Breakfast, as were all of the succeeding breakfasts on the trip, was a very good combination western and Chinese style buffet.  This morning we stuck to eggs and bacon and did not venture into the Chinese side of the buffet which seemed to include lots of vegetables and several rice dishes.

At 8:00 am we boarded our bus and started out on which would prove to be our longest sightseeing day of the trip.

First we rode around Beijing for about 45 minutes with Zhu and Michael pointing out various features and buildings around the city.  About 9:00 am we arrived at our first stop of the day, Tian'anmen Square.  Tian'anmen Square is the largest of it's kind in the world and is large enough to accommodate half a million people at the same time. 

For orientation, Tian'anmen stands on the Northern side. In the Center is the Monument to the People's Heroes. The Mao Zedong Memorial Hall and the Zhengyangmen (popularly known as Qianmen (Front Gate) are on the southern side of the square. Note: one walks through this front gate, under The Rostrum and Chairman Mao's Picture to get to the Forbidden City. On the Western side is the Great Hall of the People and on the eastern side the Museum of Chinese History and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution.

As a group, we walked from our entrance point, opposite the Monument to the South end of Tian'anmen which I would estimate to be about 1000 yards or more. On arrival we gathered together and had a group picture taken of the 30 of us with our guides. Along the way, while walking, Michael and Zhu gave us descriptions and the history of what we were seeing.

We then proceeded across the drive and up and through the Front Gate (Also known as the Meridian Gate), across the moat and then into the "Forbidden City" through the "Gate of Supreme Harmony".

Once inside, we proceeded first to the "Hall of Supreme Harmony", the largest of the Halls. Then on to the "Hall of Medium Harmony", a rather small building and then to the "Hall of Protective Harmony", the last in the complex.

Continuing, we saw a company of Tian'anmen Guards exercising outside of their quarters. 

We next came to a complex of lesser Halls and finally the Imperial Gardens where we saw some very strange looking trees called "Dragon Date Trees" which are formed by grafting very young branches to very old tree trunks.

Our exit from the Forbidden City was through the "Gate of Divine Prowess" where we boarded our bus and headed for Lunch and then on to The Temple of Heaven.

 The main feature of the Temple of Heaven is "Qiniandian - Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest".  This hall is round and raised several steps above level ground. The exterior and especially the roof is beautiful.  Inside are many artifacts.

From the Temple of Heaven, we went to the Panda House at the Beijing Zoo. We arrived about 4:00pm which seemed to be a good time to visit the Pandas. Their were almost no people other than our group in the Panda House area and the Pandas were up and about playing, eating and walking around so that we had the opportunity of watching them do things other than sleeping.

We then went back to our hotel for a quick refreshing shower and then we boarded the bus to go to Dinner and The Beijing Opera.  The Opera was far different from what we are used to as opera.  There was very little singing and the music was mostly loud percussion with a lot of gymnastics.  The entire show was very entertaining and exciting to watch.

After the ride back to the hotel, I'm sure that everyone crashed for the night so that we all were ready at 8:00 am to board the bus and head for another day of sightseeing, which, would include a visit to the Ming Tombs and The Great Wall with a couple of surprises thrown in by Michael and Zhu.