No, Really. DO. NOT. ASK. About Tanks

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We spent the first half of our day visiting history, both ancient and recent.
First, the new, Tian-men Square; a place with a far more bitter history in the United States than the Chinese attribute to it. This city square is the largest in the world, and sits centrally in the Chaoyang district, and has been around for far longer than most people realize. I was under the impression the square hadn't been around for more than a couple decades at most, but like most things in China, the square is a lot older than you might think. In 1651, the original design and construction of the square took place, and it's barely been adjusted since then.
There's really not much to say about our walk around the square, it would be like trying to explain the stretch of pavement in front of the iconic screen at Times Square, it's a big, centrally located area that gets people from place to place and allows them to gather without the barriers found in other places. Besides that, it's the gateway path to another site-visit, the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City was another site I enjoyed, even though it wasn't what I had expected. Since I was little, my family has always given me "kid's" books about history, the pyramids, Rome, Greece, the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs, and some books about Chinese history, too. I remember reading about the hundreds of rooms, the palatial city's rules about staying and leaving, the sorts of affairs that only went on in the city because that's where everyone who was anyone lived, and they never left. Of course, in those books, the pictures all represent the oldest known decorations of places, the bright colors and new construction, and the most elaborate rooms and elements, so when it came to seeing the Forbidden City as it stands today... I wasn't disappointed, but rather a little at a loss for words. Those books I read as a child never gave me the full impression of how many courtyards the place really had, nor that there were truly so many of them it was likely that the courtyards were all one might see on a visit. The place was still incredibly weighty with history and the feel of age, and I grasped that and enjoyed it. But as a child, you register that there were huge, lavish parties thrown in spaces that would make a wedding at the Plaza seem droll and plain, not that those spaces were usually either empty, to accommodate the masses that would have to gather there for court business, or only served as massive, sprawling walkways to get from one place to another. The palace had been renovated for gatherings concerning the 2008 Olympic Games, and so much of the painting and polishing on public fixtures was far fresher than some interior decor, which had been preserved in its aged state in the interest of history. It was nice to see some headpieces and parts of the pagodas in bright, new paint, but seeing how perfectly intricate the original painting was on, for instance, the headpieces in the emperors bedchamber, was amazing and wonderful to see.
We took a short walk through a small hall of artifacts, namely the carriage a new bride would enter the City in, and passed the walls of "double happiness," a symbol that is simply two of the Chinese "happiness" character inscribed as one, to represent happiness as a couple. It is said that if you lay your hands on the symbol correctly, to bring happiness in and not push it out, that you will find a new love very shortly and be quite happy. I'm in a committed relationship, so I kept my hands to myself, but the knowing that, throughout history, it's always been a priority of truly successful civilizations to make new traditions or little superstitions about symbols and icons that, upon an action, will bring love and prosperity, I think, speaks to the human condition. Personally, I have always found something comforting about that.

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