Beijing, the Walking Tour - Part 1

With my parents visiting, I knew my chances of getting to Beijing would greatly increase. Larry had already "been there and done that" and lobbied to go south for the holiday. The opportunity to have a family photo on the Great Wall won.
We boarded the high speed train Saturday morning and we all were pleasantly suprised with the ease at which this occurred. The train was not crowded and the first class section was really quite nice. I'm not sure, though, there was that much difference, but being able to walk around without difficulty and stretching out in the expansive seats was a treat. The ride was smooth and even though the view was hindered by the field-burning smokey haze, we couldn't help but enjoy the pastoral landscapes that whizzed by. The train's top speed reached 299km/hr. Since the crash, which occurred over the summer, the trains' speed were reduced from 350 to 300.
Five hours later we were in Beijing. Shanghai used to overwhlem me. Not anymore. Beijing is mammoth and we saw only a tiny fraction of it.
Our plan was to go to the most popular tourist attractions...during the country's National holiday...in the country's capital. To be perfectly honest, I say this after the fact, I was fearful we'd made a colossol mistake.
First stop was Tiananmen Square. We figured we'd try the subway. On the map, the station looked like a short stroll from the hotel. Wrong. We walked...and walked...and walked...and walked. Finally, our little chinese friend, Carrie, asked a passerby how much further. He told her about ten minutes. So, we walked some more. We get to the station and as we board the subway, we had about five minutes of pure terror when we couldn't find Sarah. The car was so packed, we couldn't see beyond a few people. I was 99% sure she'd gotten on the subway, but that 1% gripped my insides and buckled my knees. At the next stop, enough folks got out so we could see her with Carrie.
The stop at Tiananmen was closed because of the holiday, which meant we had to get off 'a few'' blocks away. So, we walked...and walked...and walked. Larry had warned us all how huge everything was, but even the warnings didn't fully prepare us. My mom with her fake joints was about ready to call it quits before we'd gotten to the Square, but by God, she toughed it out.
Once again, here we were in the center of the birthplace of Communism during the holiday and the star attractions were the girls. Carrie said some people asked if they were movie stars. Sure, why not.
Since we'd spent all morning walking we were all hungry, even though the Forbidden City was just across the street. So, we started walking...and walking...and walking...and walking until we reach...wait for it...Walking Street. We found the first distinguishable restaurant, KFC and made a beeline for it. Everyone else in the city did, too. This place was way overcapacity, but we didn't care.

After resting for a bit and wrestling with whether or not to continue with our walk-a-thon, we figured the chances of making it back to Beijing were slim and chose to go back to the Forbidden City. So we...wait for it...walked...and walked...and walked.

The place is unbelievable. So much history and SO BIG. We walked through one courtyard into another courtyard into another courtyard. The pictures don't begin to show its expansiveness. We wanted to see it all, but we just couldn't walk any further. We stayed until the closing announcements mainly so we could rest up, not knowing how much further we would have to walk to find an honest taxi driver, which wasn't as easy as it seemed.

Larry and I loaded everyone into a van bound for the hotel and chose to explore a bit further. We walked back to the other end of Walking Street, where a bunch of food vendors had set up their wares. They had everything from yummy dumplings to not-so-yummy sheep testicles. The little vendor swore by their masculine-enhancing abilities, but Larry said he was fine in that department. I tried a couple of different dumplings and Larry had some skewered crabs. While looking for a taxi, we met a family from Atlanta, Georgia. They currently live in South Africa and were moving to Dubai and vacationing in Beijing. Larry was wearing a baseball shirt with Georgia on the front, and they practically ran over to us. Such a small world.
Upon return to the hotel and relief to everyone, we chose to stay in dinner as we assumed more walking was in store for us the next day.