The Forbidden City in Beijing

Day 5: Beijing: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Jingshan Park or Coal Hill, Dashilar Street, Qianmen Hutongs, Olympic Village: Bird's Nest and Water Cube

The alarm sounds at 6 in the morning and directly, after touching our legs and checking that they are there after the trekking between Jinshanling and Simatai in the Great Wall of China, we take a shower, we eat a couple of sweets that we bought before yesterday in a bakery and they are still maintained, which by the way we have to say that the sweets here are very good, and we went down to the reception of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, at 7:30 we went down to the reception of the 161 Hotel to take a couple of coffees that just sang our stomach for 39RMB.

It is 7:30 in the morning when we are leaving the hotel heading to the Donsi metro stop to go to Tiannamen and from there access to the Forbidden City in Beijing, which will be the icing of today.
As soon as we leave the hutong where we are staying, we see that the streets are full of life and that is that today is a working day and it shows in a city like Beijing.
We return to get our 3RMB tickets per person, today the machines do not work and we have a good time to understand us. The truth is that this is something we do not understand, they speak to us in Chinese as if we know the language and ask ourselves: if we are in the subway and do not understand the stop we say, it is not easier to draw a map and to point out the place ? Well, no matter how much we sign, they don't give us a map, so in the end we have to go to a cartel and try our luck with our fingers, until we get it.
In 15 minutes we planted ourselves in Tiannamén, after dealing with hundreds of Chinese people who are moving around this morning in the city.
Today, like the previous days, there is a spectacular sun that encourages us even more if we can continue to know Beijing. There is still no trace of that gray sky that we had read so much.
It is 8 in the morning when we return to pass the controls that we passed the first day we visited Tiananmen Square, and this time without queuing. Anda that if we got to know that day we would have made other visits and we would have left for today this area that is much quieter, but hey, we did not know it, so he played "pringar".
A good option to learn more about the history of the city and this part of Beijing is to book this guided tour in Spanish that includes Tiananmen Beach, the Forbidden City and a tour of the Hutongs or this other guided tour in Spanish that includes the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven.

Gate of Heavenly Peace in Tiananmen Square

We arrived at the ticket offices of the Forbidden City at 8:20 in the morning, just in time to be there at 8:30 which is the time they open and after queuing up, we get our 60RMB tickets already that we show the student card, but they ask us for the dates, and since they are expired, it does not strain.
We recommend you book this ticket in advance to save your queues or this guided tour in Spanish to learn about its interesting history.

More practical information to prepare your trip to Beijing

- 50 things to see and do in Beijing
- 10 essential places to visit in China
- 10 essential tips for traveling to China

And there we are willing to spend the following hours in one of the most famous places in China: The Forbidden City in Beijing.
After passing the ticket control we find the box office where they sell the audio guide that we have read is highly recommended, so we take a couple, paying 40RMB per person.
As soon as we pass through the main door we begin to see that something is not going well and that is how we see how all the central halls and most important areas begin to cordon off and all the organized groups start to run taking us half dragged among the people while the security ones begin to push people away from the main buildings.

Entrance to the Forbidden City in Beijing

We do not know what happens or who will come, but seeing how the issue is we choose to go ahead and go to the area of ​​the Treasury Pavilion, where we see that they have not yet cordoned off the area. We pay 10RMB per person to enter and we will find one of the quietest and most beautiful areas of the Forbidden City in Beijing, being even set, sometimes, by music.
Here we can find part of a series of exhibition buildings, known as the Treasure Gallery, the famous Wall of the Nine Dragons, an enameled wall, of which only three remain in China.

Wall of the Nine Dragons

After this visit and seeing that the majority of organized groups, if not all, have remained in the main parts to be reopened, we opted to continue the visit from here and thus go quieter.
We are not going to deny something that is becoming quite evident since we started our trip to China for free and it is that the Chinese one by one great, but in crowds they are horrible, they do not have any kind of look, whoever falls.
So we continue to the Imperial Garden area, an area surrounded by cypresses and beautiful pavilions.

Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City in Beijing

From here we have access to the North Gate of the Forbidden City, only out, but as we have skipped half of the route, we have to do it again, this time in the opposite direction, so we return to the area of ​​the Pavilion of the Thousand Years and the West Pavilions, which are a set of palaces with patio where almost all the emperors lived while they reigned.

Corners of the Forbidden City in Beijing

Forbidden City in Beijing

From here and for not continuing to make the tour upside down, we choose to get back to the Gate of Divine Harmony, now with fewer people and start the tour again through the wonders that keeps us the Forbidden City in Beijing.

The Forbidden City in Beijing

Crossing the Gate of the Divine Harmony we find three great halls, the hall of the Supreme Harmony, followed by the hall of the Central Harmony and the hall of the Preservation of the Harmony, after which we find the huge imperial marble road.

Snapshots in the Forbidden City in Beijing

Imperial Marble Walkway

We have to say that even though the Forbidden City is a essential visit in BeijingTo us, surely because of the initial "problem" that has made us travel the same places three times, we have fallen a little short with the expectations we had.
We also have to add, that although the audio guide is fine, it is not to shoot rockets or essential as we had read since it often fails and does not get started when you pass through the places of interest. For our part it is not recommended and we believe that it is better to bring a good explanation or article that you find online or the same guide, with which you will be even more informed.

As a curiosity we have to say that we have been impressed by the more than 300 water tanks in the whole palace complex where the water was stored in case there was a fire. In winter they covered themselves with blankets so that they did not freeze.

Water tanks to extinguish fires

It's 11:30 in the morning when we finish the visit to the Forbidden City in Beijing and it is time to undo the road again, now taking advantage to visit the buildings of the east, which we left on the first visit and after 12, in total we have been about 3 and a half hours visiting the Forbidden City, we are at the entrance of the Jingshan Park or Coal Hill where we pay 2RMB per person to enter.

Jingshan Park or Coal Hill

Being the time it is, we take a short walk through this small lung of Beijing and we go directly to the path that leads to the top of this hill, unique in the center of Beijing, which was formed with the earth excavated when building the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Jingshan Park or Coal Hill in Beijing

Book the best rated tours and excursions in Spanish from Beijing by travelers:

- Excursion to the Great Wall of China
- Beijing's Top 3 in one day
- Beijing contrasts
- Temple of Heaven and Summer Palace
- Acrobatic show at the Chaoyang Theater
- More excursions and tours here

It takes just over 10 minutes to climb the stairs that take us to the top, with more difficulties than expected and it is that yesterday's effort in the Great Wall does not forgive and as soon as we reach the top, we understand why this is one of the places they recommend visiting in Beijing: we have some breathtaking views of the Forbidden CityToo bad we have the sun give face and that makes the colors dazzle.

Views of the Forbidden City from Jingshan Park or Coal Hill

There are a few minutes to 1 noon and we decided to approach a restaurant that we have signed up, recommended in Beijing to eat lacquered duck. The situation of the restaurant when we start the walk is one kilometer from the point where we are, but this increases to 2 without finding it and we end up in Tiananmen Square without locating it, so we have to go through the security controls again ( at this time butt) and we decided to go to the Qianmen area where the first day we were there we saw many restaurants, although the truth is that we do not have them all with us since yesterday Susanna told us that most of the local restaurants close to the 13 or 13:30 and it's that time 🙂
We arrived in Qianmen after 2 pm busted, starving and without any restaurant open to the eye, so, look where, being on Dashilar Street appears in a McDonald's to meet us, which we can not resist. We ordered a couple of menus plus some nuggets for 55RMB. At least we'll settle for thinking we've saved on today's food.
With a full stomach we go looking for somewhere to drink coffee and lift that mood that at this time of the afternoon begins to decline due to the fatigue of the days we have been non-stop.
We found a coffee shop on Quianmen Street, which is unusual because in Beijing, as in all of China, coffee shops are not easy to find. So we took the opportunity to order an American and a cappuccino for 59RMB. More expensive than food, but in honor of the truth we have to say that the cups are maxi. With this coffee we will not sleep in 10 days!
It's almost 5 in the afternoon when we continue our itinerary and we're going to get lost in the qianmen hutongs, the most authentic we have seen so far in Beijing.

Qianmen Hutongs

Dashilar Street in Beijing

We had read that in Liulichang Street, near Quianmen we could find many antique shops and that this was a very interesting area, so we didn't think about it much and we approached there, going through more hutongs and more "life" in Beijing.

Sunset in a Beijing hutong

Too bad to have decided to get here so late, because the truth is that the area has a very special atmosphere, with almost no local tourism, but at this time the stores are already closing, so we do not have time to see the street in all its splendor.
After a walk in the area we return to Dashilar Street and when there are a few minutes to 7 in the afternoon we leave the subway to take line 8 and go to the Olympic Zone, which we have recommended to see at night.

Dashilar Street in Beijing

It takes just over 15 minutes to arrive and as soon as we leave we see two of the most famous buildings in the area: the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest.

The Water Cube

The Bird's Nest

We take several photos, the truth is that the site does not give much more and we take the subway again, this time on the way to the 161 Hotel where we arrived at almost 9 at night. We stopped at the usual Beijing Roast Duck, where we ordered another dish of Peking meatballs (we have become addicted), fried prawns and lacquered duck, plus two waters for 93RMB.

Dining lacquered duck in the Beijing Roast Duck

It is almost 11 at night when we are getting into bed, ready to download today's photographs and update social networks a bit before resting our head on the pillow and resting. Tomorrow we expect a most complete day. Our last day in Beijing.

Day 6: Beijing: Summer Palace, Panjiayuán Market, Beijing Hutongs - Night train from Beijing to Datong