Yesterday we woke late—intentionally—to catch up on some sleep. We ventured out to Tiananmen Square and headed straight in the direction of the Forbidden City.

We entered directly through the front entrance, beside the famous portrait of Mao, dodging the massive throngs along the way.

The Forbidden City is every bit as large as it had seemed the previous night, except instead of being devoid of people there were people as far as the eye could see. We were approached quite a number of times for guides who spoke English but each time declined.

Walking through the city itself, it is easy to see how many spent their entire lives inside these walls. From many places, particularly within the inner court, all you can see in any direction is the city.

The number and sheer size of the buildings is astounding; more astounding still is how difficult it can be to get a good view. As many buildings cannot be entered, just admired from viewing barriers, incredibly dense crowds form, all jostling for a look. Initially, I felt bad for shoving for a view but eventually capitulated and shoved, barged and elbowed with the best of them.

The Eastern Wing requires an extra ticket, but is well worth it. The crowds there are no spares it feels like a different place, and was by far the most enjoyable section for me.

As we exited, we ran a gauntlet of touts trying to transport us through Beijing. We decided to take the bus but just missed the one we wanted. When another hadn’t arrived 15 minutes later, we walked. And again the city demonstrated its massive scale.

Deciding it was too late for any more attractions, we headed for Wangfujing Street, a busy shopping street. There, we bought a nice set of ebony chopsticks and headed into a touristy market. The salespeople here grab you if you even blink in their direction but are fun to haggle with. We bought some tacky stuff then sat down in a small noodle joint—which didn’t have an English menu—and tried to order some food. We mostly got what we wanted, it wasn’t very good.

Later, we went to “Silk Street” market, haggling for more stuff we didn’t really need. I managed to get some decent bargains at around 10% of the starting price, while still probably being ripped off. Back to the hotel for an early night.

Photos taken today: 553
Photos taken to date: 3310

Another long day of travel. We said our goodbyes to our Vietnamese hotel at 5:30am. The young night clerk who had valiantly struggled with Justine’s bags up five flights of stairs the previous night had been sleeping in a sleeping bag across two chairs.

At this time of the morning Ha Noi’s traffic is almost non-existent. It’s so quiet it’s almost eerie. The same rules apply to traffic, however.

In the duty free we bought some souvenirs including a box of “Choco-Pie” which we’d seen throughout Vietnam. It was dry and pretty terrible. Our box of six only had five, we discovered later. No great loss.

We flew from Ha Noi to Guangzhou, and were treated to a beautiful hazy view of mountains from above. At Guangzhou we went through Chinese immigration and customs, which we thought was odd as transferring passengers usually do that at their final destination. The plane departed over 30 minutes late.

We knew we were over Beijing when the haze turned from a white misty colour to a dull brown grey. A pea soup style smog was over the city. Golden Hour gave us an orange ceiling but no shadows.

Our plane landed but we disembarked on the tarmac, along with six or seven other planes in a line. There were plenty of gates in the main terminal. I assume it is because these flights were a combination of International and domestic. We didn’t have to go through immigration after our bus ride along the tarmac.

After one too many “Taxi?” requests while in the airport, we decided to take the brand new Airport Express train. Not too cheap at 25¥ but the view of the eternally long tunnel was fun. Like we were a spaceship leaving a space station in a sci-fi movie. The security guard at the airport was a large Chinese man who put on a strong American accent when talking with us, eliciting giggles from his counterparts—and us, silently.

We switched to the Metro trains and squished in with the locals for a few stops, changing lines once in the process.

The map our hotel had given us was not detailed at all but we managed to follow it easily. Wandering into the right Hutong (series of small alleys) we turned too early and walked past the back of our hotel’s courtyard! A kind old fruit seller on a bike read the address—only in Chinese—and pointed straight ahead; we’d been so close!

Once we’d checked in we went for a walk in the direction of Wangfujing, a popular street. A food night market sells many foods “on a stick”—starfish, scorpion, cicada, silkworm, sea urchin and many more. I wanted something plain and spicy so had a chicken thing. Pretty good.

We walked till we hit the Forbidden City and walked around one section, missing Tiananmen Square entirely. As we passed a Metro station we entered and took the next one back to our hotel.

Photos taken today: 43
Photos taken to date: 2757