20251008 Viking Gems of China and Japan Day 4 – Beijing, Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City

Viking Gems of China and Japan Day 4 – Hitting the Beijing hot (and wet) spots

We forced ourselves to stay awake last night until 9 to try to get our internal clocks adjusted to this 12-hour time change. We are not 12 hours earlier than home. We slept well, and while we’re still a bit tired, overall, I’ll call the adjustment a win. And that comes for us old folks after flying 11,500 miles over what amounted to a 37-hour travel day. Whew.

The initial schedule started today at 12:30, so we felt good about the recovery time. But schedules are meant to be changed, and our tour moved up to 10:30.  We got up a little before 8:00 and grabbed breakfast at the hotel’s buffet, courtesy of Viking. The weather forecast had gotten worse with today’s high dropping into the mid-50s with a 50% chance of rain. I can tell you that we hit the jackpot on that 50% chance, as it rained the entire day. I’d like to say that it didn’t dampen our spirits, but it sure did dampen everything else.

Today, October 8, marked the eighth and final day of China’s annual National Day celebration. It commemorates October 1, 1949, when Mao Zedong officially created the People’s Republic of China. Because it was the last day, and because of the rain, it meant we had significantly smaller crowds. This isn’t to say it wasn’t crowded – just less crowded. Seriously, when you are in a country populated by 1.4 billion people, everything is crowded.

Viking split up all the folks on this pre-stay in Beijing into manageable groups of roughly 20-24 guests. We are also split between two hotels. Our group today, hosted by guide Oliver Lin, had just 20 folks, and that made it nice. We disembarked our bus and made the walk to our first stop. 

A famous Peking Duck restaurant that can seat 2,000 for dinner

An interesting note about Peking Duck – here in Beijing, they call it Beijing Duck. Beijing was only called Peking for a relatively short period of time, but somehow, the Peking Duck name stuck, at least outside of China.

As we approached Tiananmen Square, we saw the Qianmen Gate, a historic entry gate to the area.

Next to it was an archer’s tower where archers would shoot out of the open windows to defend the city.

We walked around the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. His body was preserved and placed in a crystal shrine, honoring his achievement of creating China’s current government structure.

The Great Hall of the People sits across the street from Tiananmen Square. This massive structure opened in 1959 to mark the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It was built in only ten months, which was an amazing engineering triumph.

The Monument to the People’s Heroes sits at the southern end of Tiananmen Square.

The National Museum of China is on the east side of the Square.

Because of the National Day holiday, lots of beautiful flowers were on display.

The portrait is of Sun Yat-sen, the first president and founding father of the People’s Republic of China. It is often displayed during national celebrations.

We continued walking north toward the Gate of Heavenly Peace. It’s kind of a funny name, given that China does its military parades right in front of it.

We walked through a tunnel under the road and approached the gate.

Looking back south toward the square

Chairman Mao's portrait is prominently displayed

The moat around the Forbidden City

We walked through the gate and continued north toward the Forbidden City.

A sign showing the morning flag ritual

The Forbidden City is so named because it was the palace of the emperor, and commoners were forbidden from entering the palace area. The Forbidden City is the largest royal palace in the world. The complex covers about 180 acres and contains 980 buildings. It served as the imperial palace for the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties. It was built between 1406 and 1420.

We continued north to the Meridian Gate, the southern and main entrance into the Forbidden City.

Another huge courtyard

After passing through the gate, we found ourselves in one of the huge squares within the Forbidden City. Oliver decided to give us a little break from the rain, so we walked through a furniture display exhibiting royal furniture from the Qing dynasty.

We ventured back out into the endless rain. Oliver pointed out the animal sculptures on the buildings. The number of smaller animals on each peak signified the relative importance of the building. The most important palace building had nine, the most, until a later emperor decided to add a tenth. 

We continued north through the Forbidden City.

We arrived at the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the largest hall in the Forbidden City.

Incense burners

This huge marble carving was one solid piece

Numbers are extremely important in Chinese culture. The number 8 is considered lucky. The number 9 is also significant. This door has button adornments in a 9x9 grid to honor the emperor. Nobody else could do this.

We ended our tour of the Forbidden City at the home of the Dragon Lady. She was the mother of the last emperor of China and the actual power behind the throne. She was both respected and feared.

Leaving the Forbidden City, we saw a large hill. There are no hills in Beijing. This one was man-made from the soil removed to form the moats around the palace. It was also mixed with ashes from cooking coal and is known as Coal Hill.

Looking back at the north gate of the Forbidden City

We made the walk to where our bus would pick us up and whisk (a very generous term) us back to our hotel. We were wet, cold, and in need of a hot shower to warm up. Arlona celebrated after that by taking a short nap as I write today’s entry.

Then, we got dressed and headed down to our included buffet dinner at the hotel.

It was a good day seeing Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, but a highlight will come tomorrow when we visit the Great Wall. The downside? Tomorrow, it is expected to be in the mid-40s with even more rain. The second downside? We depart at 7:15 tomorrow morning. That means getting up at 5:30 so we can get ready and hit breakfast at 6:00 so we can then be ready for our 7:15 departure. It will be an early bedtime again tonight to catch up on some more sleep, so we aren’t dragging our bottoms around the wall tomorrow.