Looking for Luke, March 27

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Or: Without doubt, things are big here

Today, we sightsaw. Our ambitious schedule included Tian'Anmen Square in the morning, then the Forbidden City, then the City Planning Museum, then the Temple of Heaven. Lunch at the Wahaha restaurant and a Peking Duck (err, Beijing Duck) dinner. We killed the visit to the freshwater pearl factory (?). If you think that sounds ambitious, you should try it with a five year old whose body clock is off by 12 hours. I would say that I would never do something like this again, but tomorrow we are going to see the Great Wall, then Olympic venues, then a cloissone factory and a banquest dinner. If you think this is insane, yes. But after the 14 hour flight, everything seems possible.

Tian'Anmen Square is huge. It is the "largest urban square in the world." Which i good because it matches the "largest passenger air terminal" and the "largest train station in Asia." For a country of 1+ billion people with oodles of nuclear weapons and one of the world's largest armies, China has a mindboogling self-confidence crisis.

But everything else aside, the scale of things here is huge and everything that is supposed to impress is over the top. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but here are a few details that are not in the pictures: the People's Hall has an auditorium that holds 10,000 people; during the May celebration in Tian'Anmen Square, a million or so people stand in the Square; Mao's mausoleum was built from materials throughout the country and includes something from each province; he lies in a crystal coffin that is available for viewing only in the morning--after that, the coffin gets lowered into a refrigerated chamber to help protect the body.

A word on the food: lunch at the Wahaha restaurant probably spoiled me for every Chinese restaurant in the States. I missed the duck dinner (Ian had his melt down after we put him down for a nap at four and tried to wake him up at 5:45 to go to dinner. The poor guy was so tired that he actually cried while he was getting dressed). But, in Becky's words, the duck was fine but we've had better in L.A.

The Forbidden City is much larger than I expected. And also much more beautiful and depressing. Except for the gardens, there is not a single tree inside the walled complex that is the city (we were told that there were three reasons for this: (1) nothing could be taller than the Emperor; (2) trees could hide assassins; and (3) the Chinese character for "trouble" is a tree in a square or walled compound. Hmm.

An aside to the Mao mausoleum caption--funny thing that the person who brought down the old order would be paralleled in a joke to the Emperors. Live is full of ironies that way.

Tomorrow: Part B of today (hey, I am on vacation).

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Photos

TSquare 1
Anthony, Becky, Ian and Pam in Tian'Anmen

TSquare 2
Monument to China\'s Heroes sits in the middle of TSquare

TSquare 3
The People\'s Hall. If you need a table for 10,000, this is the place

TSquare 4
Mao's mausoleum. For Chinese Emperors, the number 9 was considered lucky. Because Mao died on September 9, people joke that it was unlucky for him.

TSquare 5
The Square, she is big.

Forbidden City 1
This is the front entrance.

Forbidden City 2
Gate 2 of 3 one needs to pass to get to the inner sanctum

Forbidden City 3
Gate 3 of 3

Forbidden City 4
Inside the FC