Beijing, Day 2: t square

There is no better time to negotiate the subway system in a foreign country where you don’t speak or read the language than at 8am on a Monday morning.  I’m being a little sarcastic here.  After waking up at 5 in the morning, we decided to head out and sight see in the morning before it got too hot.  Despite waking up so early, we didn’t leave until 7:30.  Then we stopped at the 7 Eleven for water, and at a food cart for some breakfast.

The subway was incredibly crowded, and we just followed the flow of traffic.  Despite all the people, we didn’t have any trouble getting onto the train.  We headed down to a tourist-y area and checked out T…Square.  It was open, spacious, and despite all the happy tourists, I couldn’t forget the history of the area.

There were some nice lamp posts, and if you look closely, you can see the cameras.  They were everywhere.   Below, the Monument to the People’s Heroes:

Here is the entrance to the square:

I had seen only replicas of pagodas, so it was cool to see one actually in China.  After walking around, Drew and I headed to a nice vegetarian restaurant, Gongdelin, for lunch.  Many vegetarian restaurants have mock meats, like beef or chicken.  What was really interesting about this vegetarian restaurant was the meat it attempted to mock.  It had fake chicken and beef, but it also had fake pig ears, fake tripe, and fake pig’s intestines.  We  tried the duck, the beef, some steamed buns, and a stuffed pancake thing, but we steered clear of anything called a “delicacy.”  Maybe next time.