Day 1 - Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City

At about 6:30 am, I was forced to wake up, which meant that I only had about 5 hours of sleep that day. I struggled and retaliated but no one cared and I was dragged to the toilet. It was a cold morning so my parents made sure I was well-protected. I think the temperature for that day was about 0 degrees Celsius. That was the first time I had experienced cold weather but I liked it.

We set off at 8.00 am and what struck me was that all the tress in Beijing had no leaves! Ayah said that is what happens in winter. Also, all the rivers and lakes were frozen so when you look at a river, what you see is not water, but ice on what was once water surface!

We reached Tiananmen Square at about 8:30 am and the tour guide went on to explain to us the history behind Tiananmen Square. I am sure many people still remember the demonstrations held here in 1989 but I think I'm too young to understand it. I was happy just running around the place. It was really huge and cold! It was a very windy day and I felt like my face was going to freeze but I had great fun nonetheless.

Click below to catch me in action at Tiananmen Square.

From Tiananmen Square, we walked to the Forbidden City which was across the road. Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City are linked by an underpass. The other name for Forbidden City is Imperial Palace Museum and this palace served as the residence of several emperors for nearly 500 years. During the glory days of the Ming and Qing dynasties, only members of the imperial household roamed the palace. Commoners were not allowed in the palace at all (except for palace servants and workers) - hence the term Forbidden City! Today, it is one of the world's foremost museums of Chinese art. The Imperial Palace is one really HUGE place boasting 800 buildings with 8,886 rooms!
One of the gardens in the Forbidden City.


The frozen moat.