China 2008: Day 2: Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Tianamen Square
Our tour turned out to be a private one, by Madison (the guide) and Mr. Lu (the driver). I guess that's why it was so expensive (US$240 each for 2 days, plus airport transportation). After an expensive, mediocre breakfast at the hotel (RMB160 each, which was 3x the price I remember we paid on the previous trip), we went over to Tiananmen Square and then the Forbidden City. Did a bit of a whirlwind through both areas. Tiananmen Square is massive, something that needs to be appreciated in person. It's a flat, open expanse aside from Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall in the center, so it's a single view that can be taken in all at once.
The Forbidden City was also given a quick tour through the main halls. We felt a bit shafted here-- some of the side halls are supposed to be very relevant, and we didn't get to see them. Being winter, quite a bit of maintenance was going on, but what we did see of the main buildings was impressive. We just missed out on the other 6 or so side buildings. *grrr*
The drive out to the Summer Palace was much shorter than we expected. The tour saved us quite a bit of time dorking around with taxis (to the Great Wall as well), but not US$240's worth. We did the first of three crappy shopping stops on the tour, this one at a pearl factory with one of the most disappointing meals we had on the trip (the most boring buffet... ever. Note for the future, make sure a tour mentions the quality of the food).
Fortunately, the Summer Palace was well worth the time, even when freezing by the lakeside in the dead of winter. The long walkway, the buildings and courtyards, the view of the lake, they were all worth seeing. We did skip a large building that rose above the Summer Palace, but either because of the long walk we had already taken, or the fact that it was freezing cold, we didn't seem to mind skipping it.
Afterwards was a silk factory (gah. side trips. tarded...) and then an acrobatics show. We were a bit early, and walked around the shops nearby beforehand. Turns out it was a market area well known for paintings and other forms of artwork, with buildings done in the ancient style, so it had a lot of character. Definitely worth a few minutes since we were already in the area. The acrobatics show wasn't bad either, although I didn't expect much and hence, was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the balancing, jumping through hoops and from rope to rope, etc.
Dinner was the famous Peking duck. The restaurant was decent; 3 stars or maybe a run down 4 star place, but the food was good, and that's what's important.
Tried to find KTV (karaoke) that night. The nice place next to our hotel didn't have any English, so we wandered across the street to another place. Completely mis-heard them and their pricing. Most places were RMB80 to RMB100 an hour, which seemed right. We didn't think we actually heard RMB800 (about US$107)... til we got inside, found out it was all the alcohol we could drink, and saw how nice it was...
