Wednesday, July 5, 2000

Touring Beijing





Today was the full day Beijing tour and what a jam-packed day it was. We started with Mao’s Mausoleum. The line was huge (filled with Chinese people- many of them from rural areas here to pay their respects to the great Helmsman) but moved quickly. Embalmed Mao was looking pretty sad, but we could add it to our list of dictators in a box. Outside the mausoleum, you got a glimpse of how Mao’s socialism is fast becoming capitalist with stands selling everything from Mao clocks to Mao bags to musical lighters.


Then we walked through Tiannamen Square and into the Forbidden City. The scale of everything was beyond belief. The square can hold up to one million people and is filled with hero art statues.

The Forbidden City (off limits to commoners for 500 years) was the home to two dynasties of emperors, the Mings and the Qing. Today it is an amazing collection of classical Chinese architecture. We wandered from Wumen (Meridian Gate) to the three great halls and courtyards of the outer area and saw the Dragon Throne (the Emperor’s throne). Then we passed through a series of courtyards and buildings with names like “Hall of Complete Harmony”, “Hall of Preserving Harmony”, “Palace of Heavenly Purity”, “Palace of Peace and Longevity”. The Palace Museum had an amazing collection of clocks and jewelry.






After lunch (great Chinese food), we went to the Summer Palace. In 1888, the Empress Dowager Cixi diverted funds from the building of a naval fleet to build Yiheyuan, the Garden of Cultivated Harmony (The Summer Palace).

Kunming Lake covers ¾ of the total area of the Palace. The Changlang (Long Corridor) runs parallel to the shore of the lake and is covered with painted scenes from Chinese mythology.



As we headed to the van for our next stop, Kate had an emergency potty stop. The only place in the hutong area was the public toilet. I offered to accompany her. She took one turn into the toilet area and came out gagging. The urge was greater than the need for cleanliness- so she headed back in and provided much amusement to her fellow squatters.

Our last stop was the Temple of Heaven (Tiantin Park). It is set in a huge park with four gates at its compass points. It originally functioned as a stage for solemn rites performed by the Son of Heaven (praying for good harvests, etc) and was also used by the Emperor to perform the major ceremonial rites of the year.
The temples are round and its’ bases square (reflecting the Chinese belief that heaven is round and the earth is square. The Round Altar, constructed in 1630, rebuilt in 1740 was composed of white marble in three tiers. Its’ geometry revolves around the imperial number 9 (the top tier – symbolizing heaven- has 9 rings of stone, with each ring composed of multiples of 9 stones- so the 9th ring has 81 stones). The numbers of stairs are multiples of 9’s. Odd numbers were considered heavenly and nine is the largest single digit odd number. Around the altar is the Echo Wall where John and Martin amused the other tourists by yelling to each other things like, “John is a butt-plug” or “Martin is a gay-homosexual” and listened to the echo across the wall.
By this point, we were pretty “toured out” and headed for the hotel for a rest before dinner.
We had heard rave recommendations of a place called Uncle Afantis-a Uighur restaurant, so we grabbed a cab and headed over. The place was jammed with locals. We ate and were entertained by Uighur musicians and dancers (looking very Turkic). Then they started to play “The Macarena” and grabbed people from the audience onto the stage.
It went crazy from there on. People were dancing on the tables until all hours (including a few of our party). Sarah’s comment was perfect. She said, “Aren’t they communist?”


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