View from our window in the Novotel Peace Hotel
Beijing,  China
Beijing – 26 to 28 September:    Our flight from Tokyo landed in Beijing around ten in
the evening.   At the airport we got Chinese yuan from the ATM at an exchange rate of
about 8 yuan per US$.  We then took a metered  taxi to downtown Beijing, and arrived
at the Novotel Peace Hotel just before midnight.  Using the Internet, we had made a
reservation through a Chinese travel agency before leaving home. The Novotel Peace
Hotel  is excellent, with a very convenient location.  Below is a view of Beijing from our
hotel.
The following morning around at 10:45am our two air tickets to Kunming we had ordered
over the Internet were delivered to us at the hotel and we paid the messenger 2100
yuan  (about US$262) in cash.
In the afternoon we walked on the nearby Wangfujing pedestrian street, lined  mostly
by modern department stores and shopping malls.  We continued on other local
streets to Tianamen Square (bordered by several museums and containing Mao's
Mausoleum), and then visited the huge “Forbidden City” (aka “Imperial Palace”) for
several hours among the attractive palaces and museums before walking back to our
hotel.   We had been to Tianamen and the Imperial Palace on previous trips but were
glad to visit them again.
After our second night in Beijing we boarded a 9:30am taxi (90 yuan)  to the Beijing Airport for a
noon flight to Kunming.
Tianamen Square during rehearsals for "National Day" celebrations commemorating the founding of the
People's Republic of China in 1949.   Virginia took this photo from the Main Gate of the Forbidden City.
Main Gate of the Forbidden City.
A courtyard within the Forbidden City.
A small Imperial Palace building
within the Forbidden City.
Rear Gate of the Forbidden City.  In the background
is a park behind the Forbidden City.