The (soon to be) forgotten city (2.9)

Aight, so today we paid our respects to Mao Zedong in his Madame Tussaud'ish outfit. The Tian'anmen square was quite huge and was filled with lots of Chinese tourists. Cameras and pretty much everything else had to be left for safekeeping when visitin the mausoleum. While Silja fetched her passport from the hostel, a chinese teenager from Hunan province majoring in English came to talk to me and sharpen his English. First I thought it was some well-hidden scam attempt, but after talking to him a while, I got some useful information from him regarding the surroundings in which we were.

The Forbidden City was monumental in size. The architecture and the descriptions of different ceremonies were the most interesting for me; the foreput objects were not that interesting apart from some weaponry. There were lots of westerners there, actually the most I have thus far seen in Beijing. It was awe-inspiring to imagine how some ancient Ming or Qing emperor actually walked around in these gardens and maybe did some sword-fighting with some of the trainers or such in his majestetic wardrobe and all. After a while of walking it became more and more of an effort to keep on moving and seeing all the places, not just because our feet but the enormous amount of different halls and exhibitions. Too much for one day I think, but I don't think I will return there. Been there, done that.

Supper we ate at some local fast-food-chain near Xidan mall west from the Forbidden City (maybe 2 km), and it was totally different than McDonalds (which one sees here very seldom) with their rice, vegetable and meat portions done in good Chinese way and prepared in one minute.

Now it's time to sip some Tsingtao at our hostel after this must-be-done day. Over and out.