The day started early when I awoke at 3 AM and could not get back to sleep!! I tried for about an hour, then gave up. Miraculously and for no explainable reason the internet started working for me in my room, so I went online and checked emails and read the New York Times, then showered and read my China books till it was time for breakfast. The breakfast was an interesting mix of Chinese food and some nod towards Western tastes, but leaning much more heavily towards Chinese breakfast preferences! After breakfast we had a briefing with our guide before meeting to get our bus and go to Tianenman Square.
Tianenman Square is a vast space and was absolutely packed today. Not only is this high tourist season for foreign visitors, its school holiday time so Chinese families are traveling for their vacations too and Beijing's famous sites, like Tianenman and the Forbidden City are high on the list for internal Chinese travel. The phrase "sea of humanity" took on whole new meaning today. Truly the crowds were overwhelming. Asians do not like to get suntanned, so they use umbrellas on sunny days to block the sun and in the massive crowds like we had today, that can get tricky to navigate. You really have to be careful not to get your eyes poked out by an umbrella spoke! And it was very hot and sticky, which the crowded conditions only exacerbated. Tianenman is a vast amount of space with the Chinese parliament on one side, a major museum on the other, and the Forbidden City at one end, with the huge portrait of Chairman Mao looking out over the square. We had a group picture taken with Mao in the background. The gardens around the square are quite striking. I've included a picture of the manicured flowering trees that bank two sides of the square.
The Forbidden City is imposing and gorgeous. It is an all wood structure, with ceramic tile roofs and intricate painted decorations everywhere. Home of various emperors throughout China's history, the whole place gives the sense of wealth, and power and empire, although clearly faded. There are 9999 rooms in the whole complex (one shy of 10,000 which number applies to places in heaven, thus signifying that this place, while on earth is as close to heaven as you can get!). We stopped into one of the courtyards to get an idea of what the whole place is like. It was the courtyard of the living quarters of the Empress Dowager, the mother of the last emperor of China who ascended to power when he was only 3 years old. It was fascinating to see the rooms in which they lived and the beautiful artifacts of furniture, decor, and artwork of the era. Everything looks faded and worn, but you can easily imagine the beauty when it was all new and actually being used. There was a spot in the Forbidden City where people can rent costumes of Chinese clothing during the time of the emperors and lots of families were having their children dress up. I've included a picture I took of two kids who were enjoying playing little emperor. The clothes were really quite beautiful! I could not help but notice, as Nicholas Kristof notes in his book about China, that when the imperial rule of China ended, the imperial ethos did not. Now the Communist Party and its legendary heros (like Mao) are revered and venerated in much the same way as the emperors of old. They simply traded one kind of imperial rule for another!!
We walked through a beautiful imperial garden as we wound our way out the North Gate of the complex. Then we walked along the moat to our bus and went to lunch in a small restaurant that was packed with Chinese people, not tourists. We gorged ourselves on many courses of different Chinese dishes. We sit family style and the lazy Susan spins around so we can all dig in to the many dishes that are on offer. We left there truly stuffed.
Then we went back to the hotel and had a 20 minute break (not much considering how hot and tired we were) and then half of us joined our guide for a walking tour of the area around the hotel. The highlight of that was sauntering through the "Merry Mart", the Beijing version of Wegman's (nowhere near as chic or upscale to be sure, but packed with Chinese people.) To my delight I found Pepsi Max (a diet version which is hard to come by over here!) and a small container of milk with which to have my morning tea. Then I had less than an hour before we had to leave for dinner. It was so beastly hot today that I had to take a cool down shower before changing for dinner. We went to a lovely restaurant that specializes in Peking Duck and stuffed ourselves some more. Many of us were so full from lunch we could barely manage dinner! One thing's for sure -we will never be hungry on this trip if this is the pattern we're going to have.
So now I'm off to bed at 9:00! I've been awake since 3 AM and am keeling over. Even the rock hard mattress won't phase me tonight!
Tomorrow its on to the Great Wall!
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