could look out over the entire city all around because you can walk a complete 360 around the top terrace. You can see the hundreds of skyscrapers spread out over the huge city. There is not one center downtown area in Beijing. Stuff is just everywhere!!! From this high point you could also see the mountains in the distance which was really awesome. We also were able to enjoy a drum performance while we were in the tower.
After we climbed back down the treacherous staircase we all go to pair up and load up into rickshaws. A rickshaw is a small cart that traditional was pulled by a man on foot but now is pulled by guys on bicycles! This was an interesting and kind of scary experience as I rode along with my friend Danielle. We were taken to a Hutong by the rickshaws.
A hutong is a traditional courtyard home, that has several houses in a fenced in area. In this fenced connected housing area one family will live. I mean everyone in the family too, aunts, uncles, cousins, sons, daughters, parents. EVERYONE! This is a traditional way of family living in China. We were able to visit a Hutong. We went inside and took a tour and even sat in one of the rooms while the mother of the family we visited talked about the history of her home and of her family. After her presentation she showed us around her Hutong a bit more and then we departed.
After the Hutong tour we visited the garden of Prince Gong's Mansion. This garden was spectacular with plants and temples everywhere. Great buildings and a huge koi pond complete with fountains and of course lily pads. Also one of the coolest things found in the garden was a traditional chinese tea house. Our group was able to be seated at a table with a chinese woman who was a learned and educator tea preparer. She showed us the right way to use one cup to smell the tea and how to hold the drinking cup. She taught us history and tea etiquette. We were able to taste 4 different kinds of teas that she prepared for us. The most traditional being Jasmine tea. I bought myself a souvenir here before we left. I got a mug that has a picture of a dragon on it, but when you pour hot water in it the picture of the dragon turns to a picture of the Great Wall.
After we left the tea house our rickshaws took us back to meet the buses. I got back to the hotel and talked with my roomie a bit because she had been on the other bus the whole day and they took a little bit different tour than my group did. But judging from what I have heard I was in the best group of the day as far as the tour went. After chatting a bit I headed out with Allie, Whitney, Matt and Mark to go eat at a dining hall on campus and to find out where the laundry place closest to our hotel was.
After dinner I was so tired I didn't do much but send out a few e-mails, shower and watch a bit of a movie. The next day was a free day so I could rest up!