Hello From Beijing

I have made it to China. The fight was long and crowded but am sure I will have a lot more long and crowded travel experiences in the weeks to come. I did not do a lot the first day that I got into Beijing. I just walked around the Hutongs area that my hotel was in just to get a feel for the place.

Tiananmen Square On my first full day in Beijing I spent most of it in The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square Area. There was some work taking place on the Forbidden city but I found it did not take too much away from the site and found the size of the area inside the Imperial palace walls was overwhelming.

Forbidden City After the Forbidden City I walked down to the Temple of Heaven Park. I got there just as the buildings were closing so was only able to walk around the park. It had been a long day and when leaving the park I took a rickshaw driver up on taking me to the subway station and agreed on a price of 40 yuan but he really wanted 80. We had a bit of a disagreement on the way to the subway station about the price and I tried to get out and walk once and a big disagreement when we got to the subway station about the price. All of this done when neither of us understood the other. I handed him the money and he finally took it and when he counted it and saw I had given him 50 he was then my best buddy. I have not taken another rickshaw yet. I think I will stick to things with motors.

Forbidden City