First Day in Beijing: Hotel, Beijing Zoo, Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City

Our First Day in Beijing

Our flight came in very late on Saturday, June 19, 2010 (just before midnight--we lost all of Saturday in flight), so we landed, went through passport control, got money out of the ATM (a breeze!), and were met by a CITS representative, who took us (and a nice couple from Atlanta) to our hotel, the Chang An Grand Hotel. We checked in just after 1:00 AM. NOTE: Beijing is 12 hours ahead of Eastern time, so 1:00 AM Sunday in Beijing is 1:00 PM Saturday in Michigan!

	Although we arrived in the dark, this was the exterior of our hotel in Beijing, the Chang An Grand Hotel. It had a very elaborate, clean lobby with free Wifi!

Here I am in our room, room 709. As you can see, it had 2 beds, air conditioning, a TV (which got CNN, HBO, and the World Cup matches!), desk, chairs, disposable slippers, and that strange unit between the beds that could control the lights. (And yes, that is all the luggage we brough for 10 days in China. We are very light packers!)

The bathroom was surprisingly fine: Western toilet, a bottle of water per person per day (as you can't drink the water), a good shower, and hair dryer.

The breakfast buffet at the Chang An Grand Hotel was VERY impressive. It included a large variety of both Western and Chinese options, including an omelet station. Other choices included fried rice, toast, potato wedges, bacon, dumplings, fresh fruit, breads (including banana bread!), cereals, sliced cheese, Chinese soups, Chinese vegetables, boiled eggs, salads (with dressings), sliced meats, congee, juices, coffee, and tea.

We met our guide, Snow Guo, in the lobby at 8:30 am and headed out for the day. (If you ever take a CITS tour, Snow is THE BEST guide!!!! He is friendly, helpful, is good at group-building, has great English, and shares lots of personal stories.)	Our first stop was the Beijing Zoo to see the giant pandas.

Snow always had his blue flag, so our group of 27 quickly learned how to follow.	After a visit to the older Asian Games panda house, we went to the Olympic Games panda house.

It was actually sad to see the magnificent giant pandas in the old-style enclosures. It was very reminiscent of the older areas of the Toledo Zoo.

After seeing the animals inside, we went to see if any were outside. There were two. This one (same one in both photos) was being fed (through the bars). Notice the wonderful panda jungle gym (right photo)! We came in the morning to see the pandas at their most active. It was a hot, crowded Sunday morning, but we did get to see the pandas move around some.
	I loved the cute panda warning signs!
Our next stop after the Beijing Zoo was the Summer Palace. Here is our group arriving. At the entrance, there was a sign that gave the weather forecast and the expected number of visitors for the day.

Views of the Kunming Lake were beautiful. The peddle boats looked so fun!
I got my picture taken as we walked around the lake.

Here, EHG is in front of the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, which we were told is associated with Empress Dowager Cixi ("The Dragon Lady").

Next, we walked down the Long Corridor to view the paintings, the people-watching, and the shade. It was a hot and sunny Sunday afternoon!

I had wanted to see the Marble Boat at the Summer Palace. It was not what I expected! It's more of a fancy gazebo on the water.

The last thing our group did at the Summer Palace was take the short ferry ride across the lake. It was very pleasant! (The ferry boats reminded us of the ferries to the Jumbo floating restaurant in Hong Kong.)

From the boat, we got to look back at where we had walked. We did not climb the hill to go to the temples, but they were pretty in the distance.
	After the Summer Palace, we went to our first tour lunch. The food was all Chinese-style and served family-style. Jasmine tea was unlimited, and one glass of drink was also included (Sprite, Coke, bottled water, or beer). Nearly every meal came with rice and then many vegetable and meat dishes. The highlight of this meal is in the foreground: chicken and carrots. It was during this meal I learned that I don't care for jasmine tea, which smells like soap, but when it's all there is to drink, you (surprisingly) develop a taste for it!

After lunch, we travelled to Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen actually means Gate of Heavenly Peace, so the square is named for the gate. The square is very large!

We had to get our pictures taken at Tiananmen Square!

Here is the guarded flag at Tiananmen Square. Our guide talked about all Chinese wanting to see the flag-raising and flag-lowering ceremonies. Notice the soldier has a wonderful sun-blocking umbrella!	We walked through the Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace, the one with Mao's picture) to get to the Forbidden City. Here we are approaching the Duan Gate. The umbrella was to try to block some of the scorching sun.
	We waited outside the Meridian Gate for our guide to buy the tickets.

Here I am with the Supreme Harmony Gate and the bridges over the Golden Stream. This courtyard can hold 100,000 people!	Here is EHG with the Hall of Supreme Harmony, built in the 15th century, the largest and most important building in the Forbidden City.

To the untrained (Western) eye, many old Chinese buildings look alike. Our guide gave us something nifty to focus on at the Forbidden City: there are little figures at the corners of each roof. The more figures, the more important the building!
	After a long day of Chinese history, it was fun to drive by a very modern Chinese building: the CCTV tower.
The last thing we did on our first day in Beijing was go to to dinner. At this meal, the best dish is on the right of the picture: fried vegetable balls (so good!). By taking the tour, we maximized our time in Beijing and saw so much, but we were exhausted when we returned to the hotel.

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