beijing pt 2

Night Market

ashley, caley and jess were brave enough to eat a scorpion.

"when in Beijing" right?

i loved this place

we stopped in our tracks at 11:11 to take a picture!

DATE: 11/11/11

TIME: 11:11

We went to a pretty awesome Acrobat Show.. the things they could do kinda freaked me out! it was definitely crazy and so incredible to see!

creepy looking yes?

these girls were doing a bunch of spins and flips all while holding these teacups in their feet. how in the wooorrlllldd?!

The day we left we woke up really early to go see The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. You cant tell, but it was ridiculously freezing!

Forbidden City

The Forbidden City was built in the 1400s to be the imperial palace... a place the emperor and his household could live to be safe. It took 15 years and over a million workers to complete. Each building hand made and painted with only the best materials.

Do you remember the Disney movie Mulan?! Well.... who knew that was a true story? ptsh i didnt..

but this is where the emperor lived! Where Shan Yu (the bad guy) jumped from roof to roof and then was killed... and this is where they celebrated and honored Mulans success and had a big parade for her. This was soo cool to be in the place where so much Chinese History has taken place

Theres about 900 different buildings in the "forbidden city" each so exquisite and beautiful. I loved all the detailed architecture and painting

There was also tons of gardens and fixtures throughout the "city"

And alas, this is Tiananmen Square. hahaha... ok... its pretty unimpressive, i agree.
basically this was built to be the front entrance to the Forbidden City, even though its across the street?
Tiananmen square was made up of Chinese characters meaning "heaven" "peace" "gate" which is exactly what its NOT known for. This is where hundreds of protesting and riots have happened, so much that the building has had to be rebuilt many times because of damage from riots.

After cramming in a lot of Chinese History we were forced to get back on to a 20 hour train ride back home. We loved Beijing! I didnt want to leave one bit, and have never enjoyed History so much!

This is John our friend we made on the train.. he was a cutie pie and shared all his snacks with us

ah... and sorry girls, i had to do it! this is april and annas ankles after SITTING on a train for 20 hours straight.. swollen and sore. :(