The next morning we headed to the Bell and Drum Tower’s, a huge complex which marked the north axis of imperial Beijing. We managed to time it perfectly to watch the ‘drum perform’, 5 drummers pounding huge red drums – traditionally used to signal the time and the movement of the emperor. The massive bell tower was equally impressive, however due to the weather (again ‘mist’ – or correctly named smog pollution) obscured much of the view of the forbidden city.
Walking through an old fashioned Hutong we headed towards Beihai park, a leisure area built around a waterway constructed in central Beijing which surrounded the white pagoda, and served as a recreational area for Beijing’s elite. It was a nice change from the Summer Palace, relatively quiet with little domestic or international tourists around. It also seemed a lot cooler – a perfect place to hang out before our afternoons tasks.

Collecting everything we had not used, clothes too warm for the rest of Southeast Asia, and our recently purchased tea set, we headed out to find the International Post Office. Again the lonely planet map lead us astray but we found the large China post shop in the end, squashed in a massive residential zone. They were amazing helpful, the packing lady seeming to enjoy the small bit of mandarin I could offer. Bubbled wrapped and boxed up, we decided on the sea shipped post rather than by air as it was difficult to rationalise spending 3 times the cost of the tea set on postage by the quicker route. Hopefully it arrives in less than 90 days.

Dinner that night was some great street food – pancake with egg, chilli and lettuce. Although an odd combination it was great -washed down with some apple and pear juice.

For our final day in Beijing, we decided to tackle the Forbidden City; not an easy proposition given that it was Saturday, school holidays and the temperature roared about 30. The queues were huge but manageable. Unfortunately we witnessed the brutality of Chinese security as an old man was dragged along the ground and a bag ripped from his grasp by security men.

Walking under Mao’s massive picture at Tiananmen gate was a surreal experience, plain clothes police in dark aviators watching us as we streamed by. Security around this area was very tight (luckily I had realised I had my pocket knife in my bag earlier and dropped it back at the hostel). Ironically, as with Russia, they failed to scan people -just their bags, with tour groups being diverted around the many X-ray scanners for quicker entry (which we found we could ‘join’ since we all look the same!).
The Forbidden City was very impressive, huge temples and great halls lay at the end of a massive court yard; a river running through it as if to separate the emperor from the rest of the kingdom. We often diverted away from the crowds to quieter areas and the shade, not keen to join the huge flag waving groups. The architecture was amazing, the colours of the murals in the archways incredibly vivid. It was interesting feeling visiting the Forbidden City; the centre piece of many Hollywood movies and legends. The image completely juxtaposed the rampant tourism on display – interestingly dominated by domestic tourists which crowd Beijing at this time of the year. In some ways I would much prefer to pay more and have dedicated times to go – rather than compete with 60,000 others.
Having spent the morning there, we walked though quiet Hutong’s toward the hostel with locals staring at us as when we took a wrong turn somewhere! The ability to escape the crowds by walking through hutong’s should be available in all busy bustling cities!

After a few hours rest in the heat of the day – we decided to see the Olympic Park. It was situated in a specially developed area north of the city. The Water Cube was an amazing structure – a massive collection of blue bubbles. It looks a little tired after 5 years, its purpose in life now is the main water theme park in the city. The ‘Birds Nest’ was an amazing steel structure, its huge size in contrast to the small feeling you got from the field inside. We decided to buy a ticket to look inside, interestingly a ‘self directed’ tour of pretty much anywhere in the stadium. It felt a bit odd to wander anywhere you wanted to – but at the same time cool to sit at the finish line of the 100m or sit up in the top row and get a birds eye view. You could just imagine the atmosphere at the Olympics – wouldn’t mind going to one myself one day!