For day 2, I am going to cover Forbidden City (Gu Gong), Hutong tour, Shi Cha Hai and Drum & Bell Tower. Believe it or not, these 4 places are connected to each other and I didn't travel with any public transportation but only the traditional tricycle rickshaw for the Hutong Tour.

My Day 2 started quite early at 9am as I wanted to avoid crowd in Forbidden City.

Accomodation : Beijing Ocean Hotel


Forbidden City
There are 2 way to go to Forbidden City, by Bus or Subway. Unless I had no choice but to take bus, I will always choose to take subway since it's faster and easier.



Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City are facing each other across a roadway, I didn't enter to Tiananmen Square because there were long queue for the security check, hence I proceed straight away to the entrance of Forbidden City through Tiananmen gate.

Seriously, I never imagine that security check can be so strict in the whole Beijing City, even every subway station, you'll need to go through a check before you can enter to the waiting area. Bringing water/liquid with you caused much inconvenient as you'll need to remove it from your bag for them to check.





Entrance fee to Forbidden City - April to October: CNY 60 / November to the next March: CNY 40

Since I did not enter to Tiananmen Square, so I bought a ticket to go up to the Tiananmen Gate and have an overview of Tiananmen Square. There's another ticket to be purchased at CNY15 in order to go up to the gate, and security check is strict whereby no bags are allowed to enter, you may deposit your bag at the storage area.























Tranportation :
By Bus :
- Take bus 1, 2, 52, 59, 82, 99, 120, 126, Tourist Line 1, or Tourist Line 2, and get off at Tiananmen East Station.
- Take bus 1, 5, 52, 99, Tourist Line 1, or Tourist Line 2, and get off at Tiananmen West Station.

By Subway :
- Take Subway Line 1, get off at Tiananmen East Station ( Exit A ) or Tiananmen West Station ( Exit B ), find the Tiananmen Tower, and then walk north to the Meridian Gate.
- Take Subway Line 2, get off at Qianmen Station ( Exit A ), walk north through the Tiananmen Square, pass the Tiananmen Tower, and then find the Meridian Gate further north.




Hutong Tour

I browse through internet to find out more about Hutong Tour, and many have been complaining that they get cheated for this Hutong Tour. So, I was wondering where about is this Hutong and I came to know that Hutongs are a type of narrow streets or alleys, commonly associated with northern Chinese cities, most prominently Beijing. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences.

Basically, every small and narrow streets are hutong LOL.

After my forbidden city walk, I exited and pass through JingShan Park in opposite because I was planning to walk to Shi Cha Hai. While I was on my way, there were a few traditional tricycle rickshaw park at aside trying to get our attention. I never really bother about it but my friend, who has been to Beijing for so many times but has yet to try on this simply because he can't speak a single mandarin, hence he asked for my help to communicate with them.


















I asked the uncle about the Hutong Tour and drop us off at Shi Cha Hai, it costs CNY 100 for an hour tour. Not really a good deal but not a bad deal though, therefore we decided to take a ride. He took us to a place where it used to live by the slaves who served the King.

TIPS : Rickshaw uncle can be very knowledgeable if you understand mandarin, but don't try to take a tour if you can't understand :)  Undeniable, I learned a lot from him!



Shi Cha Hai

We were dropped off at Shi Cha Hai entrance, but it took us quite some time to find the exact location of Shi Cha Hai. After all, this is one of my favourite park! Strongly recommended.
















I decided to rent a bicycle and ride along at Shi Cha Hai since it's really cheap, CNY10 for unlimited one day time!




Drum and Bell Tower

From Shi Cha Hai, walking to Drum and Bell tower is easy. It wasn't in my original plan to visit Drum and Bell tower, but the funny thing was, I spotted the Bell tower at Shi Cha Hai and follow my sight towards it!



I went up to the Bell Tower but skip out Drum tower because they are just opposite each other, and Bell tower has a higher view :) So why waste 2 times money? Although cheaper ticket is available for the visit of both tower.




Wangfujing Street

After the Bell Tower visit, I walked towards Subway Station "ShiChaHai" and took off to my hotel. Considering my hotel is so close to Wangfujing Street, why not had my dinner there right? :)



For more information about TOP 10 Places to See in Beijing, click HERE.