The Forbidden City

We joined about 1.5 million other visitors on a Chinese national holiday to explore the Forbidden City in Beijing. It was a blistering hot and insanely busy day, but despite it all, it was still fascinating to see. Still, at times I was confused as to what people were really more interested in seeing, the Forbidden City or a group of foreign people. Today we became the subjects of so many family photos I couldn't even begin to count them! It started out innocently (or so I thought)...a mother saw me comment on her daughter's cool holiday hat, and then asked me to join them in a photo. As time passed, some more people approached and asked to take pictures...I started thinking this was a little weird. Then I noticed that some people who were just too shy (or didn't want) to approach me, were simply standing in front of me and having someone take their picture as if I just happened to be in the background! The best was when one family would stop our group and ask a few people to take a photo.....family members would take turns rotating. Other people would notice that we stopped for these people, so they would jump in next! I think the sun was getting to everyone by the afternoon. Some people would just grab us and put us in pictures without asking. One lady asked to have her picture taken with Julie.... Julie had her sunglasses on, and the woman asked her to take them off for the picture! Others simply walked up to our faces and started snapping. At that point in the day we set out some game rules.....we would only be in photos if the people asked us, and they did so politely....otherwise we kindly said no thank you. The fascination with taking our photos is really interesting to me. I would have expected the people in Beijing to be used to having foreign people around because it is the capital city of China and visited by many tourists. However, I suppose the photographers could have been visitors from elsewhere as well. In the end, even though at the time it seemed a bit annoying to all of us, I'm happy that something as small as posing for a picture with a few kids could make a mother so excited that she had to give me a hug (and that really did happen!) Now a bit about the Forbidden City itself....

The Forbidden City was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties (about 5 centuries). I heard that it's the largest palace complex in the world, and one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world also (which explains the day's crowds!). A lot of the buildings and rooms are under construction, so we spent most of the day walking outside, through the alleys, gardens and courtyards. That was not a problem though, because there are so many it was easy to enjoy and get lost somewhere in the middle.

After the tour of the city, we exited the walls and walked across the street to Tiananmen Square. The crowds equally as large, and photo keen as well. Tiananmen Square also has a "world's largest" status....it is the world's largest open-urban square. It's been the site of many political events. One of the more well-known incidents that occured here is the 1989 protests that resulted in the July Fourth Movement (Chinese media lablel), or the Tiananmen Massacre (Western media label). In this event, hundreds to thousands of protesters were killed by army under government order. It is still considered taboo to speak of this occurence in China.

Our journey back to the hostel was one of the most uncomfortable rides I have ever taken. We thought we would be doing ourselves a favour by taking the 30 cent bus ride, rather than the $3 cab ride. However, there seems to be no rule as to how many people are allowed on a bus at one time. Let's just say that there were so many people, I'm not sure the kid that was beside me was actually touching the ground with his feet because he was so squished! It was an experience that I will never forget! (and hopefully never do again!)

Tonight we prep for our journey to the Great Wall!

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