"Fascinating China" a China Travel Page by piglet44

I would like to start by thanking all the people who helped us to get ready for this trip. Some of them are Vters like Homer and Eddie, and Alice , and Mickeysoft. We had so many questions and were apprehensive about not traveling with a group, as many people had told us that China is difficult alone. Fortunately we did not listen to those people , and got reassurance from friends on Vt and on tripadvisor. WE had a wonderful time , and certainly enjoyed traveling at our own pace.and I am sure that traveling in a group we would never have met so many lovely Chinese people who were keen to talk to us and help us on our trip. So thanks to you all, and for anyone hesitating about traveling alone I say"Go for it!"

We arrived after 2 long flights but so excited we dashed out to start seeing Beijing.We went by subway to the Lama Temple (easy just point at the map and ask someone) and were fascinated even though we were not very well informed about what we were looking at.Some of the details became clearer the following day on our guided tour of the Forbidden City.But anyway everything was really interesting.After going back to the hotel for a rest we went out again to Wanfujing and checked out the fast food market , complete with scorpions and sea horses on sticks, but were not brave enough to taste anything! Maybe you are more adventurous than us.

On our second day in Beijing we got the subway over to Tianenmen Square where we were amazed at the throngs of Chinese tourists swarming in to visit the Forbidden City. The whole of the massive square is amazing it is so vast.We had our photos taken by some smiling girls and took their photo for them.
then went into the Forbidden City.We were going to go around alone but thought we would benefit from taking a local guide. A smiling man by the name of John approached us and took us on a wonderful journey round the splendours of the site.It is worth taking a guide unless you are really knowledgeable about is as there is so much to see and learn there.
After this we went by subway to the area around the Bell Tower to see the hutong streets. This was also really interesting. when it started to rain we went inside one of the many tea shops to sit and rest and wait for the rain to stop.YOu can wander around the hutongs for hours and there is a lot to see there too. Everything was interesting and strange to us.
Next we made a little mistake. As we couldn't find the subway to go back home we got a cab which then got stuck in the traffic for some time. But still ,cabs in Beijing are really cheap so no harm done.
That was the end of our second day in Beijing.