A Four-day trip to Beijing---Part II 

Day 3 Beihai Park - Forbidden City – Tiananmen Square – Wangfujing Shopping Area

Honestly, I had bad impression on Beijing Taxi because I had been refused several times during my trip in Beijing. Before we started our visit to Beihai Park, I asked the hotel staff to reserve a taxi for us. It cost around CNY 25 from our hotel to Beihai Park. We didn’t buy the through ticket. The air was fresh inside the park and there were a lot of old people who were doing exercises. My wife and son were interested in shadow-boxing. They stayed there and tried to learn shadow boxing. An old man in white told them that they couldn’t learn to play shadow boxing just in one day. So they gave it up.

We stayed there for one and half hours and then got out from the South Gate of the Beihai Park. My travel tip said that we just needed to walk around 1000 meters from there to the the Gate of Divine Prowess of the Forbidden City. We planned to get to the Forbidden City by foot but finally took the bus (CNY 1 per person) to Tiananmen Square because a warm-hearted guy told us that the visitors couldn’t enter the Forbidden City from the Gate of Divine Prowess any more. According to the latest regulation, visitors can just enter the Forbidden City from the Meridian Gate and get out of the Gate of Divine Prowess.

white pagoda in the beihai park

An old man singing in the Beihai Park. I didn't understand what he was singing.

Passing through the Tiananmen, we arrived at the Meridian Square. There we bought three tickets (CNY 60 for adults and CNY 20 for a kid) and entered the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was too large and we just walked on the main route and visited some palaces. I heard that there were 9999 rooms in the Forbidden City but I was not sure about it. It took us around 4 hours to finish our short visit in the Forbidden City. If you want to have a thorough tour in the Forbidden City, I suggest you spend a whole day there.

tiananmen

forbidden city

Again, we exited at the Gate of the Divine Prowess and went to the Wangfujing Street by bus. We wanted to take a taxi but the taxi drivers didn’t allow us to get on. On the other side of the Gate of Divine Prowess is the Jingshan Park. Climbing to the top of the hill inside the park, you will have a panoramic view of the Forbidden City. We didn’t go to the Jingshan Park because it was cloudy. It was impossible for us to see the whole Forbidden City.

I have been to the Nanjing Road in Shanghai. The Wangfujing Street looks similar to the Wangfujing Street. You could find many shopping malls there. I wasn’t interested in these things. The snacks on the street did surprise me. Chinese people were really fond of eating insects and other creatures.

Look! The fried scorpions! The vendors tried their best to persuade me to give it a try but I didn’t have the guts to taste it.

wangfujing

 We were hungry at that moment but we still controlled ourselves and decided to eat something in a restaurant. My wife and kid wanted to taste steamed buns (Chinese people call it Bao Zi). So we went to Gou Bu Li. I didn’t know it was a famous brand until my friend told me when I got back to Shanghai. Well, the Bao Zi was very expensive but tasted just so so.

goubuli baozi

After that, we got back to our hotel. I’d like to mention about our dinner. We went to a fish restaurant. They recommended their specialty but I didn’t remember its name. See this! A fish was buried in the red chili. It was spicy.

A fish buried in the red chili

Day 4 Temple of Heaven- Yonghe Lamasery- Temple of Confucius-Guozijian (Imperial Academy)

We took the subway line 5 near our hotel to Temple of Heaven. I thought it was a small temple but it was actually a large park. Here I suggest you buy the through ticket. It’s worthy! If you don’t buy the through ticket, you will miss some attractions.

temple of heaven

The Echo Wall in the Temple of Heaven is very interesting. My wife and son stood at the east root of the wall and I stood at the west root of the wall. They whispered a word to me and I heard it clearly.

Getting out of the Temple of Heaven, we took the subway line 5 again to Yonghe Lamasery. I actually was interested in Tibetan Buddhism and I went to Lhasa once. Outside of the lamasery were many shops that sold incenses. I was not a Chinese. So I didn’t buy incense and burn it to make a wish. But I did see some foreigners burning incense and making wishes. Interesting!

You know, many buildings inside the lamasery have been refurnished. They looked brand new. But I didn’t see many lamas there. Strange! Maybe, they were chanting sutras.

We exited at the entrance and headed for Temple of Confucius and Guozijian (Imperial Academy). On one side of the road to the Temple of Confucius are many shops. They didn’t sell things but tell fortune and choose names for you. Remember that it wasn’t free! You had to give them some money.

We didn’t spend much time visiting Temple of Confucius and Guozijian. Then we just headed back to our hotel by subway line 5. We needed to take a rest and prepared for going back to Shanghai next morning. Our trip in Beijing was over.

Thanks to my good friends, kind hotel staff and other nice people, we had a very nice trip in Beijing. I knew that I didn’t go to some other nice places in Beijing. But I will go to Beijing again some day.

For some reasons, I didn’t show any photos of my families and I. Please forgive me!

 More Beijing Travel Reviews

1. A Four-day trip to Beijing---Part I STEVENLEE Sep 24, 2011 02:59

2. Masala Indian Restaurant and Nanluoguxiang Ally ILIYA from India Aug 3, 2011 08:41

3. Summer Palace, the Most Beautiful Garden in China GARDENER12 from Afghanistan Jul 22, 2011 01:59