Today we visited Tiananmen square, and the forbidden city. Tiananmen square is visited by so many people that they limit tourists to 80,000 per day. It was incredible to see a sight that is so famous and visited by so many people. It was a lot larger than I expected. Each time you walk through a gate, there is another one waiting several hundred feet away. The architecture on all of the buildings was beautiful, especially the painting and decoration around the roofs.

We then got to visit one of the few remaining old cities in Beijing called Hutong. There are many short, square or quadrangle shaped buildings with narrow pathways in between. This really contradicts the modern cities with giant sky scrapers and roads. We first took a rickshaw ride, which was really enjoyable. It allowed us to see these homes and the daily life of those who live in them. The personality of my rickshaw driver made it even more fun, because he tried to knock the hats off of other drivers and pretend to run in to them. The rickshaw took us to a home, where we had the opportunity to talk to a man in his seventies. He told us about how he was born in the house, and his family has lived there for over one hundred years. He also gave us some insights into how the city has changed recently, and showed us old pictures. The day then ended with a relaxing tai chi class.