The Eastern Discovery Tour
Day 2

For the second day I started with the biggest tourist spot in Beijing with the Forbidden City. After exploring that and some of the areas around it I was ahead of time, so decided to spend the afternoon at Shijingshan amusement park. A move that turned out to be very useful, as I did originally intend to do this on the afternoon on day 3, but I wouldn't have got to do it then as the zoo took up all day.

After spending the day at these locations I got the metro across the city to see a Kung Fu show at the Red Theatre.

Rather than get the metro strait to the Forbidden City I got off at a station further South so I could walk across Tiananmen Square. One thing present here you don't always see in the holiday shows is the the large number of tourists filling up the square.

The crowds did take away some of the opportunity to take things in, but they weren't so bad to make things stressful.

One thing I noticed here is the colour coded hats. Everyone in a tour group is given the same hat to wear, so they can keep together.

Despite the crowds getting in to the Forbidden City was pretty easy, with no major queues. This is the most famous central area, with some of the larger buildings. It's an interesting area, although the large empty areas, the crowds and the fact you don't get to enter the buildings, does take away from the experience. It may be the most famous location in Beijing, but I wouldn't rank it as the first one I'd recommend visiting in Beijing.

My favourite place in the Forbidden  City was the beautiful imperial gardens at the back of the palace complex.

If you wander off the main thoroughfare going through the centre of the palace you get to some much quieter areas, with some more interesting buildings, including a lot turned in to museums. The area though did suffer from a lack of signposts and maps, making navigating difficult. The museum areas did have some nice items on display, but I didn't find it that engaging a museum, you would need a big interest in Chinese history to want to spend a long time in it.

After the Forbidden City I headed to Zhongshan Park, just a short walk from the South gate, located between The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.

As well as some beautiful gardens the park also has a boat hire, and this set of dodgems, meaning you can ride a set of dodgems just outside the Forbidden City. Ironically they're decorated with an American flag and the Statue of Liberty.
It was quite a slow set of dodgems, that took their time reaching their top speed, towards the end of the ride we were reluctant to bump in to anyone, as we didn't want to have to slow down.

Zhongshan park also has some snack stalls, and even a Chinese restaurant at the back of this pond. This makes it a great place to come for a relaxing lunch after the crowds of the Forbidden City in the mourning.

Another shot of some of the beautiful gardens.