Today we met up with Eric again in the hotel foyer at 8am. We were off to the Forbidden City.
We walked out of the hotel and round the corner to a bus stop, where we caught a bus to Qianmen ('front gate', aka Zhengyangmen, 'Gate of the Zenith Sun'), which is the gate just south of the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. There is a a short walk (for some) from the bus stop to the entrances to Tienanmen Square. We were lucky to have a guide, as he was able to take us through special route that bypassed the huge queue of individuals waiting to pass through security before entering the square.
We then walked down a wide avenue between the Bank of China and Mao's Mausoleum, then between the Great Hall of the People on the left and the Monument to the People's Heroes on the right, where a group of Young Pioneers were marching in to pay their respects.
Then onto Tienanmen Square itself. One word — VAST! Crowds of people, numerous stands not selling ice creams, but selling photographs of visitors taken on the spot. The square is dominated by the Tienanmen Gate, bearing a huge portrait of Chairman Mao, and flanked by ranks of permanent viewing stands for the annual National Day parades. The gate itself is undergoing renovation prior to the parade on the 70th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949, so much of it was covered by screening — of the same color, but you can't see the actual gate.
(How the gate usually appears)
We then walked into the Forbidden City, the palace of the emperors of China from .... to 1911, when the last emperor Pu Yi was deposed. He continued to live in the palace, however, until 1925, when officials realised that he was selling off the palace treasures, at which point he was forcibly removed and imprisoned. Later he was sent to work as a farmer, and even later became a minor official, finally dying of kidney cancer in 1969.
The Buddhist heaven contains 10,000 rooms. The emperor didn't wish to appear presumptuous, so he had his palace built with 9,999½ rooms!
After exploring the main palace buildings, we went into a side building — previously dedicated as a place officials could wait for their audiences with the emperor, but now exhibiting gifts given to emperor Qianlong for his 80th birthday in 1790 — they all were covered in symbols representing longevity — the Chinese character for longevity, the phoenix, the turtle, the peach, the Chinese god of longevity. The porcelain, in particular, is exquisite!
We went out through the emperor's garden, where some of the trees are over 300 years old, many more over 200. They really make a big thing of the gnarled and twisted trunks of these trees!
Then out of the Forbidden City, and a bus to the Drum and Bell Towers. The square between them is a hangout for Mahjongg and Chinese Chess players. The Mahjongg is lively, the chess considered!
We walked a little further, and found a restaurant for lunch. Eric helped us choose very delicious noodle dishes. We are getting quite proficient at handling slippery noodles with chopsticks!
We meandered through the Hutongs — the older living areas of Beijing. The younger people are moving out of these areas, as there are no private bathrooms. But this makes it easier for the traveller, as there are public toilets everywhere. By the way, Hutong dwellings are interesting, in that the lintel of the gateway rests on 4, 2, or no protruding logs (in the last case, resting only on the side pillars of the gateway). This is a sign of the status of the residents — 4 logs for a high official; 2 logs for a minor official; no logs meaning the lowest status of all. This was useful for picking marriage partners, as a quick look at the gateway indicated the suitability of the potential bride(s) inside!
Throughout Beijing, all the 6 million cars are dirty or dusty, and we were wondering why. It turns out there is virtually no off-street parking in Beijing. In the narrow streets of the Hutongs, this makes it particularly interesting. The residents have masters the art of parking millimetre distances from the household walls.
From the hutongs, we then reached the metro, at Guloudajie Station (at the mid-point of the northern part of the Line 2 loop), and took the train round the loop to Hepingmen Station (near the mid-point of the southern part) from where it was a short back to our hotel. We took our leave of Eric, and went up to bed after another very full day!
No comments:
Post a Comment