Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and Duck

This is Susan writing about Monday, July 20. We visited Tiananmen Square, the central square of Beijing, this morning. Our guide, Tony, is very pleasant and entertaining, and very knowledgeable about Chinese history, but no mention was made of the 1989 massacre. Then we crossed the street by means of an underground tunnel to the Forbidden City, home of emperors for several centuries, and containing 9999.5 rooms (of which we saw about 10). My favorite part, though, is the garden at the north end of the complex. The garden contains several trees that are over 300 years old, and some incredible rock formations, which are man made but look natural.

After lunch we visited the hutongs, which are very old dwellings in the heart of Beijing. There are very few of these left. Many were destroyed in the building spree before the 2008 Olympics. Very sad.

Dinner was at a famous restaurant, the Beijing Quanjude Hepingmen Roast Duck Restaurant. We were served duck in at least five different forms, starting with lettuce-wrapped birds' nests containing diced duck, and ending with the classic roast duck, which we wrapped in tortilla-like (but thinner) pancakes with scallions and thick sauce. All fabulous. Apparently many well-known people have eaten at this restaurant, and pictures of some of them are on the walls. These include Richard Nixon, Henry Kissenger, and Seiji Ozawa. The duck ended at dessert, which was a birthday cake for Bob and another member of the group. Surprisingly, the cake was western-style, and was very competitive with the best birthday cakes I've eaten in the United States.

The Chinese are extremely worried about the possible transmission of the H1N1 flu from visitors to their people. So we were scanned by infrared cameras at the airport, and are required to monitor our body temperatures daily. However, I have noticed that at meals, dishes meant to be shared often arrive at our tables without serving utensils, necessitating that we serve ourselves with chopsticks that may have already been in our mouths. Strange.