Beijing- Day 1

I'm posting this a few days later than the actual return from the capital city of this large country; I'm still playing tourist with my guests, and we are too busy checking out the town for me to sit and write.


Last week we set out on a three night four day sightseeing trip to Beijing. Our original plans included taking the train there, but it was a little daunting to consider an 11 hour ride. We took the option of a plane instead; we ended up waiting for our delayed flight for three hours- so while it was still faster than the train, it took a while to get there. We chose a package that included the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Tian'anmen Square, Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall. Our driver and personal tour guide met us at the airport and took us to our hotel. We walked around a bit, saw the immense railway station and ate a bit of dinner.


On the next day, we began out tour with a short ride to the Tian'an men square and the Forbidden city. Unfortunately, we discovered that the Square had been restricted to all visitors. We were told that the Congress was still in session (there were "elections" the previous week)and that we would not be allowed to walk on the square (and we had questions about the refrigeration of Mao and use of generators). We figured that the Taiwanese elections might have also been a factor, and perhaps even the Tibet "protests" might have been a factor. We took photos from across the street like everyone else and shuffled towards the Forbidden City.

What an amazing site!! The buildings are huge and the walls that surround them are immense. Lots of square shaped buildings with carved red windows and large doors with all kinds of copper animals that decorate them. The wooden ceiling beams are painted with blue, red and gold and are of animals that are purely fictional. They had 308 huge metal containers that were for holding water in case of fire- there were a number of references to fore preventive measures- so I guess that it must have been a grave concern for them.

One of the emperors actually had a house built for his mother to use on her birthday and no other time. The incredible display of wealth in the midst of the overwhelming poverty that existed in China at the time boggles the mind. It is also amazing that it still stands today; the communists who took over in the middle part of the last century could have easily eradicated the whole place as a symbol of the oppression of the masses by the very few rich people.

After a short lunch break and a required stop at a "pearl factory", we proceeded on to the summer palace. The most astounding thing about this location is that it is right in the middle of a suburb- you would never guess that it exists beyond the gate. The lake and buildings literally jump out at you as soon as you have paid the ticket fee to visit, and have crossed the gate. The lake was dug out by thousands of peasants and the hill was created with the soil. Then, this enormous structure was placed at the top and houses a multi armed Buddha. You can walk around the entire lake or hire paddle boats to propel yourself around. Despite the cold that day, there was a horde of Chinese and foreign tourists. Great day for flying kites, and there were a number of people who were doing just that.






We finished the day with an acrobat show (not as cheesy as expected) and a Peking Duck dinner. Tired and filled with our first images of Beijing, we returned to our hotel to rest and make sure that we would be ready for the next day- the long awaited Great Wall day.