We decided to go to the Forbidden City and it was about a 40 minute walk, got there about 10.15am and covered a lot of ground. Christa decided she had enough at about 3pm but I decided to stay on and go to the places we hadn't covered. I ended up staying to closing time at 5pm and can say I've now seen just about everything there. Last year two of main buildings were being restored so I was very glad to return and see it in all its glory. What a mind-blowing place this is, a must see for anyone.
At the close, it was chaotic trying to get out of the main gate to Tianamen Square and it turned out it was a parade of soldiers marching in to stand guard. They had just completed the daily lowering of the flag ceremony. Had to wait about 40 minutes and luckily Daisy called me so had a good long conversation while I was waiting. It was worth the wait because I got some great photos of the front gate with Chairman's photo and the because the sun had gone down it was all lit up as I had seen last year from the bus as we drove past.
Got slightly lost on the long walk back and met up with Christa and Chris again and we are all going on the 10km Great Wall walk from Jinshanling to Simatai. Went out to order sandwiches for lunch and I tried a small local restaurant which was pretty good. 24RMB for a beef in a tomatoe hot pot, very nice.
Home to fix my hard drives and now memory card, but will have to get to bed soon as we have an early start at 6.40am.
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