Beijing

An early start to the day brought us from Jing Jin to Beijing.  Again, we are staying at the Grand Hyatt which is excellent.  It is about 15 minutes walk from Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  After checking in we decided to make the walk.  We quickly learned that this was not going to be anything like Jing Jin.  I think I saw every person in Beijing today.  At least it felt that way.  It turns out that it is a public holiday today called "Family Day".  So, most people had the day off and from what I figure wanted to see Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City as well.  So, we decided to go to Tiananmen and leave the Forbidden City until the next day.  Good choice I think.  We crossed the street to get to the square and we got a quick lesson on street survival.  The cars do not stop and if you are lucky they might slow down a bit to give you time to dive out of the way.  No Joke!  It was mad!  We thought that people were going to be killed for sure but the pedestrians would all stop to give the car just enough room to get through and then continue on.  Wow!!  Anyways, once we played frogger with the traffic we safely walked onto Tiananmen Square which by the way is huge.  It took us an hour (at Maya;s pace mind you) to walk around the square.  It is surrounded by the National Museum and another museum dedicated to Chairman Mao.  We then decided to grab a bite to eat and then shop.  There are lots of shops selling all the name brands that you would see in Vancouver and more.  I expected to see cheaper prices but nope, just as expensive.  One night we are going to go to the street markets and I think that will be a great experience.