Beijing hot spots - Wednesday 6th July

Enjoyed a Chinese breakfast in the hotel - egg fried rice beats Coco Pops - Eva had toast. Had first cup of coffee since arriving in China, it got rid of my headache!

Went to Tianamen Square on the Metro. Why can't the London Underground be air conditioned?

Tianamen Square is vast. Steaming hot, smoggy, hundreds of thousands of people, more concrete and marble in one place than we've ever seen. The queue for Mao's Mausoleum looked like an endless human snake. We walked the whole length of the square, maybe not the most sensible thing to do on such a hot steamy day but it had to be done to get to the Forbidden City.


We still can't get our heads around the huge scale of everything in Beijing and the Forbidden City is no exception. Even seeing aerial pictures and diagrams didn't prepare us for how big it was. Each courtyard area was the size of several football pitches and there are many courtyards one after the other. Each courtyard area contained huge wooden buildings and enormous wooden temples, each one intricately carved and painted.

After several hours we reached what for us was the highlight, the Imperial Garden - shaded by plants and trees and with lots of large natural stones it had a very cooling effect.

Once outside the North entrance of the Forbidden City we turned left and just down the road found Ompass Coffee House. Small but great coffee, air conditioning (you could feel the condensation on your skin) and free wifi, not that we could connect to anything useful.

Feeling cool and refreshed it was time to head out into the heat and walk the opposite way to see Bei Hai Park and the White Dagoba (no, not Pagoda). Dominic and myself relaxed with a yoghurt drink while Eva went off on a photo trail.


Another 40 minutes of walking back the other way and we get to Wangfujing Street. It starts with small shops selling a variety of anything and everything including an iPad2 copy running Android for £130 (tempting). Then it turns into a huge Western style shopping area with large ultra-modern malls and the full range of Western designer shops. A city of contrasts because just around the corner is Snack Street.

Snack Street is full of stalls emitting wonderful cooking smells. The things being cooked were wild and weird - bugs, sea horses, starfish, rat, cat, scorpions and snakes to name a few! Dominic and I sampled the scorpions, crunchy and salty, followed by snake cooked with spices, all washed down with a beer. Really good.

Back to the hotel via the Metro with very tired feet.