Tiananmen Square July 2, 2005

After breakfast today, my uncle took my brother, cousin, and I to Tiananmen Square to walk around. Since we already went once last time we came, we only stopped and took a few pictures this time. We didn’t even go far into the forbidden city, but just a few feet past the main gate.

Instead of the more famous places, we went into a different area where there was a playground and played around there for a while before a driver came and took us to Silk Street. Last time I came, the street was actually on a street, but since then they’ve moved the whole thing into a big department store. Each floor has tons and tons of people selling stuff that’s mostly fake. It’s funny to look around at all the real looking products, including clothes, shoes, bags, electronics, jewelry, etc…

At the top level, my brother bought three playstation 2 sport games, and I bought a 1 gig compact flash memory card for digital cameras. We then left and took a taxi to the Beijing International Hotel, where we took the elevator up to the 27th floor and met everyone else for lunch.

The restaurant was a buffet, and turned out to be the best place I’ve ever eaten at. The countless food choices were in the center of the round floor, and all the tables were in a ring along the windows. The large ring where all the tables were rotated ever so slightly, so that by the end of two hours, you’ve seen all 360 degrees of Beijing skyline. The view was incredible, and there was even a high powered binocular telescope near us.

We then went back to the hotel, and sat around for an hour or two until dinner, which was a mini class reunion for my parents. We went to the second floor restaurant at the hotel next door, and some people came together for a college reunion. The food was okay, and afterwards we played around with the karaoke machine. A ton of pictures later, we walked back to our hotel and went to bed.