Day 3: A Celebrity In a City Built For Royalty

We started the day with a visited to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was where the Chinese royal family lived and it was forbidden to commoners, hence the name.  What occurred with the old man at the end of the Temple of Heaven visit happened a lot more here. One of the most entertaining things I noticed during the entire trip was how often the natives would run towards me to either take pictures of me behind my back or with me. I had at least 20 picture requests and probably more pictures were taken of me without me knowing. Ivy, one of our guides, told me that many Chinese people have never seen an African-American in person, and I was still young as well. So that kind of explains why I became a celebrity for a day. The Forbidden City itself had some more of the classic Chinese architecture I am a fan of, but what I really thought was beautiful was the garden and the Women’s quarters. There were really beautiful stone formations and plant life.

We then headed to the art district which was a shopping area with art galleries and sculptures mixed into the architecture. We had lunch and I took some pictures of the surroundings.

                                               

            We then went to the silk market. Here, many Chinese people who know really good English will try to sell you various items and there, you can bargain your price. The Chinese tend to treat business negotiation as a game of wits, so if you can outsmart them, you can save a lot of money. My defining moment at the silk market was saving 410 yuan ( about $70) on one of the infamous knockoff Chinese NFL jerseys. This one was a Roger Staubach (Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer), so I really wanted it. We ended the day at the Red rose restaurant, which was a place inspired by Western Chinese culture which is a mixture of Chinese and Indian culture. We were treated to nice food, music and traditional dancing performances. I then went to bed and prepped for our first university visit and our first company visit.