Beijing: Tienanman Square and The Forbidden City

Roland and I went to Beijing last week. He was speaking at a conference and I tagged along. It was amazing. I had hoped to blog from Beijing but the government has closed access to blogs. Here is my partial report of day one.

Tienanmen Square:

 

 Roland is bummed that the People's Hall is closed to the public. All official government buildings had the red China circle. The scale of Beijing is huge. Everything is huge. Wide streets, enormous buildings, it is bigger than NYC but less dense (NYC 18million - Beijing 22 million). And most of the growth was in the last 30 years. Tienanmen Square was very large (largest city square in the world) and you could feel the security cameras on you. I had the feeling that bad things had happened there. And they had. It has quite a bloody history.

Only in major tourist areas of Beijing did we get attention for being American. This was the first of many pictures people asked for with Roland. She was very excited for this picture. Most Beijingers didn't make a big deal about us, I think it was people from the countryside that were impressed by Roland's coloring and height. It was fun to walk behind him and watch people react to him and how they would point and gesture. I did have my own celebrity moment - more on that later.

(picture off the internet - no cameras allowed in the mausoleum) 

Chairman Mao is encased in a crystal coffin at Tienanmen Square. We got in line and reverently shuffled past his frozen body (the body is lowered into a subterranean freezer each night). It was the only time I was surrounded by quiet Chinese people. Most of the tourists in China are Asian and most of them travel in tour groups with matching hats. We saw few westerners and when I did see someone who looked like us, they were usually European.

Roland places a call - cell service was spotty - from the square in front of the old city wall (Mao tore down most of the city wall).

Q. How many Chinese workers does it take to change a light bulb? :

A. A lot (I stole this joke from Sara)

The Forbidden City:

(Newly re-named the Palace Museum, but doesn't Forbidden City sound more exciting?)

Here we are at the entrance to the Forbidden City. There are lots of copies of the picture of Chairman Mao in storage in case anything happens to that picture (years ago people threw eggs filled with paint at the picture and it was immediately replaced). They put up a fresh picture every year because the pollution is so bad. Interestingly the streets are clean, no garbage or trash, but the air quality is horrible.

Jamie and Sara traveled with us. Sara and I hung out while Jamie and Roland worked the conference. See the umbrellas? The Chinese women carry them always. They are elaborately decorated sun umbrellas. I think they are pretty but what a hassle to carry! Much easier to do sunscreen and a hat. Plus the umbrella tines are eye level and I was sure someone would get their eye poked out. I bet it has happened.

Like I said, the scale of the place is huge. And not a spot of shade or a bench to rest on.

The People's Army. They marched around everyplace. They take it pretty seriously.

All the buildings are covered with elaborate painting and brass works.

Roland held the camera up high for this picture. When he brought his arm down he bonked a woman on the head. He was continually bonking people on the head with his elbows.

I stood and wondered for a long time if this depicts playfulness or power. I think power. The rock mural on the stairs behind this uh, thing, is carved out of one piece of rock and was transported on a slab of ice.

I told the boys that those were skulls near the top of the picture. Actually, it is rock. They love lava rock, especially if it is light colored. We saw lava rock at all the best temples.

We only saw a fraction of the Forbidden City before hunger and heat got the best of us. After consulting Sara's Lonely Planet guidebook (much better than my Nat'l Geo book) we set off in a taxi for an amazing (in fact the best of the trip) meal at a vegetarian restaurant near a Buddhist temple.