By May 1st I had been in China long enough to know that most tourists in China are Chinese on holidays and I knew that May 1rst was going to be a very busy day regardless of where I was going. I thought of going to Badaling (a very popular site on the Great Wall) to see it at its "worst" but thought I probably should not waste the effort of sorting out a bus etc and instead I decided to go to Tiananmen Square and back through the Forbidden City. The all idea of going into the Forbidden City was cancelled when I saw this:
(You'll recognize the great big red structure in the background as the main southern gate of the Forbidden City)
The subway station for Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City southern gate (the same station since they are next to each other) was closed and the side streets leading to the entrance looked like this:
Tiananmen Square is so big that it did not seem so busy.
Apart from its southern end.
The only access to Tiananmen Square (which is surrounded by busy multi-lane avenues) is through underground pedestrian passageways. The crowd in there was crazy and in fact a little boy near me nearly got trampled by the crowd and was only safe once his dad took him on his shoulders.
On my way "home" I walked through Bei Hai Park close to my hostel and the lake was busy with the little boats you can rent there. All the parks, tourist places etc in Beijing were very busy. It was actually quite an experience and I am pleased I saw it.
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