Hectic circumstances were encountered during the preparations. At work, my request for leave was initially overlooked and the original destination was cancelled. Instead, we opted for this two city tour. And then I almost overlooked I had to arrange visa, in spite of two previous trips to China (1989 & 1992) as well as inoculations. With KLM we flew to Beijing and before we knew it we walked on the Tian'anmen Square in a 36 C heat..
Tian'anmen Square, China's Gate of Heavenly Peace, except for that historic date in 1989, which cannot be overlooked if you even want to start understanding China and the Chinese.
The square has a few very large buildings on it, which brings down the scale of the entire square and I found it considerably less larger than I had expected. In the evening you see a lot of people flying their kites here.

In spite of the soaring heat we went to visit the Forbidden City and the palace Museum. The large squares make it impossible to avoid the heat, there is not enough shade to go around for all the visitors. Hence the umbrellas.

At the heart of Beijing's historical centre lies the Forbidden City, the enormous palace compound that was the home of the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties; the Forbidden City also hosts the Palace Museum, which contains imperial collections of Chinese art. Surrounding the Forbidden City are several former imperial gardens, parks and scenic areas, notably the Beihai, Houhai, Shichahai, Zhongnanhai, Jingshan and Zhongshan.
The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the ceremonial and political centre of Chinese government.
Built from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 square metres (7,800,000 square feet). [Wikipedia]

Besides visits to modern shops (for items such as music CD's and VCD's, we also went to the Hutongs of Beijing.

Qianliang Hutong

Alexander wasn't too comfortable walking these small streets; photographing people in less desirable conditions nagged his conscience. I would later read about 'poverty porn', but my intentions were to seek out 'historic China', not relish in someone's misfortune.
Houses, streets, gardens were built according to Feng Shui principles, not randomly built as it would seem at times.

People living here often have to do without running water, heating except a woodstove, electricity, bathroom. It sure is a far cry from Beijings growing number of skyscrapers, shopping centers and fastfood restaurants.

Our guide Wu Li Ping (Li Ping = Beautiful Rainbow) explained the palace in great detail, but it is spread out over such a large area that we could not take it in.

The Summer Palace is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (60 meters high) and the Kunming Lake. It covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of which is water.
The Summer Palace started out life as the Garden of Clear Ripples in 1750 (Reign Year 15 of Emperor Qianlong). Artisans reproduced the garden architecture styles of various palaces in China. Kunming Lake was created by extending an existing body of water to imitate the West Lake in Hangzhou. The palace complex suffered two major attacks--during the Anglo-French allied invasion of 1860 (with the Old Summer Palace also ransacked at the same time), and during the Boxer Rebellion, in an attack by the eight allied powers in 1900. The garden survived and was rebuilt in 1886 and 1902. [Wikipedia, more..]

Lama Temple