Today is National Day and not a time to be near any of the main sites in the city. We are in the capital at a time of national tourist influx almost pilgrimage, of the most epic proportions, and an already hugely busy city is even fuller and busier and will remain so for the next few days.
We need to reassess what we will attempt to see and plan carefully. We venture out to Ritan Park located in the embassy area. An oasis of calm and relative peace. We stop for a drink in a quiet corner overlooking a small lake. It is here that Tiegan asks "what happened in Tianamnen Square?" She has read about Beijing in the guidebook and revolutionary events are only hinted at. We try our best to explain without frightening or sensationalising, but how does one explain what happened? We are aware of a man "innocently" making his way towards our quiet spot, walking past and then sitting a little too closely. Not sure if this was coincidence or not.
Moving on quickly we climb up the hill to the Temple of the Sun and watch the old men flying their kites. This is a popular past time here and these chaps were obviously regulars with all the kit, letting out their reels to the highest heights so that the kites and tails were almost out of view.
We avoid the "old people's exercise area" in this park to!
We make our way to the madness of Silk Street in the rustiest rickshaw with pink festooned covers but Rowan has had enough of "walking to see what we can see!" It is one of the things that we had to do... just once!
Silk Street was madness. Not so much a street as a huge 5 storey department store rammed with vendors and small stalls. Different commodities on each floor but all "luxury brand" fakes of varying quality. We don dark glasses, fixed "dont mess with me" stares and marched (as best we could in the now familiar crowds) only allowing the tiniest glances left and right so as not to draw unwanted attention, grabs on the arm and pulls on the sleeve. The noise on every floor is deafening. "Louis Vuitton, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Gucci, Gucci, lady, lady ady, lady. Wanna a bag? Baby shoes?Baby shoes? (pointing at the girls) wanna a belt? Wanna a bag? Prada, Prada, Prada...." etc etc etc...all said in one breath - seemingly the only cobbled together English spoken! Again, we had to see it for ourselves, but again we make our way out, slowly. Very slowly!
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