This day was probably one of the busiest days we spent in China. In the afternoon we arrived to the Forbidden City, the world's largest palace situated in the middle of Beijing. It was built in 1420 as a home of the emperor and his household and got it's name as 'forbidden' since nobody could enter or leave the palace without the permission of the emperor. This is the view of the Forbidden Palace, not exactly from the palace itself, but rather from the hill close to it.
The Forbidden Palace
After the forbidden palace we arrived to the Temple of Heaven. This was one of the sights recommended by Chinese girl Weily studying in Bolzano. So here I am! The temple complex was constructed from 1406 to 1420 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor who was also responsible for the construction of the Forbidden City.
In the evening we arrived to the Summer Palace, very big royal park, situated outside Beijing.
At the entrance of the park
Andrejs discovered that in this place people can fly ;)
The Summer Palace consists of over 3,000 structures including pavilions, towers, bridges, and corridors. It also has an access to a lake area, which is supposed to be seen in this picture, however this day was very windy and sandy, so you hardly can notice the lake behind this temple in such weather conditions.
Here you can see it a bit better.
After tiring day of sightseeings we went to grab some food in the city center night market, where people sell souvenirs and food.... sometimes very weird food...
We actually tried some of those weird things, such as scorpions, starfish, and snake. It wasn't easy to encourage yourself to eat scorpion, especially if you saw it alive and moving several seconds before frying and selling it to you. Scorpion was in fact the most tasty of those 3 things we tried in the market, it didn't taste like anything ;)
This Starfish was very crunchy and, definitely, wasn't the best food I tried.
2 comments:
I was wondering when you finally put in the pictures of the scorpion. Now I believe you that you really have eaten one ;)
I read through all your bog entries about China with great interest :-)
It is extremely incredible that the very usual scene and little things in Chinese everyday's life can be seen and described as to be so wonderful, amazing and full of joy.
Post a Comment