In which I went to the Forbidden City

My trip to China came up at the last moment (as in, emergency taxi rides to the Consulate to get my visa) and the trip itself was quite rushed.

But. But. I could NOT LEAVE CHINA without seeing at least one freaking tourist attraction. So, when our schedule didn't have us leaving Beijing until noon, we (I traveled with a colleague from an adjacent office for this conference and set of visits) knew that we had to drag out jet-lagged selves out of bed and make it to the Forbidden City. Beijing traffic is such a bear that we went straight for the subway where...man, this nine week pregnant girl could barely handle the crowds. Luckily, it didn't matter that I didn't have a pole to hold on to since we were packed like sardines. But we made it.

While we had gorgeous weather in Beijing, the pollution is typically so dense that you may not even see the top of this building. In fact, on our return flight through Beijing, the BeijingAir twitter feed ranked the pollution as 'very unhealthy'. No kidding, you could even see it hover against the ceiling inside the airport.

But back to the Forbidden City. I learned virtually nothing there. We did a quick path through the palace area, dodging Chinese tourist and vendors, taking a few photos.

We admired the traditional Chinese palatial architecture and the home of nearly 500 years of royal dynasties. Always a sucker for painted ceilings, I spent a lot of time staring up at the trip and ceilings above me. We got a little distracted (wouldn't you?) and lost track of time, requiring us to book it out of there. Heading out through the famous Tianamen Square, we ducked back into the metro to grab our luggage and head to Shanghai.

Sadly, no photos from Shanghai. We stayed there one night, left at 5am the next day and spent the whole time working. However, from the short walk between our hotel and office, I made the quick assessment that resulted in a phone call home along the lines of "honey, we should totally bid on Shanghai!"