Beijing

---

24 October - 6 November

Beijing - the big city that has the whole world's attention, now and throughout history. We settled into a hostel tucked away on one of the narrow alleys that are known as hutongs. These alleys are fantastic, with stores, teashops, restaurants, schools, police stations, markets and everything else set up along the narrow lanes. The hutongs are arranged as a maze of east-west thoroughfares and are almost as old as Beijing itself, being implemented as defensive measure against calvary swooping in from the north. One common phrase from historical hutong life is "I'm so happy I don't even know where north is". I could spend a week just walking up and down these streets.

But, bigger and better things beckon. First, we made the first of three trips to the Forbidden City (or at least its environs - we only went in once). It is hard to describe the immense scale and grandeur of the Forbidden City. Built and enlarged over centuries, it seems to go on forever. As soon as you round a corner there is an entire new complex waiting, and then this wing and that annex - and that's just what was open to the public; many more areas were colsed or being renovated in time for the Summer Olympics. There are beautiful gardens and ponds around the Forbidden City but littl ein the way of vegetation inside the City itself. For beautiful landscapes and an excellent example of fitting architecture into nature (and vice versa) a visit to the Summer Palace is mandatory. This is another monumental undertaking that covers three square kilometers, with 3/4 of that area being the man-made Kunming Lake. The Summer Palace was, obviously, set up as a summer residence but it's hard to imagine that royalty didn't return in the fall to enjoy the stunning colors of the falling leaves, blue skies and constantly changing lake surface. And again, it was such a nice surprise to see all the Chinese tourists and locals who came out from Beijing for the day - they are so proud of their heritage and happy to see their history presented in such a beautiful manner; it was a joy just to look at them looking at the sights.

And, to finish the trifecta, we wound up our time in Beijing with a daytrip to a 2.25-km section of the Great Wall of China at a town called Mutianyu. And before I drag on too long let me insert the requisite Mao Zedong quote about the Great Wall - "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man". A nice thing about this section of the wall is it's length and the presence of several watchtowers. A not-so-nice thing is the somewhat overzealous restoration work takes away some the historic feel, in my humble opinion - but as an aarchaeologist I tend to like my old things dirty, dusty and with their own hard-won style. But yes Mao, I agree with you - to walk the wall and look north over those fall colors is a memory for a lifetime - and that's coming from a true man.

---