beijing: forbidden city + tiananmen

hellllooooooo china.

i had a total home alone moment in the airport, but instead of "KEVIN!" it was "CAMERA!"

(and then i cried)

sage and i met nate in beijing since he had business there, and while our baby had plenty of food to eat, diapers galore, and backup hand sanitizer even, the camera completely slipped my mind when i walked out the door. i felt like an idiot since we may never return to beijing, but at least we had an iphone i guess? lemonade out of lemons.

a friend said that beijing makes singapore look like disneyland--how true! 

we wondered if it was just really foggy in beijing, but no...the air quality was pretty terrible during our trip. we only saw clear blue skies when we drove out to the great wall.

we started off exploring the forbidden city with our guide, "hi my name is lin lee choy hok zhang, but you can call me michael"

 

the overwhelming thing about this place is the HISTORY. so much happened here that has shaped china and the world. 

the heat was stifling, though.

sage was obviously not super stoked about the picture taking. the best part is that these people don't even know each other. one girl asked to take a photo with the baby, then random people walking by jumped in.

 

the emperor's number was 9, so each door has nine gold knobs. touch them for good luck as you pass.

we ordered a whole duck at quan ju de, the oldest peking duck restaurant in beijing. yum!

we finally caught a breeze in tiananmen square and let sage roam. she made some friends...