Sunday, May 10
After another filling breakfast in the hotel we
boarded our van with the crazy driver to head to Tiananmen Square and
the Forbidden City. We had a different tour guide today, Lily, who was
in her 30s and very friendly and knowledgeable.
It was raining so we didn’t have pristine photo moments of the day and
the sites but, I did what I could to remember the places we visited.
After crossing a 14 lane (!) main
thoroughfare, we drove into the heart of Beijing, and saw many older
buildings which is a big contrast to the rest of the city. Lily
explained that since Chairman Mao’s time, the government
had been tearing down the old neighborhoods to replace them with high
rises for the growing population. Then, someone realized that Beijing
would look like any other Chinese city without its history, so they
stopped and preserved the area near the oldest part
of the city. We drove past the residence of the current party chairman,
a beautiful home surrounded by trees and sitting on a lake. This is a
rare sight in this city where every square inch is concrete and
multilevel buildings.
Mao in My Hand
We drove down narrow streets with old style
traditional Chinese houses and people riding bikes and selling things on
the street. Our driver just kept going! People might be walking on the
side of the road but he just honks the horn and
goes. A family might be trying to cross an intersection, but he pushes
right through. The city bus is trying to get out into traffic and he
competes with it for the lane as my shoulder comes close to the big bus.
No wonder I had an upset stomach for a couple
days.
The driver left us off at a street corner across
from Tiananmen Square and Lily gathered us under our umbrellas to give
us a little information. There were government buildings surrounding the
square that were designed after Russian architecture.
One giant parliament building was built in 10 months, Lily said
proudly. And Chairman Mao’s mausoleum was on the other side of the
square. Apparently, his body isn’t looking so good so their thinking of
taking it out of view. Tiananmen Square is 500 acres
in size, supposedly the largest public square in the world. The Chinese
flag waves over it and Lily explained what the stars stand for. The
largest star is for the Communist Party. Then there are 4 stars in a
half circle from top to bottom. The top one, most
important, is for the farmers, the next for the workers, the next for
the soldiers, and coming in last place is the star for the
intellectuals. I asked Lily if anyone talks about the Tiananmen Square
incident where “tank man” defied the Chinese authority as
this is what much of the outside world thinks about when we hear the
title, but she said “no, no one talks about that.” And that was the end
of it.
Tiananmen Square in the rain
On one end of the Square is the Forbidden City. It
is its own city within the city of Beijing. It is where the emperors and
aaallll their 3,000 concubines, children, maids, soldiers, and
government officials lived. It is a huge place. Since
it was Sunday, thousands of Chinese tourists were coming to visit this
area. And since it was raining, everyone had an umbrella. I thought the
crowds were bad enough but umbrellas pose an extra challenge as we
pushed our way toward the entrance. There are
police and soldiers everywhere and we had to go through a security
checkpoint. Once inside, the three of us teachers and our personal
attendant, Rowling, dodged and wove to keep up with our guide, Lily, in
between the crowds of multicolored raincoats and umbrellas.
There were many tour guides calling out to their groups on megaphones
and pushy tourists in matching hats following. I did see a few groups of
westerners with their own guides but most people were Chinese.
Inside the Forbidden City
The Forbidden City was called that because it was
forbidden for any lay person to enter. You would be instantly executed.
It had many methods to prevent entry such as a large moat, multiple
inner courtyards, a cobblestone ground that was
3 layers deep to prevent tunneling, and, if you did make it inside to
execute the emperor, 3,000 different concubine residences – he could be
anywhere! With the emperors gone, the Forbidden City has been invaded by
tourists. We go through one imposing gate
after another, under arched tunnels, and into courtyards surrounded by
brightly painted buildings with golden roofs. Lily explained that the
color gold represents royalty and that is why the royal entrances have
gold roofs. There was a royal library with a
green tile roof. Green represents the earth and is a prevention against
fire. A good color to have on top of a library.
We could peak inside the buildings to see the
throne room, the royal residence, and the concubines’ residences. It
must have been an amazing place 600 years ago. It was probably thronging
with people as it was today but I’m sure it was
much more orderly.
We went to lunch at a large and busy restaurant.
Lily exclaimed that it was busy so you knew it was good! At this point, I
was more in the mood for a quiet café. But the food was good – lots of
rice and vegetable dishes, chicken, and a
delicious fish soup that took off the chill of the day.
Temple of Heaven
Locals in the Park at the Temple of Heaven
In the afternoon, we continued on to the Temple of
Heaven. It was built at the same time of the Forbidden City and it was
were the emperor came three times a year to worship the gods. The roofs
of these buildings were tiles of dark blue
as blue symbolizes heaven. The 3 tiered round temple and accompanying
buildings were surrounded by a beautiful forest of cypress trees 300-500
years old. It was so peaceful after a day of crowd pushing. But we
didn’t linger long. Local people were using the
park and outer buildings to play Chinese chess and poker, there was a
group singing and playing instruments, and some people were kicking a
feathered sack (similar to the game hackysack) around.
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