Scale has a new meaning

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After having spent 6 months on two separate occasions in China, not having visited Beijing felt like having missed the point of it all. Nobody has heard of Urumqi or Yongding county. What they're really going to ask is about the wall or the forbidden city. Last year I couldn't make it to Beijing for I fell ill just a day before we were scheduled to take the flight. We were in Fujian and were weary after three days in the countryside, in a moment of weakness we decided to come back to Shanghai and that was that. This time around I made sure I start my trip from Beijing, I wasn't about to risk keeping it at the trailing end.

So there I was, finally landing on Beijing airport. I was lucky to get a good view of the airport building. The dragon inspired building designed by Fosters and partners lay still. It lay still, but make no mistake, it lay vigilant and ready. Thronging with life, its scales (the skylights) were receptive to the sunlight and the curvaceous body was anything but limp. Entering the dragon, getting under its skin(maybe I got a little too carried away with the imagery :P). Its insides even though slightly cramped ran smoothly, as efficient as any other Chinese organism (organisation). The large roof was like being inside Pinocchio's whale. The filtered light from its scales(skylights) only added to its magnificence. It was fitting to enter the Chinese power center, Beijing through this dragon's mouth. Except that we were zipping out of it, in an airport express straight out of what seems to be the head of the dragon.

The airport express ends at a convenient subway station, 20 minutes away from the city center (Tienanmen square). After leaving my backpack in my corner of the dormitory, I went straight to the Forbidden City. After having been in China and seen the typical Chinese building, I didn't think there would be much to see. But as it turned out the Beijing airport dragon was nothing, but a mere slave, a soldier to the mighty City Palace. 'Scale' has a new meaning in my world now. I could feel the excitement of having chanced upon this unexpected experience creep up on me. I spent the next half hour running back and forth within the large forecourt trying to find the correct place to buy tickets. A little weary of the early morning flight and the pointless running around, I was finally ready to walk into the palace. With a measly student ticket in my hand, I stood in line, while my bag was put through the scanner. Looking up at the entrance to the palace, I thought of the mystery, unknown grandeur and power, that this place was known for,for hundreds of years. What must the people living next door to it feel? LP mentions how even asking to enter the Forbidden Palace could cost you your life, and now a 30 Yuan ticket was all it took.

The palace is far from Forbidden, and yet there is a strange sort of excitement while entering it. I felt like a mouse, scurrying from one court into the next because that's how long it took to cross them. One way to put it was, that the city is basically these Chinese gates placed one after the other, but another more accurate way would be to describe those spaces between two gates! These are really massive and it is no surprise that it is called a 'City' and not a palace. Despite the large no. of mice(tourists) filing in from one gate, spreading out and then filing out through the next, the emptiness, the in-betweens are what really make it, what it is. The grandeur of the buildings, the golden roofs glowing, despite the overcast sky and the grass that grows on it, the rich green and blue paintings(especially where its original) on the beams all add to the royal atmosphere. If I were Marco Polo and this is what I came to in Beijing, that too at a time where common citizens weren't allowed in, I'd be really intimidated by the grandeur. Its significance as the capital of a vast empire, reverberating to my every thought. Its strong organization, symmetry, simple structure and humongous scale, is to me a direct metaphor to the way this country runs. It is huge, very well organized, believes in belittling its people and yet one can't help being attracted to it and admiring its audacity. The owner of this city, even if a weak king, cannot be perceived as such. Just being summoned to this place would have made my bones tremble. It is not that one man but the fact that he owns all of this, that makes him powerful.

I could imagine a cold misty morning in the palace, absolute silence. A young chinese woman, dressed in silks walking with a bowl of burning incense, from the hall and into a side room. Her soft steps could be heard from the opposite end of the court, 200 m away. Her every expression and every movement was under scrutiny. I could feel that eerie feeling of being watched and the certainty that i'd be shot for any wrong move.

Gazing at the multiple roofs, one after the other, each slightly more hidden by the translucent mist was magical. I'd woken up from my daydream, to the reality of Beijing. Why wasn't this the Chinese dream? Why had it instead become a Disney castle, that too a plastic one or one made of steel and glass, so shrouded by the capitalist dream? Was I imagining the absolute wonder that this place is, or is everybody else seeing it too?

The Forbidden City makes for the center of Beijing. It also forms the North-South axis. On the north of the same axis is a garden, the drum tower and finally the Olympic stadium. On the south used to be another gate, this was knocked down to make the Mausoleum for Mao bang across the Forbidden City. A huge portrait of him, hangs staring at the traffic go by and the long long long line of people snaking all over the Tienanmen square waiting to see his mummified body. It's like he stands there to bless the people who have been waiting for hours to be able to get a glimpse of his all mighty. I don't know any other country where such a controversial man has received as high an honor to be lying on the most powerful axis of its most powerful city. If the world were to end and aliens were to find the ruins of this city, they'd consider this man to be God.

The N-S axis continues into a few more buildings behind the Mausoleum and ends with the Temple of Heaven. The summer palace and Yuanmingyuan gardens are to the northwest. And so are two of the premier university's of China. Peking University and Tsinghua University. Beijing makes for a simple city diagram, the axis, the forbidden city, and the concentric circles around it that are becoming more and more in number as the city expands.

I watched an acrobats show in the evening. The hard working performers, seemed to be trying too hard. Not as polished as I'd expected, but entertaining none the less. My parents were to join me in Beijing two days later. We were on our way to Mongolia. I had no clue of how different these two world would be !

A special shout out to Trevor, who I met in my Beijing hostel! He's a music teacher who travels in his free time. If you ever read this, I just want to tell you how I really enjoyed meeting you. Your attitude to life is amazing. 😊

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Photos

a glimpse of what lies within
This is all that could be seen by the common citizens of the forbidden city for hundreds of years.

Thats how big this thing is !
And this is just the outside

Every large palace
ought to have a moat

Uniforms
Ironed and ready for the guards of the palace

Early morning
A walk in the hutong areas where I was staying. The early morning was in total contrast to the evening. This street turns into a party place as the day progresses. Lined with pubs, cafes and shops, it becomes an obstacle course to get from one point to the other.