It’s All About Timing…
Well, we had a busy day around Beijing yesterday (Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, and Forbidden City)… but our timing here kind of sucks. First of all, due to some Congress meeting here, Mao’s Tomb and Tianniamen Square were closed off because of their close vacinity to the congress meeting. Secondly, all the snow has melted so we don’t get a nice winter scene but not leaves are out yet so we don’t get to see spring… so everything just kind of looks dead. There are a ton of buds on everything though so I can only imagine what this place will look like in a month of so. Lastly, the main big palace in the Forbidden City is sealed off and covered up for restoration so we didn’t get to see that either!
Oh well, I guess our timing was good in that there weren’t as many tourists as normal. Only 10,000 visitors a day to each site versus 50,000-60,000 visitors… geez a lot of people come through here. Also, the Temple of Heaven has just finished being repainted too so timing was good there… it looked immaculate. I think when they are done restoring everything (for the Olympics), this place will look even more amazing that it did for us.
Other than that, not much to report. We are meeting up with my Aunt Rosanna (who we saw in Switzerland… and Hong Kong… and now here!) today before catching our train to Xi’an. Toodles!
Tags: China
cheng.ev