We met with our national guide, Wen Tong (Wendy). She took us for the obligatory visit to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Security at both places was very tight. In fact, I had to send my purse through an x-ray just to get into Tiananmen Square. Obviously, the Chinese government is very sensitive about things in Tiananmen Square.
Unfortunately, all that security was not tight enough to prevent one of our group from losing a wallet to a pickpocket while viewing the Imperial Throne. The crush to see the throne was immense (wonder if the cricket cage is still there). That crowd was a pickpocket’s delight. The wallet was quickly recovered, minus the cash -- very upsetting, but at least the credit cards were recovered.
After the crush at the Forbidden City and a nice lunch, we took a pedicab ride to Madame Sun Yat-sun’s residence. I recall that there is a statue to Sun Yat-sun in San Francisco, where he is revered by the Chinese community. It surprised me that Madame Sun sided with the Communists since her husband was not one himself. I did not realize that Madame Sun was sister to Mrs. Chiang Kai-shek. That must have made for some interesting family dinner conversations!
After the museum, we had an odd visit to a small private home in a nearby hutong, and then, we tried to see the Temple of Heaven, a building from the Ming era. Unfortunately, we were too late to get in. While that was mildly disappointing, the temple had been so heavily restored from the outside that I think I would have found the visit disappointing anyway.
We had Peking Duck for dinner at the Dadong Restaurant, which was excellent.
