Beijing part 3 of 3

For our last full day in china our itinerary was go to forbidden city (actually go in all the way and look around), silk market and acrobat show.

Forbidden City.
Pretty much one of those its old and important because its part of history deals. It was really cool to go and look around but nothing too spectacular. I mean there were some cool parts and def awesome that we got to be where so many emperors had lived but it was so big and we didnt have a tour guide or anything. But we def got in some good stuff. It was HUGE. The palaces were def cool. We saw some thrones which were cool. We gave ourselves 2 hours so chantelle and me went just exploring. Its really just one big museum just spread out. So we went and saw the marriage hall and the concubine exhibit. We visited the Imperial Gardens (which would've been better without the thousand people shoving their way through). Oh yea so we had stopped by the forbidden city the first day we got to beijing but didnt actually go in, well we soo chose the wrong day to go. There were tour groups up the ying yang there. It was insane. I swear every tour group/school group possible was there. So that was kind of stressful just because there was so many people, but it was still neat. Yea so we just walked around and looked at different sections. One of the amusing parts was the names of these halls and palaces. Just to name a few of the more ridiculous ones: Gate of Heavenly Purity, Palace of Celestial Favour, Palace of Gathered Elegance, and Pavillion of Spreading Righteousness. Haha yea.. i found it quite amusing.
For those who dont exactly know why the Forbidden City is so important (dont read if you dont care):
Historically and artistically one of the most comprehensive Chinese museums. It was the ritual center of two dynasties, the Ming (1368-1644) and the Qing (ching) (1644-1911) and the repository of their extensive collections. It covers over 1,000,000 square miles (buildings alone account for 170,000).
Theres the inner court and outer court. Inner court was for the residences of the emperor and his empress, consorts and concubines but also for administrative activities. The outer court was is the throne halls and other buildings, its where the emperor presided over important ceremonies. Its pretty much the largest and best-preserved palace complex in existance today. Chantelle looked it up and said that its called forbidden city because it was literally forbidden for 500 years. but thats the gist of the background.

Silk Market
One thing that is a must do in beijing of course is shop. Silk market is the place to go. It was ridiculous, actually now that i look back on it its kind of a little bit too ridiculous. We're used to our outside bargaining streets which we love but this was a whole new level of bargaining. Its actually like a mall kind of but instead of stores theres 7 levels of bargaining shops. Theres a floor for shoes and bags, a floor of clothes, another floor of clothes, a floor for jewelry and arts and trinkets, and a floor for silk, and a floor for this and that. It was insane. The thing we loved THEY HAD OUR SIZES!! lol. The thing we hated, the freaking shop salespeople. Ugh. So we're used to like older people and you're bargaining with them and its a game. Like you're trying to get it cheap, and they dont want to give it to you cheap and it just goes back and forth, but its fun, its seriously a game. And after you settle on a price theres no tension and you walk away smiling and whatnot. Haha, not here. Seriously, ugh. All the salespeople were mostly younger (like 20's) girls. And oh my gosh were they whiney and naggy and harrassed you like no other. Usually when we're walking down a bargaining street we get the "Hello!"'s trying to get our attention or the "just looking, just come looking" or "you want to buy". If you ignore them its a sign that clearly you're not interested. Not the silk market, you ignore them and they just start screaming hello at you, and some of them would even grab you on the arm or your shirt and you're just like, "um, no. dont do that". Its funny because everywhere we go their bargaining has its own personalities, like the phrases they use and exactly what they sell and whatnot. Here it was a bunch of "Hello, lady. Lady you come look." "Hello pretty lady you want buy purse." By the end i hated being called lady. And these girls were so whiney. Even when we were bargaining. They'd give a price that was ridiculously too high, so we went for our low price and i swear every single time it was "Are you joking me" accompanied by the most disgusting look on their face. And we're like are you joking me? They ask for something for like 380 yuan (which is RIDICULOUS) so we'd go for 30 yuan (and most of the time get it around 40 or 50). Dont worry mom and dad you're little girls pretty much pro status bargainer. Dont think i'm too nice. Ain't no one ripping me off. We actually have to get a little rude sometimes, but its how the games played sometimes. It was just annoying bargaining but we got some good stuff, for way way cheap of course.
Okay so theres the silk market and the pearl market, we didnt have time to go to the pearl market but girls from Xiaolan went to Beijing during Spring Festival (when we went to guilin and yangshuo) so they actually helped us out a lot but giving us information. They said the pearl market is smaller and the Silk Market actually has more than the pearl market. So i think it was the 5th floor thats devoted to pearls. And oh my gosh. Yes they're real. Theres salt water pearls and fresh water and these are just the lesser nice of the two, but they are still real pearls and their gorgous and CHEAP! You can get a good strand of pearls for about 35 yuan (about $5). And we're actually so so so so so grateful to the Xiaolan girls because they found this place that they got their pearls at. You can bargain at all the other places but this place just gives you a flat rate and its a good price too, about what you could bargain it down to, and without the hassle of bargaining each piece. So we go there and it was just so easy and nice because we just picked out what we wanted and had the price set. You pick out the strands and they actually make the bracelets and necklaces right there (for the regular pearls)(theres also the pre-made stuff). They are just so pretty! I'm a girl... i'm a sucker for that kind of stuff.

Acrobat Show
AMAZING. What these people can do with their bodies. flip. Its kind of controversial just because the details are where these kids came from are kind of sketch.. lets just say its probably not voluntary most of the time and some of them are started as early as 3 years old. But it was way neat to go and see. Most of these kids were probably around like 13 years old, there were older ones but they were so young. And oh my heck. The bodies these boys had was ridiculous. They were pretty much solid muscle. The had the most ripped bodies out of anyone ive seen, but you have to have these kind of bodies for the stuff they do. We were way excited we got to go and it was legit.

After the show we stopped by Wangfujing one more time just because there was more of the bargaining street stuff we're used to and that we couldnt find at the silk market slash didnt want to try and find and bargain. So we went there, its also famous for its street food thats served on sticks. Theres a bunch of meat sticks, including what looks like cockroaches and then scorpions and seahorses and stuff. I got just a regular chicken, or pork.. i cant tell the difference, flip it was probably dog. EW! sorry i shouldnt have said that.. And we had these way good street crepes and candy coated strawberries which are AMAZING.

In my opinion i think we made the most out of our last day in beijing. Beijing equals a pretty cool place.

Beijing Huan Ling Ni.
Beijing Welcomes You.
2008 Summer Olympic Motto.