Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and Hutong

We were a bit busy this past Sunday (we are one day ahead of you).  We got up very early and didn't get to sleep until we arrived in Shanghai at midnight.  We toured Tiananmen Square where there were protests in 1989.  We went through the Forbidden City, Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties in Beijing and Shenyang

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.

Built from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms. WOW that is just HUGE.

We also went on a rick-shaw ride through Hutong.  These are are a type of narrow streets or alleys, most commonly associated with Beijing, China. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighborhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighborhoods.

Since the mid-20th century, the number of Beijing hutongs has dropped dramatically as they are demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, some hutongs have been designated as protected areas in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history. In the Hutong district we were able to visit a Chinese home and we met Mr. Lu.  His hobby is to raise crickets and he has a dog that appeared in some Chinese movies.