Day 5 began early with a hotel breakfast. We followed breakfast with a workout in the hotel gym - point to Ashley for suggesting it, really helps with jet lag. After showers and a quick Americanized stop at Starbucks, we set out for the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The Forbidden City was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties and is now known as the Palace Museum. It is the world's largest palace complex and covers 74 hectares. It's surrounded by a six meter deep moat and a ten meter high wall are 9,999 rooms (one less from divine perfection). It was a HUGE place. We ended up getting lost a few times but still managed to find our way around and eventually out. Here are few photos from the Forbidden City:
Afterwards we headed to Tiananmen Square, probably best known for the 1989 protests ending in the death of many rioting college students. 
It's a very large square, and well, that was about it! Nothing really exciting. We did, however, manage to score a FANTASTIC hat. Here are a few photos from Tiananmen Square and us sporting our new find:
It's a very large square, and well, that was about it! Nothing really exciting. We did, however, manage to score a FANTASTIC hat. Here are a few photos from Tiananmen Square and us sporting our new find:
The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square tired us out a fair bit so we relaxed at the hotel for the evening. Ashley suggested a Hot Pot restaurant that turned out to be OUT OF THIS WORLD!! Its basically fondue with the addition of eastern spices (soya sauce with diced garlic, sliced red peppers and satay broth)...factor in some locally brewed beer and you have the perfect meal. Here are some pictures from dinner:
Went to happy hour at the hotel and were entertained by a man from Florida, who we now think was trying to scam us...he wanted us to go to a market with him the next morning for some special discount shopping- not happening. Overall a good day!
Day 6 began a little slower than day 5; thanks happy hour. Breakfast at the hotel then a tasty lunch at the Oodle noodle restaurant nearby...chicken curry soup, Japanese wanton soup, miso soup and some chicken skewers. Turned out to be way too much food but fantastic none the less. We then headed out to the Olympic sites - Beijing National Stadium (Bird's Nest) and the National Aquatics Center (Water Cube). Pretty cool to see them in person. We weren't able to go inside because you needed tickets and our minuscule amount of Chinese (we're only able to say thank you) proved to not be very helpful in figuring out where we could actually BUY the tickets. There were tons of visitors...little yellow tour guide flags everywhere, all with tickets happily flowing into the stadiums. No worries though, we were happy to people watch and see the sites from the outside. It was actually riddled with scam artists too.
We went back to the hotel and got ready for our evening adventure - The Legend of Kung Fu show in the Red Theatre. It was a theatrical performance of dance and acrobatics - very cool. Apparently it was labeled more energetic than River Dance - hehe.
Headed back to the hotel got room service and called it an early night. Off to the Great Wall tomorrow morning!
