70% good, 30% not so good

It is my birthday!
I am in Beijing!

We are in Tiananmen Square where nothing interesting happened.
Howard is telling us about Chairman Mao and how he lead the country for a long time and many changes and so on. He married three times, raised up from a farmer to the leader of the cultural revolution. All the bad stuff he did was while he was old and senile, under the influence of his third wife who was an ambitious woman. 70% of what he did was good, 30% of it was bad. He's entombed in glass now, and he's the only one in China who is; when you die in China, you're cremated. Unless you're Chairman Mao.

We're told that there is a monument in the middle of the Square with a barricade around it. This is the Monument to the People's Heroes.

The barricade is permanent and patrolled by the military. It was placed here after a student uprising in 1989. Two blocks away is the first ever KFC in China and you have to wait six months to get married there.

....yup. Just like that.

You're not actually allowed to take pictures of it so COME GET ME CHINA. Add this to my list of international crimes.

There are blue skies in Beijing, which nobody anticipated - especially given the delays we all faced getting there.

From here, we went to the Forbidden City. We have to pass through a gate, under a picture of Chairman Mao.

 Every 10 years the portrait is refreshed and somehow, "The Chairman looks younger and better, it's like magic!" says our guide.

There are many temples and gates inside the Forbidden City. We're told we can only see about 10% of it because it's so huge. A lot of kings and queens and concubines and eunuchs lived here over many thousands of years.

The detail and workmanship in the architecture is remarkable. A lot of it is the same (and you don't get close enough for good pictures). It was built up by each subsequent emperor and king who lived here, building more space for their concubines and eunuchs and advisors.  There are still rooms that have been sealed for hundreds of years.

Team Australia realized that there was a Jackie Chan movie set here and proceeded to try and take pictures of themselves being Jackie Chan.

Did not go as planned.

 A much better Jackie Chan? James.

with help from Izzy.

So far, Beijing has been no more crowded than any other big city I've been in. A little less busy than Paris, just as busy as New York. Beijing is a popular vacation spot for the Chinese. They like to learn about their history and be a part of it if they can.

There is a throne room within the city. It is closed off to the public but you can point your camera inside! In the roof of this throne room is a gigantic pearl to represent the moon or something. This is where the emperor sat and everyone wants a photo of it.

Everyone.

You kind of have to put your camera up and hope for the best.

I don't think I did too bad.

At some point in prehistory, Beijing was underwater. This left behind some really interesting rock formations, found in the gardens of the Forbidden City.

 The rocks have clear signs.

 Do you know who doesn't care for signs?
James.

Climbing on sacred rocks and taking pictures of monuments? Come at me, China.

Next: Birthday continues!