Working out in the Forbidden City (Thursday - Day 4)

Good morning from Beijing. It’s Thursday, and we are leaving Monday for Changsha. We get Libby on Tuesday morning. Being in China, has definitely made it easer to deal with the wait. Although this is definitely the hardest part because we are so close. However, we feel like we are already beginning to connect with her as we make connections with the people of China, and learn more about Chinese culture from the inside.

I skipped congee this morning (can you believe it?) and settled for a cliff bar and a cup of coffee (brought some trader joes bay blend from home and cooked it up in the room, this was one luxury Definitely worth bringing). We skipped breakfast because we wanted to get up early and be at the Forbidden City before the city was fully awake. We wanted to see the forbidden city without the crowds. Of course as the cabby tried to tell us, the Forbidden city does not open until 8:30 and by then, as we learned, there are already plenty of tourists. However, we were not disappointed.

We arrived at the forbidden city about 7:30 or so, the streets were full as people were commuting to work. (Chinese people, just like us, tend to work about 9-5 except in the large and growing service industry, where, just like us, they sort of work all the time.) Just as at the Bell Tower, there are crowd of local Chinese people, older retired people, who gather at all the public squares, including the one in front of forbidden city, to exercise. When we showed up to watch them, they waved eagerly inviting us to participate. Kris joined in immediately, I took pictures. After their tai chi aerobics, they broke out the swords and did what looked like tai chi with swords. They were very nice and very nonplussed by our intrusion.

After spending time with our new peng yo’s at forbidden city, we walked across the street to Jingshan Park which was fantastic. Inside the gate, a very large crowd of people were having breakfast (boiled corn and meat is a favorite Chinese breakfast – as is stir fry, and omelet-like hand sandwich made from flour, eggs, onion and meat.) A very large Hill in the center of Jingshan park was created from the dirt excavated from the moat around the forbidden city. It is the best view of Beijing around. Unfortunately, little is visible through the haze. Climbing the very steep hill with uneven stairs in the morning haze was something else too. We managed to wheeze our way to the top of the hill and found more large groups of retired Chinese people, this time they were singing and playing music. this sounded like traditional Chinese music to us, but our Chinese guide later told us mostly they play their version of showtunes - Old Chinese movie songs from the 1950s and 60s, pre-cultural revolution.

We spent a long time wandering around this park. One of the things I have seen in several places and always have fun watching is the water calligraphy. Old men use these large brushes filled with water to draw calligraphy on the sidewalks and common areas of local parks. The picture below shows an older woman playing with one of these brushes with her granddaughter. After I snapped the picture, they ran over and wanted to look at the picture…they were so cute!

After spending another couple of hours inside the forbidden city we headed back to our Hutong for a very bitter sweet goodbye. Kris paid Dr. Meng “to beat the liv’in crap outta me. . .again! I mean follow up appointment…” and then we checked out to head to our new hotel to meet up with the rest of our group. I sincerely hope this will not be our last stay in the Bamboo garden, We will long remember the beautiful landscaping, quiet Hutong life, and very warm and friendly people in this part of the city.


Tai Chi in front of the Forbidden City at 7:30 AM. We watched until someone urgently waved to us to join them. See Kris doing Tai chi with the retired folks.


The Tai Chi with swords was very fun to watch, we forgot our swords though. We'll remember to bring them next time.






The picture below shows Jingshan Park. There are 3 temples up on the Hill, all have excellent views of the Hazy City.


The structure you see here, is the uppermost temple you can see in the picture above. These folks had quite a climb (I am in good shape and I was seriously out of breath) to get up here and play their music. I am told they do this every morning.



Fun with Grandma and the caligraphy brush at Jingshan


The public areas are also full of dancing. This group is getting lessons in western dance. We saw groups like this all over the city.

Beijing Man with Dog