Immediately after arriving in Beijing, we were conned by a taxi driver. We gave him a hotel name but he lied about knowing it or its street name. He brought us to a much more expensive hotel. There, some of his friends helped us get discounts. However, I think that he brought us there to benefit his friends who probably get commission. Another thing bad about the driver was that he said he charged 20 Rmb for each person but would give us a discount of 50 Rmb. He did not even use the meter!
The Forbidden Palace was the first destination. Mao's portrait looks really huge. But the portrait isn't really coherent with the ancient archeitecture. The palace was indeed very huge with countless buildings and many open spaces. Yet, I wished more money could be spent on a restoring job because it could look even better.
A panoramic view in the Forbidden Palace. My family is walking away from the camera. I'm the guy not wearing shorts.


Since my brother was left out of the family photo, he is seen here cursing the skies!

We walked around the area outside the palace. Tianamment Square is filled with many people. A few people even fly kites here. There is no indication of any massacre happening in the past. Surround the square is many government buildings. One of them has a very large clock indicating the time left until Hong Kong's return to China.


This is a statue depicting the Communist Revolution of 1949. However, Tom is about 50 years too late to join Mao in toppling the Nationalists


This PLA soldier stands still for many hours guarding the building. The government probably wants to show off by having this soldier do that. Anyhow, he must be bored he gladly allowed me to take a photo of him. Anything to break the boredom spell...


This is a fast food chain serving noodles. The logo looks vaguely familiar, doesn't it?

The next day, we took a tour, riding a bus all over Beijing's countryside. We started with a place which contained minature replicas of all the famous structures in Beijing, including the Forbidden Palace. It was supposed to represent ancient Beijing. However, everything seemed to repeat itself, especially the roof designs, so it was not that interesting. We also went to a museum depicting the history of the Ming dynasty. It contained many moving wax figures wearing colorful clothes against a well designed backdrop. Eventually we went to the Ming tombs. The Ming tomb was at least fifty feet underground. Down there was a very large empty chamber, and I mean empty. All the valuables have been removed for safe keeping. It just looked like dark rooms, except the room because all the valuables have already been removed for safe keeping. After the bus went through a very long and twisting path at high altitudes, it approached the Great Wall


This is of course, the Great Wall. There are ski lift machines that can take you up here, unless you want to spend hours sweating by trying to climb up. It costs about $1US for Chinese and $10US for foreigners! I'm glad we passed off as Chinese citizens.


Another photo of the Great Wall. Tom is practicing his kung fu on that ledge. Show off!

The third day we went to the Summer Palace. This was supposed to be where the Empress Dowager and other royalty spent their leisure time. It contains a very long outdoor hall which contains hundreds of paintings on the ceiling corners. Among the paintings includes Journey to the West and Romance of the 3 Kingdoms. There was also a very large lake in the Summer Palace, along with a very large boat, where Empress Dowager is said to have dined.
Afterwards we went to Beijing University to take a look at the campus. However, security guards would not admit us because we were not students. Near the school was the old Summer Palace. Long ago, it was a very beautiful place, including a modern mansion of some sort. However because of China's war with foreign countries, foreign soldiers invaded the summer palace, looted it, and burned the buildings down. All that is left now is a few still erect structures, and the ruins of the mansion. China has preserved this place like this as to remind the people about the humiliation in the past.
After those three full days in Beijing we headed towards Shanghai. Again it was the train again. The trip times was roughly 13 hours. We found an excellent hotel with very nice archeitecture. It was also very cheap. The ceiling is very high and the place gives a very classical feel.


This famous area contains many old European style buildings. They are still in use today. Some of them are hotels.

Shanghai has a very well kept family house there. It is very well restored and simply beautiful. Around this house was many shops selling cultural items such as jewelery and weapons. There is also a very good museum in Shanghai. It is supposedly a world-class one, having been constructed less than a year ago. It contained all sorts of artwork such as money, jade, paintings, bronzeworks, weapons, ceramics, and foreign currency. Every few minutes you can see workers wiping the glasses of the displays.

An hour away from Shanghai is Hangzhou. This place is well worth the visit. Many people say that of all of China, Hangzhou has the most beautiful women. For that reason, people come here to watch them. However, we came to visit a very large active Buddhist temple, a beautiful lake, Buddhist "caves," and Yue Fei's shrine.


This place has many Buddha carvings on stone walls. The environment is filled with grey stone and green plants. It is simply astonishing. There is also a story with this place. Long ago a village used to be here. A huge rock was destined to destroy this village. The Mad Monk knew this, and he knew no one else would believe him. So during a wedding he kidnapped the bride. The angry villagers then all chased him. He led them away from the village to save them, as the rock struck an empty village. Strange story...
The Buddhist temple was the largest I had every seen. It was a really strange sight, large buddhist statues, praying monks, burning incense, tourists moving around, stores selling souveniers. I really enjoyed it and it is definately a place worth visiting. The temple is near those carvings.
The beautiful lake is very large and we took a boat around it. There are many ponds with hundreds of lillies growing. This place was supposedly admired by an emporer and so it got its fame.
Yue Fei was a general who lived during Song Dynasty. He fought agaisnt the northern barbarians to protect the people. Unfortunately there were some court officials who disliked him and spoke bad of him, eventually getting the emperor to sentence him to death. He died but the people loved him. Eventually, those officials were executed and Yue Fei was given a shrine. There are statues of the 4 officials who drove him to death, tied and kneeling in front of the shrine. Story has it that the statues were originally wooden but people so much hated them, they vandalized and destroyed those statues. The statues were then made of stone. People still were able to destroy the statues. Now the statues are made of metal...
We stayed only a full day here. The railroad station that we got off was to be demolished to make a newer one. So we needed to take the other one. On the morning we were to leave, none of the taxis would seem to take us over there. We were pressed for time, as the tickets did not have refunds. Taxi drivers apparently would only drive nearby but were unwilling to drive far away. That does not make sense because either way, they earn money. They refused to take us and we luckily caught a bus. The bus was overfilled so as it passed some policemen, the money collector asked some of the people to duck down. It worked and we headed towards Guangzhou.

Next Stop:
GUANGZHOU