cheng

it's already april and the summer heat is on. but back in january this year, we braved the piercing winter of china, when we flew to shanghai and took the train from there to beijing. cathy and i were planning to squeeze in everything in a single day in beijing because we wanted to see the terracotta warriors in xian. but of course, due to the bitter cold and cathy's financial concerns, we decided to call off our trip to xian. my so-called mantra when traveling is to maximize our stay and see to it that we stop on all possible stops, even if it calls for additional expense. so instead of going to xian, our second day in beijing was spent on exploring the vast (literally!) and historic grounds of the forbidden city. i'm glad that we didn't go to xian. we had ample time to walk on this cheng's (walled city) palatial architecture and explore all surviving buildings and marvel at china's rich heritage. we entered the forbidden city at around 9 am and finished around lunchtime. and even if the winter air is freezing our noses and hands... i was still pushing everyone to look around and take pictures! nice!