Beijing, Day 2: Forbidden City and Change of Plans

Sweet One and I were up by 3:30AM, so I'm hoping we get on a better sleep-wake cycle soon!  Everyone else seems to be adjusting well and are close to "normal." 

Today's agenda included a trip to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.  In a city with a gazillion people plus tourists, it was really a lesson in staying together in a crowd.  Our guide indicated the points of interest on the square and gave us a little history lesson.  The most interesting thing about her information is what was missing - not one mention of the incident that makes that location famous to us. 

Following a few photo ops, we headed to that gate behind us under Chairman Mao's picture (see him peeking over my shoulder?) to enter the Forbidden City.  The walk over was more like human herding and made us very uncomfortable.  Each adult held onto one kid, and I have never been so thankful that I thought to have us dress alike.  It made it infinitely easier to stay together!  Our sweet guide noticed our coordinating shirts yesterday and asked what today's "dress code" would be.  I told her we'd be wearing red and she showed up wearing a red t-shirt too!  She was one of the gang.  :)

The Forbidden City was far too crowded to really enjoy, and we didn't get to see nearly as much as we did on our last visit, but the kids can now cross that tour off their bucket list.  The things we liked best were the animal sculptures and the fact that we were walking on original bricks.  Zach thought is was cool that he could have been stepping on the same bricks as the Emperor or his servants might have 600 years ago.

Side note:  At breakfast this morning, we were discussing the culture of the ancient Forbidden City.  The terms "concubine" and "eunuch" came up.  The Fairy Godmother not-so-delicately defined the second term and the reaction was priceless.  Ziggity broke into uncontrollable laughterout of sheer discomfort and couldn't believe such a thing could exist.  After further discussion about the roles and rankings of servants within the city, Dr. Jiggles summed it up nicely.  "Well, I'm just glad I'm not a eunuch." 

By the end of our tour of the neverending Forbidden City, we were all hungry and tired.  We had a delicious lunch and then discussed the afternoon plans with our guide.  We were scheduled to visit a Lama temple and a Confucian temple.  I'm sure they would have been cool, but we were not in the mood for more crowds, and Sticks was tiring of the attention Dr. Jiggles seems to draw.  Adults stare, take not so discreet pictures, and even boldly approach near enough to touch him and scurry away.  Safety-conscious dad was on high alert all morning and ready for some down time.

We are now at the hotel for a couple hours of much-needed rest.  We cancelled the temple tours and decided we would enjoy substituting a Kung Fu show at a local theater this evening.  So that's the new plan.

Praying for a fun evening and a solid night of sleep for the Sweet One and me!