We are finally going to our first tourist attraction on this day! To the Forbidden City. I was so excited. I planned for us to spend the full day inside, so first we went over to the opposite site of our hotel to grab some breakfast and lunch, Chinese Pancakes! I love these. I think we bought from this stall 3 times, and I love their hot soya milk too. Very cheap and affordable food, and great for carrying around on a busy day to eat later.
We head out super early as we weren't too sure how to get there, and we wanted to make sure we don't end up queuing too much. So first we head to the train station since we couldn't just walk there due to all the road closure. Look how empty it was! Who said China was crowded???? Who said Beijing was going to be 'people mountain people sea'??? I think I can have a collection of empty spaces in Beijing in my photo collection! And look how beautiful, clean and artsy the subway underground is, with paintings of flowers decorating the walls. Super like!
We followed all the police instruction and took a super long walk to enter the inner city. It was a super long way to walk! Luckily it was quite cooling in September, although a bit gloomy weather. Above was some of the scenes we walked pass as we made our way towards the entrance.
Getting nearer, we were now in a kind of a park outside the Forbidden City, and I could see the skyline of the city beyond. I still have no idea what that building is, but it did looked pretty cool here in this picture.
Finally saw some structure of the Forbidden City. This was still outside at the park area, and I just love the still waters and green trees hanging down on the side. We slowed down a little to admire the view. To our right was actually a road, and as we saw more and more tourist group walking towards towards the entrance, we also hurried along! Don't want to be queueing behind them!
Some pavilion along the road. Pretty cool looking. Looked pretty new too! Or at least, well maintained.
Gate going in to the main entrance area. Main entrance meaning the place you start queuing. We have gotten our tickets via WeChat app. Did I mentioned that all entrance tickets to attractions can be bought via WeChat. Buying tickets was quite a challenge to us! Especially those that have limited numbers of visitors per day. We scheduled one week to get those tickets, and was always ready with our apps when the ticket selling time opens online. What an adrenaline rush to get those tickets! Throw in the Chinese Language that confuses me even more, especially those 'are you a robot' challenge! You could pay more and buy the tickets via websites like Trip.com or Klook, but where's the fun in that!
There are timings stated in our tickets, and I got the morning 830am tickets. Even with the timing, we had to queue. I think we queued about 30minutes before the opening time. We were front enough to see the entrance of the Forbidden City and the guards outside. While queuing, we also spend time chatting with the people in the queue. We spoke to a Taiwanese lady, and some aunties from Guangzhou who was disappointed that their flight to Beijing was as long as our flight to Beijing! Hahahaha. Cause that made us just as touristy as them.
Here is the view of the front entrance with all the guards outside. Before going in, there are two security check at each side for bag clearance and ticket checking. For foreigners who already bought the tickets, you would have entered your passport during the buying process, so you could just scan your passport to go in. You could also scan the QR code. So it depends. But if they see a passport, the security person are usually nicer to you, lol.
Guards on official duty. Everyone looked so serious!
I guess this was the China that I was expecting.
Outside on the ground, we also saw some trainee guards or soldiers matching by. Cool! Best of China!
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