Our first of 2 full
days in Beijing started with breakfast beginning at 6:30 in the Jing
restaurant – a beautifully decorated restaurant in the lower lobby
floor.
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| Breakfast buffet |
We slept slightly better than the previous 3 nights and slept
in a little later than we had planned waking up at 7 am. We seemed
to have a ghost in our room as all night, the TV kept turning itself
on to a blue screen and the bedside control pads kept turning on
randomly and lighting the room up. After turning the TV off 3 times,
I finally got up and shut the doors of the TV armoire and should have
just thrown a towel or shirt over the control pad on my side of the
bed. One good thing I’ll mention about both Peninsula hotels is
that we could set the room temp to 64 degrees F which is the
temperature we prefer to sleep in.
We made it down to breakfast - the selections at this Peninsula hotel was very similar to the ones at the Peninsula in Hong Kong. I grabbed a few dim sum items and made a mental noted about the made to order menu which included noodle soup. We finished quickly and returned to our room to pack up our stuff for a full day tour.
Meet up was down in
the lobby at 8 am. I had planned on using the ATMs at the nearby
bank but we just didn’t have enough time since we had woken up a
bit late. We boarded a bus and were taken to a park near the Temple
of Heaven to observe daily life of the residents first before
visiting the temple. The weather was nice and cool – a little
breezy. Daisy narrated along the way and cautioned us that in public
spaces like this, Big Brother was definitely watching and listening
to everything being said (and reading lips too) so we needed to be mindful of that. When we
got off the bus, we were each given Quiet Vox units so we could hear
what Daisy was telling us.
The park was filled
with retired citizens who can retire at age 60. Some people were
doing group exercises. Others were in a circle playing what
resembled hacky sacks. Still others were massaging their backs and legs.
We stopped as a group and were each given a
Chinese yo-yo and instructed by a local on how to get our yo-yos
spinning and trying to launch them into the air and catch them again.
This was really a lot of fun.
After our yo-yo
demonstration, we made our through the rest of the park. The
citizens were all socializing and exercising at the same time with
many of them stretching and doing various acrobatics on the provided
equipment. The average life expectancy in China is over 70. We
watched in amazement at how many of them were easily climbing monkey
bars, stretching, doing chin ups/pull ups, and acrobatics on the
bars.
We then walked along
a beautiful covered walk way towards the entrance to the Temple of Heaven.
This is the 2nd time we’ve been to the Temple of Heaven
but it was much warmer this time around and a lot less crowded. We
were told that the entire structure had some significance and
involved the numbers 3 and 9, was supported by pillars that didn’t
involve any nails, and all the gold colors were real gold inlay. We
were given a little time to peek inside the temple to see the columns
(you can’t actually go in), walk around it (clockwise for good
luck, counter clockwise if you wish bad ju-ju on yourself), and visit
the small museum. The day was definitely getting warmer but still
very pleasant in the shade.
We re-boarded the
bus after taking group shots and were taken to a restaurant that was
owned by the descendants of Mulan. We were seated in a semi-private
room at traditional round tables of 10. Ralph had already warned us
to “pace” ourselves and he was not exaggerating. Course after
delicious course were brought out in no particular order and we
received seconds on some of the dishes. It was an amazing amount of
food - the absolute best meal that we have had so far. Vegetables, meats, soup, buns – some dishes were pretty
spicy. Desserts were deep fried apples with honey, Chinese “petit
fours” which were mostly bean paste based.
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| Mushrooms |
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| Kung Pao chicken |
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| spicy shredded pork |
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| beef with chinese broccoli |
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| hot and sour soup |
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| fried apples |
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| meat stuffed buns |
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| eggplant |
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| "Petit Fours - bean paste based |
To get to the Square, we had to go through a security check point – not something that was there the last time we were on the Square in 2001. The Square is actually closed down after a certain time at night. There were security cameras everywhere. We walked past Chairman Mao’s tomb and the National Museum of China across the Square to take some pictures across the street from the entrance to the Forbidden City. We walked past a group holding a banner to take a picture that, from what I could make out, said they were students when a couple of soldiers ran over and collected the banner from them. It looked like they also made them delete all of the pictures they took. I assumed this would be considered a “dissident” act and a “demonstration” that broke their rules. It was fascinating to watch.
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| Tian An Men Square |
As we took a group
shot and individual pictures with the entrance to the Forbidden City
in the background, Ralph patted his head with the ABD paddle and
pointed at the street behind us.
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| Our ABD Guides Daisy and Ralph |
We then took an underground tunnel
to reach the other side of the street which was 10 lanes wide. This
was also new as the last time we were here, we had to simply cross
the street to get to the Forbidden City.
We passed 3 gates
before actually entering the Forbidden City. First order of business
was making a toilet stop for everyone at what our Guides felt was a
3-4 star bathroom. As was the case with many of the public toilets
we used, only a handful were the Western seated toilets – the rest
of the stalls were the squatting toilets. If you have no issue with
using the squat toilets, it’s always faster to use them.
As we continued
deeper into the Forbidden City with Daisy narrating along the way, it
wasn’t as crowded as I recall it being before. We got our next ABD
pin, stopped to take a group photo of the women that had used a
squatty potty so far, and then passed from the more formal outer
administrative buildings to the more private areas of the City where
the living quarters were.
Daisy took us to the living quarters of a
famous Empress and then we headed to the Imperial Garden.
We exited the
Forbidden City on the far side having walked the entire distance of
the Square and the City – this was the most walking we would be
doing on the whole trip. Somewhere along the way, we stopped to get
some ice cream (the Mouse’s treat) and I bought a Forbidden City
magnet for $19 RMB. They wouldn’t take a credit card for an amount
under $100 RMB so we had to borrow cash from another Adventurer.
The bus met us
on the far side of the Forbidden City where we re-boarded and were
given some snacks including some really good sweetened rice crackers
I’d never had before. It was almost 5 o’clock when we headed
back the Beijing Peninsula for our first OYO (On Your Own) dinner.
Wade had made us dinner reservations at Jing in the hotel this
evening and at Cai Yi Xuan the next evening but then found out that
we would be back to the hotel late the next day with a very early
flight the next morning and managed to get our reservations switched
around. Dinner at the Cai Yi Xuan restaurant at the Four Seasons
Beijing was to be Seth’s 50th birthday celebration so we
got back to the hotel, ran over to the ATM next door to withdraw some
cash (which didn’t work despite each of us trying our American
Express cards and my Venture Capital One Mastercard). This was a
little frustrating.
We showered, cleaned
up, and met back down in the lobby at 6 pm to catch a taxi for our
6:30 pm reservation. The bell desk called a larger taxi for us which
took about 10 minutes and then the ride to the restaurant about 5
miles away took about 20 minutes so we were a smidge late for our
reservation. The cost of the taxi was 94 RMB (about $18 USD). While
we were waiting for the taxi, I called up American Express and found
out that I wasn’t enrolled for their cash advance option but Seth
was so he subsequently called them up and got everything sorted out
to make a cash withdrawal from our checking account via his American
Express.
We arrived at the
Four Seasons hotel, followed the signs and found the gorgeous hallway
leading to the restaurant. They took us to the back to a private
room which was decorated for Seth’s birthday. The table settings
were beautiful and the menu was also personalized. We asked for the
sommelier to recommend wine pairing for us and he suggested 3
bottles: a champagne, a Pouilly Fuisse, and a Pinot Noir.
The courses were
very large portions – not really a tasting menu and most of it was
wonderful. I loved the appetizers but the soup with the sea cucumber
was one of my least favorites but the broth was really good. The
fried mantis shrimp was quite possibly the largest shrimp I’ve ever
seen – it reminded everyone of the large cockroach type bug in the
Men in Black movie. The braised wax gourd was a chunk of squash and
another course I could have done without. Dessert was served with a
15 year Port and included a special tiramisu birthday cake as well as
coconut jelly with lychee sorbet. The entire dinner was excellent
and, per our tradition, I’ll be the last one turning 50 next year
and planning is already under way for my birthday.
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| Appetizer Combination from top left clockwise: BBQ pig skin with steamed bun, marinated foie gras, spinach rolls, and marinated sliced jellyfish |
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| Double-boiled sea whelk soup with sea cucumber |
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| Sauteed Wagyu beef with morel mushroom and green pepper |
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| Baked honey-marinated cod fillet served with sauteed celery |
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| Braised wax gourd with dried scallop |
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| Braised udon noodles with crab meat in lobster soup |
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| Chilled coconut jelly topped with lychee sorbet |
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| Tiramisu cake |
We took another taxi
back to the Peninsula and this time, it was only 72 RMB (about $10
USD). We weren’t up for long after getting back to the hotel – I
did grab a picture of the Disney themed chocolates that the hotel
left for us today.
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