Dorothy in the Forbidden City
Tuesday 20th May
Our tour guide arrived at 7.50a.m. It was Power, the same one as yesterday. We were the second people to get on the bus. Power said that there were to be more people than yesterday so we set off on the round of pick ups.
When everyone was on board we set off to the Summer Palace. It was very busy when we arrived and the temperature was up in the 30’s.The gardens and palaces are very beautiful. We had a boat ride back across the lake and then got on the bus again. Power explained that we were going to visit a Pearl Factory. The pearls are fresh water pearls from the lake in the Summer Palace. We had lunch which was typical Chinese at a round table with a lazy Susan.
Back on the bus and we travelled back towards the centre of Beijing to the Forbidden City. I was little disappointed as we went in through the back door. We still saw everything but it didn’t seem right. We didn’t get the Wow factor of the first sight inside the city. The temperature had now risen to 36’C, and Power was rushing us.
Our next stop was a silk factory where we were shown how the silk worm makes cocoons and then how the silk is extracted and made into silk duvets. It was very interesting, but I felt that we had been taken there under false pretences.
We paid to see the Summer Palace, The Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven and we were rushed round the sights so that we could be taken to buy pearls and silk.
We left the tour before we got to the Temple of Heaven as we were exhausted from the heat.
We had a rest back at our hotel and when the heat had cooled we decided to go by Metro to Tiananmen Square. There were quite a lot of people but because the square is so big it didn’t seem too crowded.
Back at the hotel we packed ready for an early start tomorrow.
