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May 31, 2018 | 11:51 am

#31

swingaling

Join Date: Apr 2017

Location: PVD, BOS

Programs: AA EXP

Posts: 1,664

Beijing, China - Day 2 (Part 1)

Beijing, China
Day 2 -- Part 1
24 May 2018

Planning Process
For this day, I had an all-day tour to see the Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Mutianyu Great Wall. I'd initially scheduled the tour for Friday 25 May, but the tour operator was able to move me ahead one day. Aside from giving me something to do on the 24th, that would allow me to alter my onward travel plans a bit. More on that later.

By this point, I'm confident enough to generally travel without the aid of a tour guide. I typically hire guides when my itinerary is tight and I don't want to waste time; guides can be invaluable in those situations. China, Beijing in particular, has fairly well developed infrastructure for tourists, so it's not particularly difficult to get around.

I'd initially looked into the cost of hiring a private guide and driver to take me to the Forbidden City and Great Wall for a day, but the pricing was more than I wanted to spend. So, that left me with the choice between a group tour and hiring a driver to take me to the Wall and doing the Forbidden City independently (via MRT). The cost to hire a driver to the Wall was roughly $100 USD round trip, while a group tour for both attractions cost $129 USD. The group tour included lunch and admission to both attractions, plus the services of a guide. Naturally, I went with a group tour.

Back to the Narrative
So, I got up around 6:30 AM that morning, quickly dressed and grabbed breakfast at the Club Lounge on the 17th floor of the Grand Hyatt. Breakfast was a pretty decent spread with a bunch of different options, in addition to some cooked to order menu items (all included). It didn't hold a candle to the huge buffets at places like the Grand Hyatt Taipei, Park Hyatt Saigon or Island Shangri-La HK, but it was adequate for a fast, light breakfast.

Breakfast achieved, I went to the lobby to await the 7:40 AM arrival of my guide. An x-ray machine and metal detector had been newly installed in the hotel lobby as well. I'd encountered this at hotels in other parts of the world (Dhaka and Manila spring to mind), so I didn't think much of it.

My guide was a few minutes late, but she arrived soon after and we were off to our first stop on the tour, Tiananmen Square. The tour was pretty small, which was nice. Aside from myself, there was a mother and daughter (in their 60s and 30s, respectively) from Los Angeles and a 19 year old solo traveler from North Ireland who'd apparently arrived in Beijing that very morning. After a short ride, the driver let us off at the southern end of the square.

The square can reputedly hold 1 million people at one time; it's quite large. In general, it's closed to the Chinese and only open to tourists. On the day we visited, the square was closed because German Chancellor Angel Merkel was in Beijing attending meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping. There were German flags installed to signify the event.

Tiananmen Square
Zhengyang Gate

Tiananmen Square
Zhengyang Gate

Tiananmen Square
Mausoleum of Mao Zedong

Tiananmen Square
Monument to the People's Heroes

Tiananmen Square
National Museum of China
Sorry for the bad photo quality, due to the location of the sun

Tiananmen Square
Police

Tiananmen Square
Great Hall of the People

Tiananmen Square
Forbidden City Entrance
Note the German flags on the lamp posts

Tiananmen Square
Looking back at the square

After our stroll along the street adjacent to the square, we were at the southern entrance of the Forbidden City palace complex. The palace complex is pretty huge and there were tons of (mainly Chinese) tourists visiting.

Forbidden Palace

Forbidden Palace

After our walk through the palace complex, we were at the northern exit. We had a short walk to meet our driver to take us onward to the Great Wall. I've separated this day into two posts due to how many photos I took. To be continued...