My First Official Day in China!

Yesterday I was too tired to post anything on here after my flight and even less excited to do anything other than eat and sleep. This is what I had for dinner last night. It was soup from a small region of china called ___.
It was made from spicy garlic and noodles were homemade! The mystery meat tasted like pastrami without the extra salt since the soup itself was slightly salted.

Today is Saturday! So I got up early (twice) and showered. The bathrooms in hotels and apartments are different but I didn't think the bathroom would get INUNDATED. There is a drain but there is no tub, no lip, to prevent the water from going all over the bathroom floor. ANYWAYS... I decided to brave it and take the train down to the Forbidden City which by train would be close to 45 minutes.
The train it self is efficient and after pointing to a map and letting the man behind the counter know where I wanted to go, I was off...to the wrong direction. Thank goodness I have an English version of the map so I was able to maneuver my way through the train, station after station. I found myself in the South Side of the Forbidden city.
As you can see, people were quite curious about me and I'm glad I researched their intense stares when they look at foreigners, otherwise I'd be insulted. No matter where I went I would get some form of stare. Some were discrete, some were blatantly obvious but no one was rude. 
I saw a lot of these guys down below, stationed all over the Forbidden City.
When I entered the the south entrance, I was surprised that it was part of the city but still not the museum part of it. There was a huge long line that went to this courtyard below. 
Because of this I was not able to go all the way inside the forbidden city but I did walk come across some awesome sights on my way out.







Over all, I walked a lot! My poor little Californian feet were not used to all this walking. 
Another highlight of the day,
I BOUGHT A SIM CARD! Which is great because I was tired of looking for the nearest place with wifi and the only place people kept directing me to was KFC.
Now I'm back in my hotel room after a successful train ride back (it was easier to return). Now I'm going to take a brief nap and then head out.
Zai jain! (Bye)

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