Tian'anmen Square, Beihei Park, Lama Temple, & CBD Mall - Day 4 · Travel · Asia · China (中國 🇨🇳) · Beijing, Beijing Municipality (北京)

Travel · Asia · China (中國 🇨🇳) · Beijing, Beijing Municipality (北京) · 2026-08-01

I have never gone through so much security and been monitored so much in life until visiting Tian'anmen Square.

The amount of surveillance and security checkpoints you need to go through is utterly insane, We spent more time in security than actually being in Tian'anmen Square for good reason 🤣.

Here are some of the photos I was allowed to take, or the guards did not see:

Apparently Mao does not rock with the Triton Hand Sign!

There is a photo of me directly in front of the Mao portrait throwing up the Triton and Cowabunga hand gestures, but one of the guards came up to Cole and I grabbed our phones, and forcefully deleted the photos 🫪.

After that interaction, we were on edge and super paranoid. I still do not understand on why those photos were so bad that warranted a deletion, but I should not question it. What really rubs me the wrong way is that if I go one-two blocks away from Tian'anmen Square, I can see people publicly defecating in bushes and on the streets, but I can not take a photo doing my school hand gesture with the Mao portrait. I guess Beijing and old San Francisco have something in common now 🤣. Shout out the new San Francisco Mayor, Daniel Lurie, he revived the city, and I am excited to come back!

Here are some more photos around Tiananmen Square:

Look at how many cameras on this light alone, this is 1984 level surveillance! There were hundreds of cameras like this!

This is where they display Mao's body, Lenin Soviet style! It was closed until September, so we could not go, but I am not complaining 😬

We were probably in Tian'anmen Square for 40 minutes then headed directly to Beihei Park. We were not taking any more chances in Tian'anmen Square.

This was my lunch. Very good, I can not recommend enough!

After Beihei Park, we headed to Lama Temple, but had to get bubble tea (boba) first!

Mixue will rule over China after Xi. This is a little less than the price of an Arizona tea 🤣.

Lama Temple was definitely one of the highlights and my favorite things about Beijing! It is a functioning temple, where people are always coming in and out to pray and give offerings to Buddha. I am not sure if Buddha appreciates Labubu's though 😂.

Here are some photos:

I wonder what happens to the offerings after hours 🤔

Here's some more photos of just the architecture:

After Lama Temple, we headed to the CBD Mall for dinner and the night view, which is in the financial district of Beijing.

I consider Mapo Tofu more of a Japanese dish than Chinese now.

The building on the left is called "Underwear"

We got to the mall a little early, so we decided to walk around the area, and found another copy market down the street. Insane how you can go from luxury high-end shopping to a counterfeit market within one street.

This is Silk Alley Market. I would have thought this is to be a high-end shopping mall at first glance. This puts Westfield Valley Fair to shame.

We got some clothes then headed back to the open terrace.

I can not afford Louis Vuitton, but I can get the Fouis Fuitton.

These photos do not need a caption:

Cole is a devout Catholic and does not miss mass at all, so we had to end the night early, so we could be well-rested for 8 AM mass!