Beijing and HK Nov 2019 - Day5

[NeeNeeWong]

Today it was cold... so cold that I had to put my coat on when I already had a thermal, long sleeved thick top and a jumper on underneath. The weather started off at minus 3 at 8am this morning.

We left the room at quarter past 8 and went straight down the main road in front of our hotel, knowing at some point we would hit a big red wall - The Forbidden City.

Turns out this street is directly in line with the east gate exit. So around the corner was the entrance. We had originally planned to get the subway, but the nearest was Tiananmen east, with another 10 min walk making it long than if we just walked. It took us about 30 mins from the hotel.

Once we arrived we had to get our tickets, I had read online head to the Meridan gate, which we were already at only because the direction we came in at meant we were already there. The online website I found said to look out to the right for special assistance booth. You can get your tickets from here, you just need to handover your passport and then your passport is used at the entrance for the tickets.

It was 80 yuan in total, we didn’t get tickets for the clock house or treasures.

Our guide yesterday checked the website and said there were still over 60,000 tickets left last night. They only release 80,000 and most days they sell out. He said now is a quiet time to visit as it’s starting to get cold. This was the busiest place we have been to so far. So many tour groups! I would hate to arrive on a sold out day.

I also felt like today I was getting a lot of looks, I guess as a lot of the tours were Chinese tour groups and they aren’t used to seeing western people, we only actually saw one American group. There also weren’t that many western looking people around. So I think I stood out. I was used to it by now from the metro but here it seemed more like you were being stared out instead of quick glances. Hey ho! At least no one asked me for my photo like I had seen on YouTube.

The palace is huge. You could easily get lost knowing which direction to head in if you didn’t have a map. We decided to walk up the middle path first. The one thing I found disappointing here compared to other places was you weren’t at all allowed in any of the buildings. At others they had opened the side doors to walk down the edges so you could see inside. Here you had to push your way past people to get to the front (as others would do to you) and when you got there you couldn’t see much as a board or a pillar or something was in the way.

Once we reached the end we turned around and headed down the right hand section heading towards the south east tower. We climbed up the tower to see the edge of the city. This also lead us back to the beginning. To which we then went down the left hand section. It was almost 12 and we were starting to get hungry, we had been snacking on crisps and jelly babies as we didn’t want breakfast today. So next we headed out in search of food.

But first, Jingshan Park. It was 2yuan each to get in, and we climbed up the right hand side to get photos of the pavilions, finally reaching the top one to get a photo of all of the forbidden city.

We then went down the left, and out the west gate. We then carried on north towards behai park, searching for somewhere to eat. I said to Chris I was now getting really cold so wanted a coffee and really didn’t fancy rice, we saw a kfc and both agreed fries was the way to go.

I got a normal burger meal and Chris got something like a tower meal, but it has fried shrimp in it with the chicken. It looked exactly like kfc at home and we demolished it in minutes as we were starving! It was 98yuan (with 2 Pepsi’s and 2 coffees). The only difference was instead of the spices that we normally taste, it was more of a hot chilli spice.

Across the street was behai park, this was 5 yuan each to get in. Here is home to the white pagoda, which sits on top of a hill at the bottom of the park, off we went... it was a pretty pair but not much to see really. We climbed up and it was another 5 yuan to see the pagoda. We weren’t really that fussed, so just took photos outside.

Back down and up to behai north station to go down to Tiananmen west. Again we had to show our passports to get in but this was free.

We were now tired and needing a shower so we then went back to the hotel for a shower before dinner. Again we are feeling hungry and still cold, so we are DEFINITELY having hot pot tonight!

[NeeNeeWong]

We made it to hot pot. The most popular is Haidilao. This was in the mall opposite apm on Wangfujing. We headed in and the queue was huge! They have small tables for you to wait at and do origami at and other activities, these were all full and then further people waiting to go onto the wait tables to the side. So that was a no no! Back in apm mall we saw another famous hot pot place, Dong Lai Shun. Again, this place had a queue, but we noticed another one further down the street which wasn’t in a mall, next to the mcd we went to a few nights back. We walked in and it was busy but we were seated straight away.

The menu is in Chinese and English but lots of photos too. Staff spoken little/ no English again so it would be kind of hard to ask what you do. We struggled asking for two cokes.

Once seated they gave us a hotpot and filled it with water so that the water would be boiling when food was served.

We picked veg (green veg like lettuce), fish, beef, noodles, a seasoned bun each, with a garlic and sesame oil. We have hotpot at home with Chris’ family so we kind of knew what we were doing. But if I was a newbie I wouldn’t have a clue! If you are going watch some videos to get an idea. The food all came very quickly after ordering. So we placed what we wanted into the hotpot, enough for a small portion. We then ate that and then while eating put in our next portion so it was ready to eat. Don’t chuck it all in, otherwise it will be overcooked or if you take it out, cold.

The only thing we couldn’t work out was when to put sesame oil and garlic in. At home we just usually have soy sauce and put a small bit in the bottom of our bowl, so that’s what we did with this.

It was really nice and we did think about getting a lamb portion but we couldn’t work out if it would be too much. It was just about right.
It was 222yuan in total.

But I said I really miss having a pudding. Then Chris said he saw a Cheesecake Factory!

So we decided to head over to another mall on the opposite side on the street and got 2 cheesecakes to go. I got the special 30th anniversary and Chris got red velvet. They tasted just like America! This was 154yuan. Expensive for what’s around, glad we didn’t eat dinner there. But it was busy - you could mainly hear Americans.

[Melbatb]

You really are having a fabulous time! It does look cold though. At least it will be warmer in HK.