Most of the Group in Tiananmen Square. But those Chinese tourists get everywhere, don't they?!
Arrived quite early in Beijing; 8am or so, at Beijing West Station. Apparently the biggest railway station in Asia. I would say that it's not particularly central, but Beijing city is very spread out so not very much is close to the 'centre' anyway!! It did take us a while to get through the station - occasionally we were harassed by minibus drivers but Jane had already arranged ours.
Our hotel was on the South side of the city, and it took maybe 45 minutes to get there. Traffic wasn't as bad as in Xi'an (but we did see one tailback on the opposite side of the road on one of the ring roads). Most of the vehicles were taxis or minibuses/minivans. Our hotel was the "Tiantan Hotel", which was relatively close to the building and gardens of the same name (viz. 'Temple of Peace').
Just as in Xi'an, we arrived at our hotel before the rooms were ready. We lurked about a bit on the ground floor, and saw an "incident". Some bloke (light brown jacket, white socks, natch) was having some kind of dispute with a security guard. We thought nothing of it, but then he started to walk out the doors, before breaking into a run as the security guard chased after him! We never found out what that was all about, but 20 minutes later the guard came back, not empty-handed lol! Chinese efficiency and determination, you *will* not escape!
We waited outside our rooms for a bit; the Odettes gave me some really good Chinese bread. Mine was one of the last rooms to be cleaned, which was a little frustrating but meh what can you do? Eventually, over an hour after we arrived, I could stop to rest.
But not for long. Today was another early start, although we weren't going too far; a relatively short taxi ride to the centre of Beijing - Tiananman Square ('The Gate of Heavenly Peace'). I had a bizarre feeling about this; this was my 20th day in Asia, yet the concept of being in Tiananmen Square really made me think, for the first time, yes, here I was in China; I'm really here!
We went there by taxi through the rather busy streets in between, and got out by an old railway station (now a shopping mall) just beyond a road to the South of the square. There were a couple of souvenir-type shops around, but all we bought was water (it was a very warm, clear morning). Daniel and Dette and a couple of others brought out breakfast from McDonalds!
We crossed the main road through an underpass and stepped out onto the square. It's so big though that it really doesn't look like one square; it looks like a normal road - but pedestrianised! There are a number of gates on the square, each with a different symbolic role - one however was removed to make way for Chairman Mao's mausoleum (surprisingly not called the MAOsoleum!). The square was full of people, very busy thoroughfare. As we walked along it, the buildings of the forbidden city grew ahead of us.
We stopped on the square for a rest. It really is a lot bigger than it seems on TV etc. We decided to take advantage of the small queue and go and see Chairman Mao (usually apparently you can end up queueing for over an hour!!). We didn't go in as a group - some didn't go in at all - I ended up with Alan and James again. Some people bought some flowers (lilies) from outside. When we got inside, the opening room had a large statue of Mao and two doors beyond either side of him - our queue filled through both of them, as directed by two guards. Those who had brought flowers were allowed to place them at the foot of the statue.
Then we filed through the doors and passed the body itself. We weren't allowed to stop, unfortunately, so we only saw one side of him, and pretty quickly at that! He's smaller than I imagined him to be, with a bit of a waxy complexion (he looks like he'd had one too many face-lifts!); oh and he's also a fat bastard!! But he's still very popular - the sheer numbers of people queueing up to see him is testament to that.
Beyond the body was the exit hall, where it was possible to buy all kinds of Mao memorabilia. We decided not to, and wandered back to where the group was. Oh yeh, one other point - we weren't allowed to take anything into the mausoleum, no cameras, bags, or bottles.
We took a few photos on Tiananmen Square before heading down another underpass to enter the Forbidden City.
We went round the Forbidden City at our own pace; all semblance of group activity went out the window! Headphones were available so you could listen to a spoken tour as you went around - many languages (but not Swedish!). The English language tour (indicated on the wall of the office with an American flag gnash growl) was narrated by Roger Moore, a fact later sarcastically alluded to at various points by Daniel.
What a couple of them did -> a sort of Anglo-New Zealand cost-cutting exercise, was hire one spoken Roger Moore guide, and one of the group would listen and sum up to the others what it was all about. This is because Roger cost 60 Yuan and the entrance fee was only 40 Yuan!
Interesting place, especially given its raison d'etre! The first area, plus the entrance, is a wide courtyard that was used in older times as a sort of pseudo-market-square. It provided the nearest outlet for the ladies of the court to recreate the concept of 'the outside world'. The 'Forbidden' aspect of the city thus worked both ways. It was forbidden, without prior and very special consent, for an outsider to enter the gates of the city, still less the inner chambers. However, it was equally as forbidden for those living within to go outside of the city.
The inhabitants of the city were the Emperor, his wife and family, his harem of courtly ladies, the eunuchs that served them, and other courtly personnel. The South end was given to the Emperor, while his wife etc. had the North end, and entered by the less significant North Gate. I guess it must have been quite a boring and lonely life, although a big place it wasn't the world so I imagine you would get bored easily.
Or maybe not, given the demise of one or two of the Emperors; one of whom, we are reliably informed by Roger, left around 30 children, some 28 of them mothered by harem girls; another died 'in the act'. You can imagine Roger's eyebrows flittering at that one! :p
Although we could pass through the Forbidden City, the buildings inside were closed - we could peer through the doors or the many windows to see what lay inside, but we couldn't actually go in to see for ourselves, which was a bit of a shame. They are mostly of a similar style outside, but each has little tweaks to make them all unique - from small iron statues at the roof edge, to a long (20-30 metres) length of marble, transported to the city in one piece from the stonemason some 35 miles out of town, by sliding it along iced roads!
At the far North end of the City is a small park, complete with 'mountain', a small stone block, maybe 30 feet high, requested by one of the emperors to remind him of the world outside - so he could pretend to climb the mountains in his country and, at the top, look out across his empire.
We spent a couple of hours in the City, looking round, sometimes in a group, sometimes not. By the end though, we'd all kind of broken up. Several of the others were going to head for the flea markets in the eastern part of the city, I decided to walk North, towards the Hutong area. And yes, I did walk; at the time I'd got bothered by bike/sidecar operators I didn't actually know where I wanted to go. After a bit of indecision, I headed North.
I walked down a couple of long streets, at first tree-lined and residential, but then more shopping streets. I passed over a nice waterway, leading to a sort of harbour, although deserted it was all nicely decorated with flags and stuff.
I reached the Hutong area after some time. It's hard to believe that somewhere as different as this is only two miles from central Beijing. These Hutongs are the remnants of the old residential parts of the city, originally found all over Beijing but now there are only scattered pockets left; the largest of which is on the North side of the city centre. They are an area of narrow streets and alleyways, downbeat housing in cramped areas, traditionally Chinese. The government has been trying to remove them for years, and get everyone to live in normal (high-rise?) housing, but in doing so it has made the Hutongs themselves into a tourist attraction ('oh look, how quaint!'). It has to be said they were quite quiet while I was there! It must be easy to get lost in them, they're full of little streets, blind curves, and dead ends!
Walked back to the hotel. This was probably an impressive achievement; fortunately it had cooled down quite considerably from the morning (still hot though!). It was about 6-7 miles, and I was quite dead at the end of it (having already walked a fair way - the Forbidden City itself must have been 1½ miles long!). At one point I thought we were going to have a thunderstorm but fortunately we didn't.
Flaked out in my room for the next couple of hours. Most of the others went out early evening to see some performing Chinese acrobats -> that sort of thing ahs never been my scene and besides I was still tired so I stayed in.
We all met up again though after dark, for another meal. I went downstairs to wait in the hotel lobby, and I got met by Dan, who was in a bit of a casual fluster as he'd managed to lose his hotel room key! He wasn't too bothered though, as even if he admitted to it the 'fine' for a replacement was only 50 Yuan or something.
The meal, in a restaurant just down the side street from the hotel, was reasonably good - the broccoli in oyster sauce was surprisingly excellent and full of flavour. It was also pretty cheap, just over 12 Yuan each for the whole mini banquet.
Wandered back to the hotel in stages; the last to leave were Andy and Dee ... This again gave rise to some rumours (tsk). I stocked up on water and snacks from the local corner shop. Lots of walking tomorrow!