Look, I'm a tourist!

So, being in an American in Beijing, I obviously had to fulfill my tourist duties and go see the Forbidden City and Tian'anmen.  This was a very good idea, except for the large amounts of pollution in the air. 

The Forbidden City is gigantic.  One cannot truly comprehend the size until you have walked and walked and walked and walked, still not reaching the other side of the palace.  It was unlike anything I had ever experienced.  And the Chinese like their symmetry, so at times it seemed I was just walking through the same courtyard, towards the same massive building, over and over again.  But, that being said, it was absolutely magnificent.

Something interesting that we very rarely come across in America: the tourists were not all foreigners.  Most of them were actually from China.  When we think tourist, we usually think non-American, with a few Texans thrown in there.  This is almost never the case in China.  I will always be a minority here, no matter where I go. 

After our adventures with the emperors, we crossed the street to Tian'anmen Square. 

Unfortunately, we don't have our student IDs, so we didn't go into the Maosoleum (see what I did there...), so we will have to leave that for another day.  Tian'anmen is such a large expanse of nothing, which is so strange in city like Beijing, where almost all of the space is used, and overused.  Also, their landscaping their is something to behold.  I was quite impressed.  Good job, China. 

I think the highlight of the day was eating dinner after Tian'anmen.  We found an alley and wandered down it.  There, we stumbled upon a restaurant that was open, so of course we went in.  I think if I had seen the kitchen I would have been terrified and run away screaming, however, I did not, so there was no screaming that day.  The food was better than expected, but the greatest thing about the restaurant was their menu outside, and the brilliant Chinglish we found on it:

Please, feel free to give a guess of what it is supposed to say (I know, cause I can read Chinese :) ).  Whoever has the best guess, I will bring back a Raxious Cityfiaror shack for you.