These are on the top of each building in the Forbidden City. There's always an odd number for good luck. The more characters, the more important the building (or the people living in it). The most characters on a building was 11.
There were some gates in the walls on the walk to the Forbidden City. I snuck a look in one of the gates and this is what I saw. These are called hutongs and are rapidly being knocked down before the 2008 Olympics. Apparently, many people in Beijing live in hutongs.
Apparently they made this for the Olympics. A guy was trying to tell me more but I was pretending I didn't speak English, so I couldn't get more details.
Flowers my dad & step-mom sent to my hotel (in China!?!) for my birthday. They make my hotel room smell really great. FYI - flowers in China don't come with a vase, so don't take off the pretty wrapping paper cause there's just plastic underneath.
Originally, Beijing was surrounded by a wall. There were 9 gates used to enter into and out of the city. This is one of the 9 gates. The wall no longer exists.
This lightpost is at Tiananmen Square. Note the video camera and the speakers inside the brass enclosure. There are speakers all over Beijing, which is kinda creepy, if you ask me.
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