Of Mao and Kite

This morning we decided to pay our respects to Chairman Mao.
We walked to Tiananmen square and were about to enter the Mausoleum but where told we needed to deposit our bag and camera. Maayan decided to wait outside, having no interest in mummified bodies in the first place, and not being in the mood to run back and forth to deposit the bag (not even in the same building but across the street and through the security check- twice).
Shay went in to pay his respects and reported that either the wax copy of the body was on display today, or else they did a very good job in making the preserved body of Chairman Mao look like wax.
This is the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall from the outside:



From there we went on to visit the forbidden city, passing on our way through The Gate of Heavenly Peace (this is truly its name):


In the courtyard, the soldiers were learning to march



So we went on, passing The Gate of Supreme Harmony:


At the innermost part of the forbidden city lie the three sacred halls: the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Central Harmony and the Hall o Preserving Harmony.
They were once nicely decorated but are now badly renovated and not as impressive as they might have been 500 years ago.


Through the Gate of Heavenly Purity and around the Palace of Heavenly Purity and Palace of Earthly Tranquility we arrived at the Imperial Garden and left the city through the Gate of Divine Prowess.





The nicest thing about the forbidden city is the grand names the gave things in it Other then that, maybe they would have done better to keep it forbidden and save us the time and money spent on walking through it.

We bought a kite and walked to the Olympic Park to see it for ourselves. On the way, we found a bunch of Kite Experts flying their kites and decided to try our new kite.

Shay assembled it


And the experts assembled around us and gave us advice



It turned out we needed plenty of advice and a lot of help as the kite did not fly. We added a tail, changed the string, went further and further but no luck. The Experts tried too

and eventually we all decided we need a new Kite. A better one.
So tomorrow we are going shopping :)

After the kite flying we went to see the bird's nest:



Note: the Beijiners are all driving electric scooters: