Last day of touring. We went to Tieneman Square. This is the large square with public govt buildings around it. And it was, of course, the site of the auspicious Tieneman Square student demonstration...I believe that was 1989.

We went to the Forbidden City - which is where the emporers lived from around 1420 to about 1920. After the last emperor, the Forbidden City became a public museum (no longer forbidden). This is in the center of Beijing.

Lots of things we saw:

- special yellow roofs (color reserved for royalty)

- 81 pegs per door (9x9)...9 believed to be the greatest number

- lots of building

- incredible human crush...like, freak-you-out-too-many-people shoving to see something

- many of the approximately 200,000 people who visited the Forbidden City today

- and amazingly, in contrast to Washington D.C., where 70% of the tourists appear to be Americans and 30% foreigners, the split at Forbidden City seemed still to be 99% Chinese...1% other.

The last thing we did was a rickshaw tour (small bike-pulled two-person wagons)...through a neighborhood of narrow streets.

So, we're glad to have seen more of Asher's country