I thought we did a lot on the day we visited the Great Wall, but today we bounced around what felt like all of Beijing visiting cultural sites. We started our day at Tienanmen Square, and it was an interesting time to be there. The day we visited was about one month before the thirty year anniversary of the massacre that happened there on June 4th, 1989, where innocent students were butchered by the military to suppress their protest. We stood just a few hundred yards away from the site where the famous photo Tank Man was taken, and right next to us there was a guy trying to sell fake Rolexes. Here was a place that in another country there would be some acknowledgment to the tragedy, but the government censors all recognition of the massacre so not only are citizens not allowed to acknowledge the lives lost there, some people around us might not have had any idea that there was a tragedy at all. Besides the massacre, the square and surrounding area was packed with historical significance. The modern parliament building was right next to Tienanmen Square, Mao Zedong’s tomb was in the center, and across the street was the Forbidden City, the place where Chinese Emperors ruled from for centuries. I have seen so many imitations of traditional Chinese architecture and it has been represented in countless movies and videos but to see the original, what all those imitations are based off. When we left the forbidden city area, we hopped back on the bus to go to the Hutong district, which I didn’t know anything about before we got there. The plan there was to take a ride on some rickshaws through the area, but they took a while to get there which gave me a chance to get my impression of the area. At first I was confused because the buildings looked run down and there were cameras and electric wires everywhere, but the assumptions I was making based off of the buildings was contradicted by the cars I saw. Almost every car was an expensive brand like Mercedes. When we finished our rickshaw drive we ended up at a man’s house, which really helped me understand the district better. The man’s family had owned the house for over 150 years, and the inside was very nice and peaceful. Despite the area’s appearance at first glance, it was actually a very affluent neighborhood, especially considering the real estate value at the center of Beijing. The man’s house was a mini complex that included two other small one or two room buildings and a mini courtyard that had a few of his pet birds in it. Apparently the man hosts around 70 tourists a week in his house as a side hustle so he can represent his way of life to visitors. I was so happy we got to visit him because there are not a lot of other places on the trip where we will be able to see into the daily life of an average Chinese person.