Saturday the 10th of March

The second day took its terrific start with breakfast at a small restaurant just across the street. We were promptly introduced to our guide Herbie, who had an astounding and hilarious habit of calling our group "Herpies". After a short bus trip we arrived once more at the Tiananmen Square, which was once more a sight of magnificent beauty to behold. After hearing about the symbolic meaning of the numbers 5 and 9 in Chinese culture from Herbie, we walked through the Square and arrived at the Forbidden City. Herbie had earlier explained that the city possessed 9999.5 rooms, because 9 is the "biggest" number and because only the god of the heavens was allowed 10.000 rooms (the emperor was the son of this god and was thus allowed to approach this number). While the many tales that have been told marred the sheer magnificence of the city, it was still breathtaking. After a walk and a half, and a minor case a, we arrived at the end, and although an opportunity to peer into the wardrobe of an emperor presented itself, few took it. We exited the now tourist attraction and walked a short while to a bus that was waiting for us (the same bus that took us to Tiananmen Square earlier), which was a relief after the harshness of yesterday’s grueling walk. We arrived at the lunch place Herbie had prepared for us. We witnessed a peculiar phenomenon in Chinese cuisine - a table with a round plate of glass that can spin independent of the table. A nice meal of authentic Chinese food, with a very nice serving of sweet and sour deep-fried fish, later, we were ready to depart to the dragon empress’s summer palace - another place of almost mythological fame. At the dragon empress’s (Dowager Cixi was her name) summer palace, where she resided for a great part in her life, we saw the various attractions. There were numerous Buddhist shrines used for praying etc. and the world’s longest corridor, which actually is registered in the Guinness World Records. The place was very traditional and was home to a number of seemingly odd traditions. An example is the need for women to step through the gates or door-openings with their right leg first and the opposite for men. Herbie explained all the various traditions in detail to us. To conclude it was a great day with a lot exciting new things and experiences.