Being in Beijing

Hello to all my dear friends
I arrived in Beijing on Saturday night, and today (wed) I am leaving for Hohhot, which is in Inner Mongolia and a province of China. I know I wrote you all an email earlier, with details of my first few days, but a whole other day in CHina means lots to write about.
Since I am still a bit jet-lagged I wake up very early in the morning here, at about 5:30. But this meas that I have the whole day to explore, and see things that you would not see in the afternoons. So, with that in mind, i went to the Temple of heaven park yesterday at 6am. You'd think that a park would be empty and quiet at such a time, but not in China!! THere were hundreds, maybe thousands, of older people doing various excercizes and dances, and even yelling. It was a sight to see! we first went to this area that has permanent gym exuipment, which looks like playgrounds. There is a version of thigh crunchers, back rubbers, stair-masters, and sit-up benches (as you can tell by my vocab, I dont go to the gym!). There was an old man there, about 80+ years, doing so many pull-ups I lost count. Everyone was so fit, and we thought that North america should have such outdoor (and free) gym equipment. Next to this area there was a bunch of women who were dancing to techno music, and they all knew the moves as if they had been doing them their whole lives. One lady motioned for me to come over and joind them, but as many of you know I am not the most co-ordinated person!
This park was huge, and there were many other interesting and obscure health regimes to be seen. One was of about 100 people yelling and hitting themselves whith clapping in between. But after we roamed the park we decided to actually visit the Temple of Heaven. This was a beautiful place indeed. Here, the Chinese emporers would pray to the heavens each new year in order for China to have good harvests. The base of the temple is square, which symbolizes Earth, and the other levels were circular, which is to mean the heavens. This is also reflected in old Chinese coins, with the square in the middle of the circle. Also, the four wood pillars inside reflected the four seasons, which was painted delicately and brightly. In fact, this is the oldest wooden temple in China, which is indeed a special thing.
After a long morning, and a big lunch, I decided to wander over to Tiananmen Square. Well, I actually took the bus...much easier. Tiananmen Square is the largest public space in the world, and can hold over a million people. Thankfully, there was only half a millong people there when I went! I just brought a book and sat down on the pavement (which everyone does here) and read a book and people watched. As I was spying, I noticed the cutest baby that was wearing the pants with a hole in the bum, so they can poop freely. This is what every baby wears instead of diapers. Anyways, this boy was so cute, and then his dad noticed me looking at him, so he brought the boy over to me. "you are the first foreigner he has ever seen" said the father, who was accompanied by his wife. We started chatting, as the man spoke excellent english, and a few pictures later we all sat down and talked for three hours! We were waiting for the ceremony where the guards take down the Chinese flag, as is done every sunrise and sunset. we got excellent seats, on the pavement, and just chatted away, while learning some mandaring and them some engish. I was also holding the little boy, and the litle guy started peeing! Remember, no diapers! It was pretty funny though and i was already drity and stinky anyways. So, as the ceremony was getting closer, more and more people started shoring up, until there was hundreds of people (mainly Chinese tourists) wating to watch the guards.
Now, before I tell the next part of the story, I need to let you know that many things are cencored in CHina. Expecially on the internet. I have googled many things, and I do not get any hits back. Also, all emails are somehow cencored, and any key words found that are deemed "dangerous" mean that the email disapears. I dont know if this applies to blogs. SO, I will code the cult which i will speak of...it's initials are FG or FD.
Anyways, back to Tiananmen. As we were wating for the sunset, an old lady went running towards the clearing towards the flag, which was surrounded by guards. She was throwing flyers everywhere, and I knew that she was a member of FG. She started yelling, and I wish I understood Mandarin, but I heard the cult name several times. The guards calmly sprung into action, and imediately picked up the fliers and grabbed the old woman. THis was not done chaotically, but so orderly it was like this happened everyday. Then, the soldiers took the woman through the croud, out of my view. I had an awefull feeling of where she went.
My new friends told me that most Chinese do not like the cult, and that the practitioners are bad. I told him that many people in Canada think opposite, in which he said that canadians dont know China very well. It was interesting to hear his point of view.
After that event happened, the ceremony began. It was not that great, but the whole afternoon with the family made it a day I will never forget. I finally made it back to the hostel, and ate dinner and watched the game with some fellow travellers. I wanted to stay up to watch Sweden V England, but that was at 3 am and I was right pooped!

Anyways, I have to get ready for my train journey to Hohhot now. Today we went to the Forbidden City, which was the emperor's palace. it was beautiful, but so hot and many people. I much more enjoyed the walk around the moat, which had less people and many trees!

Take care all,
Zai Jian

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