January 26th-Tianamen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and Beijing Opera

Mary Wuest

Today's day started with a trip to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City.  It's amazing to see both in a culture so firmly rooted in its history.  The square was much bigger than we imagined and we liked seeing the beautifully decorated front gate at the entrance.  When we went to the Forbidden City we saw many different areas and rooms that in the past, were reserved only for emperors and officials.  AN interesting room was one with two thrones-the first one was for the young emperor and then behind it was the emperor's mother who basically made all the decisions because she told the emperor what to say.  The only thing between them was a curtain so that the people wouldn't know she was there making the decisions.

After we finished looking and walking through the city, our tour guide, Raymond, took us to lunch at a Chinese dumpling restaurant.  They were delicious but we were all stuffed afterwards because the waitresses kept bringing plate after plate of different types of dumplings.

With a full stomach our class then traveled to visit the final temple here in China- the Temple of Heaven.  Here we saw the Echo Hall, which was another temple within the entire complex.  The tile in front of the temple if you clapped once it would echo once, if you go to the second tile and clapped it would echo twice, and if you went to the third tile it would echo three times.  It was very cool, however some people didn't go to see it.  Behind the Echo Hall was a marble that in the center was also an echo area.  It was raised so we could also the temple the sceneries behind it as well.  It was all painted so intricately and in the traditional ancient Chinese way.

Dinner was at a Muslim style restaurant where we weren't too sure what we were eating... Some dishes were good and others were interesting- it depended on each person's degree of adventurous eating!  This was the first place with dessert served, which was new and very much filled with sugar.

To finish the day, we went to the Beijing Opera where we all sat in the front row sipping tea, and snacking on snacks while watching the performance.  This opera was about a drunken man and Taoist priests who set out to sail the sea.  There were some pretty intense fight scenes and skilled actors with batons.  Overall, the day was a bittersweet day because it was not only our last touring day, but also many of us are ready to head back home.  See you all on Friday!

--Zelynne & Megan--