Finally made it to Tiananmen Square

24.10.2015

I slept for 12 hours, until 10 a.m., but didn't leave for a while, because Bear had some work to do. He brought me to his favourite noodle shop and ordered mine extra spicy because he thought I was sick for some reason and he said it would cure my dehydration headache. I don't know if it did its job, but it was awesome nonetheless. We took the subway all the way to Tiananmen Square, but when we arrived, realized neither of us had ID. Who knew you were supposed to show your ID to buy a ticket, but they took pity on us and let us in anyway.

We wandered around the ginormous spaces that were way more monumental than I imagined. It really is one of those places that must be seen in person to really appreciate.

Bear was really easy to find in the crowds because he was about a foot taller than everyone else. He also wore a silly fedora that was quite unique, so I took it for granted that I'd find him no matter what. However, at some point, he had to take a call, and I got sucked into the palace crowd. He had to go back to work anyway, and I wanted to go to the special exhibit that cost extra. They had imperial jewelry and furniture on display. There were huge jade sculptures and intricate head ornaments, etc. There was also a ceramics exhibit with lots of stuff from the imperial kiln in Jingdezhen, which I visited last year.

As the park was closing, I walked over to Tiananmen Square to see the soldiers take the flag down for the night. I was a little early, so I wanted to see the city walls, but they close the whole square off at sundown! The onlyplace I could stand was around the flag pole with everyone else. This is definitely not a place for the "people". I even saw some guards forcing a tired man to stand up. He was sitting on the ground on his map of Beijing, obviously exhausted from a day's touristing around. Pssshhhh.

Anyway, I guess I'll go back later and see Mao's mausoleum and the National Museum. I'll definitely be back at some point, I'm thinking on Nov. 6 with Dave.

It was gettting cold and I was getting tired, so I went back to Bear's home where he was preparing some delicious pork with soup and rice. I brought home some beer and dessert, but ate half of it on the way because I got lost and hungry. Haha.

I went to bed early and in the morning I braved the Beijing rush hour at 8 a.m. and made it to the train station with an hour to spare. Goodbye Beijing!

Bear vs. noodles