Shop of the Forbidden City

Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels: The Shop of the Forbidden City (with ice-cream freezer), Beijing, China. Love the sign -- sounds like an installment in the Indiana Jones franchise. Link

[#1 posted by Trvth , January 19, 2008 7:37 AM]

One of my coworkers recently visited China. She said the areas they were allowed to visit were beautiful, but she was nervous because her group was constantly followed by government escorts, who steered them away from certain areas.

"Today in my ongoing series of..."
On Flickr it says, uploaded on September 14, 2007. Thats some terrible lag ya got there.

[#2 posted by Cory Doctorow , January 19, 2008 8:51 AM]

Trvth, these are pictures from my travels over the past ten years.

[#3 posted by Antinous , January 19, 2008 10:41 AM]

The government provides escorts? And I paid all that money to the escort service!

[#4 posted by ClintonD , January 19, 2008 1:46 PM]

Is that Starbucks still there? I remember seeing a picture of a Starbucks in the Forbidden City.

[#5 posted by coaxial , January 19, 2008 5:23 PM]

@#4. The starbucks is now closed. It closed last summer. The cafe is still there. It's just no longer branded starbucks. I don't know if starbucks still owns it or not though.

[#6 posted by autark , January 20, 2008 4:28 AM]

In preparation for the Olympics the Chinese proudly booted Starbucks and that cafe is fully owned/operated by the museum. I visited just a few weeks after Cory (bought a snack in that very shop!) and there are several funny signs in and around the Forbidden City... some are just funny mistranslations (hastily prepared for the Olympics perhaps? probably just hastily prepared...), others are plain funny without translation.

Don't let blobs take over your city, do laundry, or let chickens play in puddles: http://flickr.com/photos/autarken/2093295151/

Go here if you get too "tickt": http://flickr.com/photos/autarken/2093366583/

Keep your valuables in the "head stage": http://flickr.com/photos/autarken/2093067977/

[#7 posted by nerdkiller , January 20, 2008 7:46 PM]

In my trips to there I refer to this as the "Hall of the Forbidden Tchotchkes". Here's a link to a the Beijing Tourism Board official 4 star rated toilet located in the Forbidden City.
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2207670795&size=o

There's also a photo set of a standard business dinner, this one only had 18 dishes, unfortunately there's no image of the Ox penis or Duck heads I've had. See here: http://flickr.com/photos/nerdkiller/sets/72157600236127427/

BTW I just uploaded the toilet pic to Flickr, looks like the Great Firewall has opened a gate.