可爱的加拿大姑娘超激动中国游：第二天：历史冰冷的脚趾

You’re going to notice a trend in these blogs – that we were freaking freezing. The whole time we were in Beijing it stayed subarctic, and, despite the fact that some of our group were from tropical cities like Halifax and Calgary, we just could not get warm.
你肯定会注意到这些博客文章里的某个发展趋势——那就是我们快被冻结了。我们在北京的这段时间，就像呆在亚北极，尽管我们当中的一些团员来自热带城市，比如哈利法克斯和卡尔加里，但我们还是没有得到什么额外的取暖福利。

The wind permeated everything, and before going to the Great Wall we were even warned to really bundle up so to not loose toes to frostbite. There’s nothing more comforting than that. It got to the point that our drivers, who spoke no English, knew the words for “crank up the heat!!!!” by the time we were done with them.
寒风仿佛能贯穿一切，在去长城之前，我们甚至被警告说必须严严实实地把自己裹起来，以免冻掉脚趾头。没有什么比这更加令人无语泪流。还有一点就是，我们的司机，他不懂英语，但跟我们相处的这些天他学会了一个词“crank up the heat!!!!”（取暖基本靠抖，抖起来！！！）

Then through the underpass to the Forbidden City. This was the first of many surreal moments on the trip, seeing in person those iconic red buildings and carriageways we’ve all seen on TV a million times. It’s more like the Forbidden City within a city within a city, as you would pass through one massive gate to a giant plaza, explore that, then pass through another massive gate into a larger version of the exact same plaza, with a more gigantic courtyard and even grander building.
然后，我们穿过门洞去紫禁城。此次旅程中有许多超梦幻的时刻，这就是第一次，这些标志性的红色建筑和通道我们早已在电视中看过百万次。紫禁城就像一个城中之城，你穿过一道巨大的门，来到一个巨大的广场，继续探索下去，你接着穿过另一道巨大的门，就会到达另一个视野更开阔的巨大广场，庭院更加庞大，建筑更加壮观。

One of the things that really surprised me here was how 90% of the tourists were Chinese. I had expected the standard flocks of overbearing white people (ourselves included), but practically everyone was Chinese. That’s actually a really amazing thing, though, as so often we forget to visit the awesome treasures in our own country, and these sites are definately once in a lifetime, bucket list places.
有一件使我感到吃惊的事情是90%的游客都是中国人。而我预期的是，这里有成群结队的傲慢的白人（包括我们自己），但实际上这里几乎都是中国人。这确实使人惊叹不已，因为我们常常忘记去参观欣赏自己国家的珍贵遗产，这些地方一生之中值得去一次，值得写上遗愿清单。

The second half of the Forbidden City, the residential area, definately has more character and less pagantry than the first half. Smaller spaces, the details still ornate, but more homey feeling, cute little courtyards with trees, and a beautiful garden with gazebos and giant limestone rocks.
紫禁城的后半部分是生活区，比前半部分相比，多了些特色，少了些巍峨恢弘。空间变小了，细节依然华丽，更有家的感觉，树木成荫的可爱小庭院，美丽花园里有凉亭、有石灰岩假山。