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It being far too early for the first wave of tourists into the Forbidden City, I took my time on the way over, trying to create “interesting” pictures, and even then still had time to cool my heels at the front gate.

Looking to and fro, up and down, gave me ample opportunity to also appreciate how polluted Beijing was.  7:30am, but it’s not bright sunshine and blue skies; instead, it’s a grey haze that can be seen even from short distances.

At the stroke of… well, I forget what time, but at that time, the ticket lines opened and we were allowed in.  I picked up one of their location sensitive audio guides; I’d never used one before.  Mixed feelings on the experience.  It’s not that they did a bad job, and it was interesting to hear how fluent British English sounded with a Mandarin influence (i.e. slightly musical), but they gave me a lot of  borings facts I didn’t care about.  I don’t want to know where the Emperor had breakfast or where he napped.  I was interested to learn that the number of statuette guardians on top of the building indicated its relative importance.

Needless to say, the large tour groups were out in force.

I spent a couple of hours in  the Forbidden City – it’s very large – but I didn’t feel particularly inspired to take many photographs.  The overall architecture said “square, symmetrical, space” to me, and the various artefacts from the era were hidden in the buildings where tourists would lean over the barrier to get some harsh, direct-flash photographs from 10 metres away.

On the way out and towards Wangfujing, I did find some fun with reflections.   The Forbidden City strikes me as far more interesting from the outside.

Considering the bulk of my itinerary planning happened after my plane took off from Toronto, I didn’t exactly have a clear schedule in mind.  Doing some reading after checking in, I realized that the Forbidden City and the Wangfujing shopping district were very close to the hotel.  I dislike “over-planned” vacations, so I opted for just those two on my first day, and to let fate fill the rest with happenstance.  Besides, my checked luggage was still MIA; I needed to do some shopping to tide me over.

I’m typically not an early riser on vacations – or otherwise for that matter.  It is shocking, then, that I was at up at 7am; I think I had in mind to “beat the crowds” at the Forbidden City.  I discovered Beijing wasn’t an early riser either; the pedestrian walkways were deserted, as was Wangfujing.

While my eagerness to butcher the Mandarin language might have played a role, I think hunger was the main motivator as I approached this street vendor in the barren Wangfujing.  Natives seemed to be going, so why not tourists.  I had my guidebook, I knew what a bao zi was, and theoretically how it was pronounced.

It’s obvious then, that I should somehow end up ordering *three* bao zi.  At least I only ordered one soy milk drink.  I think I misinterpreted her query about quantity to be a discussion of price.  :p  The soy milk was fine, and the buns were… salty.  I eventually conquered my childhood training to “clean my plate” by about the 2nd bun, leaving a just enough  room for a second attempt at breakfast.

The second breakfast attempt occurred just outside the Forbidden City, a hold in the wall stall with quite a promising lineup.  I studied the store and their clientèle for several minutes before entering the queue myself; I needed to figure out what the most popular order was, and how to accomplish the order with minimum risk of verbal interaction.  I was successful.    It was simple breakfast fare, basically a toasted sesame bread of some sort with a fried egg inside.  I believe I was told later it was some kind of Muslim breakfast?  It was delicious, much better than the bao zi.  Yes, that is soy milk again; we all have our beverage addictions, don’t we?

Feeling energized by finally having a good meal in China, I headed over to the Forbidden City to be there when ticket lines opened.  I  people watched on the way, and even shared my breakfast with one particularly adorable Chinese citizen.

On the heels of a vacation in Hong Kong it may seem silly to visit China, but circumstances provided an unexpected opportunity to travel, and I had recently been hearing praises of China, so I figured… why not?

My chosen flight path was long, but not too convoluted: Toronto > New York > Beijing > Chengdu.  On the way into the country, I would stop at Beijing to sightsee, but on the way back I’d  follow the chain of flights, one after another.  I’d even get to fly Air China, a new airline experience!

As it turns out, the Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong is much more pleasant than the Air China NY-Beijing flight.  :(  I believe Air China is partnered with United Airlines, and they flew some old 747s.  Plenty of kids on the flight, given that it departed New York during daylight hours.  <sigh>  Let’s just leave it at that.  It wasn’t horrible, but it was hardly pleasant.  Also, my checked luggage got lost somewhere, but that seems to happen so often to me, it hardly feels notable anymore…

The Beijing airport is very, very large, and still looks very, very new.  A little sterile perhaps, but plenty of space for shops and restaurants… and high ceilings.

China recently completed a light rail line attaching the airport to the extensive Beijing subway.  There are plenty of English signs and maps to guide illiterate tourists like myself.  Given the massive downpour, I had some trepidation about getting to my hotel without an umbrella, but the Novotel Beijing is quite literally across the street from the Chongwen subway station.  I popped out of the appropriate subway exit and saw it right in front of me.

The hotel doesn’t have much character, but it’s certainly very comfortable, and the staff speak a reasonable amount of English.  The business centre and travel desk are more proficient than the front desk, though.  At 10pm with a downpour outside, my first meal was what the local hotel cafe could serve up before the kitchen closed.

After a satisfactorily warm, light, and overpriced meal,  it was off to bed in my comfortably appointed room.  I was particularly fascinated by the mechanism to activate the power in the room, a card holder for one’s room card.  A good idea to save power, although I nearly forgot my card a few times during my stay.  :P  I was pretty beat after my flight, but that didn’t stop me from verifying I had Internet connectivity first, before giving in to Mr. Sandman.  :)  The bed was harder than I’m used to (typical for Asia v. North America I hear), but still quite nice – I think I even grew to like the firmness.  Note in the picture that one tiny suitcase: the sole luggage I came into Beijing with, mostly filled with my electronic gear, with a couple shirts and undergarments in the crevices.  :p