Today’s trip was modified slightly due to a number of roads being closed tomorrow for a large triathlon in the area of the Summer Palace. We finished doing two major trips today and then two smaller ones tomorrow. Today’s trip was Tiananmen square and the Summer Palace. A lot of walking and sitting in traffic jams was called for making for a tiring day, so this will be a mostly picture blog again.
We headed out from the hotel and got a few pictures of the “locals”
Bikes and Scooters are Everywhere
Beats an 18 Wheeler Anyday
Hard Working police get Their own Shade
We arrived a t Tiananmen Square and met up with half the population of Beijing! The area was enormous, around 48 hectares (whatever one of them is). Here is the answer:
The hectare (/ˈhɛktɛər/ or /ˈhɛktɑr/; symbol ha) is an SI accepted metric system unit ofarea equal to 100 ares (10,000 m²) and primarily used in the measurement of land. Anacre is about 0.4047 hectare and one hectare contains about 2.47 acres.
It was BIG, unfortunately due to the crowds you didn’t get a good feel for the enormity of the place.
Above is the mausoleum of Chairman Mao. Evidently it is the dream of most Chinese to visit this site once in their lifetime, if you look in front of the building you can see the line of people waiting to enter, multiply that by 3 for the people you can’t see round the corners of the building and that was today’s lineup. The crowds are kept moving and if you were at the end of this line your wait time would be around 30 minutes. In mid summer the wait time would be 4 hours or more, hence the portable barriers in the foreground.
On one side of the square is the National Museum of China
And on the other the Great Hall of the People with Monument to the Peoples Heroes in front.
Below are some of the gardens surrounding the square
Here are some general shots
Incense Burner
I get really bored guarding this fire extinguisher!
Random couple in the “must have” shot with Chairman Mao at the North Gate aka the Gate of Heavenly Peace
Another Incense Burner
Sun Dial
Fire Extinguisher (13th Century Style
The large bronze or iron pot above was filled with water for use in fire fighting, in the winter a fire was lit under the pots to keep the water from freezing.
The official grain measure standard.
A world famous artist /calligrapher at work in the museum.
Moat surrounding the Forbidden City
From here we headed off for lunch and saw a few more of the “local” vehicles.
After lunch we headed off to to Summer Palace where the Empress would spend about six months of the year.
Giant Lily Pads
Just showing off with the new camera, in the first picture you may be able to see a flower almost dead centre in the pond. Above is a close in on that flower
Below are some general views of the Palace and Lake
Lyn and Lisa (our Guide)
Above are two lions guarding a gate, one is male the other female. Which is the male and how could you tell?
The 17 Arch bridge joining an island to the mainland.
Enough for now…….. need food
PS There will be spelling and grammar errors in the above!