Forbidden City & Bicycling Beautiful Beijing

Slept like babies last night (the beds are memory foam comfortable!!) and then rose early which was a little challenging but in stark contrast to yesterday it was a beautiful sunny morning so we were keen to get the best of the day. After breakfast at our hotel we grabbed a couple of the free bikes outside and cycled off towards the Forbidden City. The cycle was glorious - sun shining, wide cycle lanes and very ladylike bicycles! We parked up our bikes, paid a lady about 1RMB (10p) to look after them and joined the throng outside the Forbidden City. The Lonely Planet recommended we get the audio-guide so we ignored all the local English speaking guides touting their services and grabbed the robot version. Unfortunately it wasn't Roger Moore doing the voiceover as promised in the LP but a Chinese lady speaking with an American accent. It was also 'automated' and was supposed to magically tell you about the relevant bit as you reach it. This turned out to be rather annoying as she seemed to start talking about 50m away from what she was talking about so that by the time we fought our way through the crowds of Chinese tour groups in matching caps to get there she had finished and we'd forgotten everything she had said. And no repeat button, no pause button... We didn't much like her by the end!

Anyway, despite the monumental crowds in places, the Forbidden City was truly beautiful and HUGE! We managed to get off the beaten track a few times and found ourselves in peaceful courtyards and gardens full of sculptoral rocks and pine trees without a soul around (apart from the omnipresent robot lady in our ears of course...) and got a real feeling of what it must have been like in its heyday. The sun shining obviously helped with the whole experience! Eventually we were exhausted and left via the North entrance and climbed the hill in Jingshan Park for amazing views of the Forbidden City and across the whole of Beijing.

Our stomachs were calling so we stopped for a lunch and then reunited ourselves with our wheels of steel and started a cycle pootle around some of the hutong (alleyways) - which was a lovely way to see the city. The hutong are a weird hotchpotch of old temples and ornate gateways and new building, with bicycles, electric bicycles, rickshaws, motorbikes, pedestrians and cars all vying for roadspace! Our bike ride also took us alongside Qianhai lake with its ornate bridges and loads of little boats. Lovely! 

As you can probably gather, we really quite like Beijing! From what I've heard it's really changed a lot in the last few years - no doubt mostly for the Olympics - but it is cool.

OK, gotta go, we have a wash on...

Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall!!!!

Morge