Beijing Day two

The forbidden city, ti-an-men square.  The day is saturday and it is very busy on the subway.  It is 2 yuan to ride the subway which is very cheap.  This is for a round trip.. It is a ratio of 6 yuan to 1dollar.  The square is a square really not much to see but, I can now say that I have put my feet in the square. I have actually twirled around in the square.  Next is the forbidden city, it is filled with the old  style architecture that I so like to see.  It is very spread out and lots of buildings.  The gardens would be beautiful if it was not the middle of winter but, with some imagination you can picture how it would look in the summer.  We did not Have a tour guide so, we were on our own as far as knowing what things were.  There were a few English signs so, you can grasp some of the history.  We also had a china book which helped some.

  From there we headed to the silk market , I'm not sure what I was looking for but, it was not what I found.  It was more like a flea market though they had silk there it was only sold in three meters or more and they very much wanted to measure you for a dress or suit.  John did bargain some earrings for me which I absolutely love.  

We then headed back to the "happy dragon hostel" where our luggage was stored and caught a taxi to the train station.  We are heading to Xian tonight.  John and karen have begged for some western style food so, w are eating at M cDonalds tonight in the train station.   have a sleeping car which has been quite lovely.  Sleeping while traveling has it's benefits.  There is not much countryside, seems to me that there are a lot of factories and high rises even in the smaller towns.  Hardly any stars and I have yet to see the moon.  

Eating so far has been a pleasant experience.  You always get chopsticks, a bowl and a plate. The bowl and plate are of a desert size.  You put everything in the bowl and the plate is used for spitting out bones or shells or you just spit it out on the floor.  You do not put your fingers to your mouth, you spit. They do spit everywhere, right in front you on the street, in restaurants, in stores. They have no discrimination when it comes to spitting.

Wile walking to the square we ran into a "houtang" which is an ally filled with street merchants selling food and their wares.  I very much enjoyed this part of the walk.  Of course, they see you and want to sell you everything " cheap".  

I have also had people step right in front of me and take my picture.  They don't see alot of foreigners so, they  just snap your picture.  I'm just wondering what they do with these pictures.  If you  are standing and taking a picture, there is usually more than one camera going off at the same time.  

Tonight, I will touch on the toilets.