AngellTravels: Beijing--Day 2

We were all up early and ready to hit the ground running as we had a really full day planned.

We arrived at Tiananmen Square around 8:30 and discovered everyone now has to go through security. Only 80,000 people per day are allowed to visit Tiananmen Square and the adjacent Forbidden City and it was already crowded.

We noticed that large tour groups would have identical hats on as a way to keep their group together amongst the crowds.

Tiananmen Square is HUGE..about 109 acres--the 6th largest square in the world and it can hold a million people--so we knew this meant a lot of walking. Mary already had a wheelchair and Penny knew she would do much better in one so she negotiated a price for a wheelchair rental...first one was broken but second one worked out great....and Penny could keep it all day and return it by leaving it at our hotel tonight! We were set to go.

Jimmy now became our guide and a pusher!

The Monument to the People's Heroes is a ten-story obelisk that was erected as a national monument of the People's Republic of China to the martyrs of revolutionary struggle during the 19th and 20th centuries.

We passed by the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao, where his body lies in a crystal coffin inside one of the halls. We did not go in.

There's a flag-raising ceremony every morning at sunrise and crowds of people attend it every day. We did not!!

Tiananmen Tower is located at the north end of the Square. Initially built in 1417 during the Ming Dynasty, the Square was the front door of the Forbidden City.

The most important use of the tower in the past was to declare, in a big ceremony to the common people, who became the emperor and who became the empress. Until 1911 when the last feudal kingdom was over, no one could enter the Tower except for the royal family and aristocrats.

Now a large portrait of Mao hangs above the archway. He died in 1976.

And in we go....to the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City contains hundreds of building. We spent a long time within the city, which was getting more crowded by the minute.

The Forbidden City once served as the imperial palace for 24 emperors over almost 500 years.
It was forbidden to enter without special permission of the emperor. Hence its name, the Forbidden City.

We saw a lot of this going on. Our group really stood out among the thousands of Chinese. We were the oddity and they loved taking pictures of us.

Here a gentleman in a wheelchair wants his photo taken with our wheelchair gals.

So we happily oblige...

And we move on through one gate to another huge square surrounded by buildings.

Here's an aerial photo from the internet that shows the entire Forbidden City complex.

Since yellow is the symbol of the royal family, it is the dominant color in it. Roofs are built with yellow glazed tiles; decorations in the palace are painted yellow; even the bricks on the ground are made yellow by a special process.

We continued on and on through this huge complex. The buildings all started looking the same. Jimmy could tell us a little about each one, but I've long forgotten.

Photos taken (by us and of us by the locals) took a lot of time. Here is a photo of our group, minus Terry the photographer but plus Jimmy our guide.

After leaving the Forbidden City, we drove over to the site of the 2008 Olympics just for a photo stop.

Here's the National Aquatics Center, aka the Water Cube for the swimming events.

And the National Stadium, aka the Bird's Nest, where the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field events were held.

Back in 2008, we never dreamed we would be someday be standing here!

From a distance, the Olympic Torch

And then it was lunch time....

Actually pretty good today!

And then it was time to drive out of Beijing to Mutianyu and walk on the Great Wall. This is what we have been anxiously waiting for and the air quality (for Beijing) is actually pretty good today. We are so thankful we did not go there yesterday when it was foggy and rainy.

Our first glimpse of the wall still far away on top of the hill. We have some walking to get there and it's all uphill!

Both our wheelchair gals had a bit of a ride going up the steep hill to the cable cars which would take us to the base of the wall.

Penny had a rickshaw-like chair with a small electric engine that assisted a man pulling.

Mary had a guy with a rope saying he could pull her wheelchair up.

That all worked out great!

We were going to get them up to the wall! They were not going to miss this! Then a quick ride on the cable cars...

And we had made it!

We were ready to walk the Great Wall!

The Great Wall, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. Just like a gigantic dragon, it winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching approximately 13,170 miles from east to west of China.

With a history of more than 2,500 years, some of the Great Wall sections are now in ruins or have disappeared. This long section of the wall at Mutianyu was first built during the 6th century and restored and rebuilt throughout history.