Tiananmen Square and more

First I must say - I had a fabulous birthday in China yesterday. I will blog about that later when I have the photos from my party from Theresa =)

So today we decided to actually be tourists in this city and we went to Tiananmen Square. I am not really sure how I felt about being there. We did not stay for a super long time. We really just browsed through the gifts they had for sale. Really it wasn't much to see. It definitely did not live up to the hype. It just felt like a big tourist trap filled with overly-priced knickknacks. Theresa and I both really do not know much about China's history and to be totally honest with you... I am not really sure of the purpose behind Tiananmen. All I really know about it is that a bunch of protestors were killed there 20 years ago. We wanted to go to The Forbidden City as I know there is more to see there. Unfortunately we got a pretty late start to the day so it was closed by the time we were finished at Tiananmen.

Rubbing these knobs brings you money and luck!

I also got this video of the guards marching:

 
After we dilly dallied around Tiananmen we started on our hunt for some food. We ended up walking passed a beautiful lake that was lined with Weeping Willows and we bough some delicious banana popsicles. We regained our celebrity status again and had a few people stop and ask for pictures with us. This always makes me smile. And of course I like to add them to my repertoire of paparazzi photos.

We continued walking along the lake and ended up in Wangfujing. We ran into food street... well we actually ran into two food streets. The first was not as big or as crowded. There were definitely some pretty intriguing options.

Of course I had to get some videos of the food streets, too. Complete with my lovely commentary!

All-in-all we had a great day. I am totally exhausted and so Theresa and I are going to eat our leftovers from last night and watch a funny movie. I will be sure to update all about my birthday later on.

Oh, update and Gale and Peeta. Gale seems to be doing well. He is very active and is still trying to figure his way out of his cage. Peeta worries me. He does not do much. I am scared he may not make it. I put some more water in their tank and I gave them a little spot to climb up on for "basking." I am going to get them a nicer home soon.

Mandarin lesson:
Měishí jiē 美食街 (Food Street)