Forbidden City, Great Wall, I ate street food and didn't die!

 This post is going to be a crapload of pictures so enjoy, if not, move along!
First, we got to explore the Forbidden City, on our way up to buy tickets, 2 Chinese girls started talking to us, they had really good English. They said that since there was a wait to get in, we should go grab a drink with them. We agreed, they were really nice, taught us some more Chinese, we went and got a beer, 2 glasses of wine and some green tea, and somehow it was over 300rmb each. At which point, most people think we got scammed, but unless they went back after, they paid that much too. It hurt, a lot, that's a lot for not a lot of product. Anyway, we went back to the Forbidden City and got right in. It was immense, it was amazing, it was breathtaking. I wish I had taken more pictures to remember exactly what each of the buildings were. One, was basically his closet, an entire building dedicated to where the dude got dressed.

Emperor Qianlong had "Yun Zhi Jue Zhong" inscribed above his throne. "Yue Zhi Jue Zhong," means "The way of Heaven is profound and mysterious and the way of mankind is difficult. Only if we make a precise and unified plan and follow the doctrine of the mean, can we rule the country well." Which is still incredibly relevant.

"Zhong He," comes from the Book of Rites, meaning, "When we handle matters properly and harmoniously without leaning to either side, all things on earth will flourish."
Food for thought.

Scale

So many stairs!

Queen's chambers

Turtle

There are 9 dragons on this. Representing something I don't remember. They had to move it in the winter, they took the large chunks and poured water on the ground to create ice to drag it across to get it here. 

The ceilings were so intricate and amazing. 

Crane

2 Dragons Plaque

View leaving the Forbidden City, that was way behind it and too far to get to in the time we had, unfortunately.

Exit elephant!

Once you're through all of the buildings, was my favorite area, The Imperial Garden. It is said to have been where Emperors, Empresses, concubines and the like spent a lot of time. 

The next day, it was off to hike the Great Wall! And our last day in Beijing. It was a 3+ level hike, 10 km. It kicked my ass to begin with but I made it, which for me was quite an accomplishment. My knees let me know they weren't pleased as soon as we were down the mountain. I wouldn't trade it for anything, it was breathtaking, amazing and MASSIVE. It's true that pictures don't do it justice, that being said, check out my pictures! I pretty much have zero on the way up and really have zero on the way down. The way down, was not entirely trail...for most of it. It was really cool but for a section, it had rained recently, making the dirt...soft, not muddy, but definitely slippery, I ended up on my butt more than once. It was a cushy landing though since the dirt was pretty soft. These pictures are mostly of what I actually hiked (the very distant shots are not what I hiked, but towards the tower and slightly past are what we hiked).

This is the view behind where we entered the wall.

View from the Wall

This guy managed to make his way through the sole of my shoe and hung out there. So, after the first time I took my shoe off and thought I got rid of it, I didn't. Once we got to another stopping point I discovered why I was still being stabbed with nothing in my shoe. I missed my boots at this point.

Yeah, I hiked this.

And this!

We hiked a little ways past that tower, then down, down, down. 

These towers were super neat!

And that night, we decided to try street food! It seemed pretty safe, I pointed to what the girl before me had ordered, before, of course, even if there was a menu, I couldn't have read it! It ended up being this square wrap thing, with egg, and then rolled with onion and lettuce inside with this chili sauce. It was spicy and really good. So, win for street food! The next afternoon it was back to Guangzhou. As amazing as Beijing was, and I can't wait to go back with my mom but I would take the humidity and blue skies over the Beijing smog any day.