Diary June 26, 2010

Author: Isaac Lomeli

The plan for today was to travel to The Forbidden City. After breakfast we met up with one of the volunteer host students for a bike ride into the city. We took a crowded subway into the heart of Beijing, where the buildings are short and traditional in an attempt to maintain the historical culture of that area. Part of that culture is the restrooms. Although they are more sanitary than what we are accustomed to in the states, the toilet was basically a hole in the ground. It was quite an eye opening experience. Shortly after we tried some of the local cuisine for lunch in a nearby restaurant. In the restaurant we practiced our Chinese by placing our orders. We tried Chinese burgers and potato crisps. Once we energized our bodies with a hearty lunch, we headed towards the subway station, since the Forbidden city is too far to walk to.

The volunteer host student showed us how easy it was to purchase subway tickets, simply pushing a button, inserting money, and grabbing our ticket from the machine. Little did we know that was the easiest part of our quest towards the subway train. Once we got our tickets we proceeded towards a bag security check, followed by getting through the busy station to get to the train. The train was quite crowded. We took the train for about half an hour all the way to the Forbidden City.

When we finally got to the Forbidden City we were blown away in awe by its size and artistic attention to detail. The entrance to the Forbidden City was a great red wall with a monumental portrait of Mao Zedong. The Forbidden City once housed the greatest emperors in Chinese history and for the next six hours we would be walking in their footsteps. As we walked around the ancient fortress, we were listening to its fascinating history via a rented headset. All around the Forbidden City were hundreds, if not thousands, of tourists admiring Chinese architecture and their respect towards their traditional past. After our trip to the Forbidden City we took a relaxing taxi drive back to Tsinghua University.

	One of the large halls in the forbidden city. The emperor was the only one who could walk on the center aisle.
	A small inner court.
	It's a long walk, and much warmer than it looks...
	The entrance courtyard to the palace.
	The Tian An Men Gate.
	Tian An Men sqaure, looking from the gate. The square is the largest plaza in the world.

//Calender