China Day 20, 25th May 2019, Beijing Again

This morning we had a little lie in, organised some laundry and then downstairs for brekky. We then walked down the road to meet Alec to set off on the subway for the National Museum and Tiananmen Square area on a very hot day. When we arrived it was all security and our first hurdle was Alec forgetting to bring his passport. This did not go well and he was not allowed through so a quick change of plans. He and Jane headed off to do shopping and whatever and I continued on to the Museum, problem solved.

The Museum is free and enormous and it is not possible to see everything in a day (or few hours as I had.) I started in the “Road to Revolution” section which covered the periods pre 1800’s and the colonial occupations through to Mao and the revolution. It was well laid out and quite good, with some English explanation but really not enough to fully understand all of it. It was well worth it though. It was then on to the “Silk Road Museums” temporary exhibition which was excellent and consisted of small displays from many museums along the old Silk Road; Russia, Mongolia, Oman, etc, etc. It was then down to the Ancient China exhibition for a while and by now over 3 hours later it was overload. Time for strategic exit and out to Tiananmen Square.

Bloody hell it was hot!! Had a bite and drink and a wander around till a bit after 3 and then decided to head back to the hotel for a rest, arriving just on 4pm. Let Jane and Alec know and found out that after the shopping they had headed back to the cool of his place and played bananagrams for the afternoon. An excellent choice.

We had a short rest until Alec and Helen came and collected us for a subway ride to the Hutongs to go to a craft brewery place for dinner. Was a fun walk through the small hutong streets trying to find the place, which we eventually did and settled down for a few beers and some food. Had some brilliant lamb chops while Jane had a jianbing. Alec had a 1kg steak which ended up being a small leg of lamb?? But was beautifully cooked and tasted great. We then went to a cocktail place further down the road to finish before Alec ordered a Didi to take us back to the hotel about 11pm. Great fun night and looking at the Great Wall tomorrow IF its not raining.