Sightseeing in Beijing

Even though we've been through the Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Great Wall tour before it's still amazing to walk through those places thinking of the history each place holds. It's also interesting to see the changes from when we were here in January of 2005.

Seems like China has made many changes and additions for the Olympics. Tiananmen Square had huge LCD screens screening information about China, there also seemed to be much more landscaping, trees, fountains and new statues scattered around.





The Forbidden City spreads out over a huge area. It was a great day to see the sights, unfortunately thousands of other people had the same idea - it was very crowded and difficult to take the time to appreciate all there is to see. The day was HOT and hazy but the one saving grace was the water stands. We bought a couple of frozen bottles of water which made the heat much more bearable.



The Great Wall was next and we had more time to explore than in 2005. This time around Rob made it further up the wall, but those steps are not for the faint of heart, especially with all the people around.




On the way back to the Hotel our guide had the driver stop by the 'birds next' Olympic stadium. We didn't get as close as we had wanted but we had a time to snap a couple of photos before it was back on the bus for the end of a long day.