Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square

Inside Forbidden City with Emma

First stops in Beijing, Forbidden City and Tian'anmen Square. Both of these places are very close to each other and have a load of history to them.

Forbidden City is supposed to be one of the best places to visit while in Beijing. The architecture is beautiful and it is such a peaceful place compared to the rest of the city. Forbidden City was established as the Imperial Palace during the Ming dynasty.. I don't really know too much about the history of the place, but from what I understand, Forbidden City got it's name from being an area where commoners were not allowed to be. Forbidden City also played a big part in establishing Beijing as the capital city of China. Today, many come to visit and all are allowed. It is a very large area of land and is definitely an interesting place to visit.

Right after Emma and I walked through Forbidden City, we got some lunch, got some souvenirs, and headed to Tian'anmen Square. Tian'anmen Square is very famous (or infamous) for the Tian'anmen Square Massacres of 1989. Many Chinese people, mostly students, were killed while protesting the communist government. While walking through the square, it was incredible to think that all of the protests and killings had happened right there. It is an extremely large area, but during my visit, the Chinese people were happy and celebrating China National Week in the same area where thousands had been killed. It just gave me a bizarre feeling..

Besides the interesting history of the places, I found the people to be quite...well...interesting too. First thing I noticed was their manners (or lack thereof.) For Chinese people, it seems perfectly acceptable to spit anywhere, anytime and push people out of the way to get wherever they are going. And they love to try to take advantage of tourists. The woman who sold us the Chinese flags tried to sell them to us for 20 Yuan. After much of a struggle for the three of us, Emma and I were able to haggle them down to 5 Yuan for both of them...a much more reasonable price. Probably the funniest thing that happened was the Chinese requesting photos with us. They were very excited to see westerners, so we posed for no joke, over 20 pictures with Chinese people. It was ridiculous! They all lined up to take photos with us...so Emma and I put on our panda hats and waved our Chinese flags...and looked like the biggest tourists ever! So funny!

A photo request that we were happy to complete :)