Day 20 (30 July) ... to China

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We were awoken at 3:30 am with coffee and kosher breakfast on our comfortable Air China flight from Sydney. We think that we had omelette and beans and hash browns but couldn't swear to it. Then because of the weather in Beijing there was a delay in landing. The coast had been hit by a typhoon and guess what - it was raining and miserable when we landed.

We collected our luggage and were met by our guide for most of our week in Beijing, Richard W (Xue Liang Wang). We discovered Richard through a company called toursbylocals.com. Richard drove us to our hotel, Traders Upper East, and agreed to meet us at 1:30 pm for our first sightseeing afternoon. Our suite is lovely. We have a lounge area, bedroom with walk-in closet, bathroom and a powder room. I saw the bed, made straight for it and fell asleep for an hour. We soon discovered that Facebook and Google are persona non grata in China. A whole week without Facebook can you imagine? (Apparently this can be overcome with a VPN like GoTrusted but we can't be bovvered.)

After sorting ourselves out we went down to meet Richard and our driver Cheng. They drove us around Beijing telling us a little about its history. Before divulging some of its secrets I think that you have to understand its size. Everything is big. The roads are 8 lane highways, the buildings are tall and the "important" government buildings, embassies, monuments, etc are ginormous. However big they look on TV they are much bigger!

Beijing, the northern situated capital city, was one of six capitals, the capital of Yan before unification. It was founded in 1042 BCE. It is 16,875 square kilometres - about the size of Belgium. It has a population of 22 million. To get a permit to live in the city you have to have a masters degree because most of the population works for the government. There are approximately half a million international workers in the city. There is no industry in the city. But there are 83 universities. Beijing is in a basin surrounded by the Yan mountain range. It is the cultural, political and historical centre.

The images of lions were imported by Buddhists in the 4th century BCE and they were adopted by the Chinese as being a symbol of power. Therefore they are used to guard doors. In 1969 the city wall which was 10 meters high and 7 meters thick was demolished and in 1970 the rail network was expanded.

During a drive through the old city we noticed that the buildings are grey. This means that they were built during the Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644). The. Colour blue is indicative of royalty and red wealth. We saw a lot of red behind the grey.

Then to our first stop, the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Beijing. The Chinese food lacked MSG (thank goodness) and was exceedingly spicy. Don suffers from dry eyes after a long flight - they soon cleared up. One interesting anecdote - I was in the ladies prepared for a Chinese style squat loo but was delighted to find one of each. A European lady asked me whether or not the loo I was entering was Chinese. When I said no she waited for me to finish. I came out with a smile on my face and she said yey as she went in.

First real stop on the tour was the Temple of Heaven. This was built in 1420 during the Ming dynasty. It was a temple for the Emperor's personal use. The Ming dynasty practiced the Dao (we pronounce it Tao) religion. This translates as the wider way of the universe and is based on ancient mythology. The Temple of Heaven is made entirely of wood with no nails or cement. Its umbrella roof is the logo of Beijing. It stands in parkland of 273 hectares. Most of the trees are over 1000 years old and they are all numbered and protected. (Did Lesley mention everything here is Big? It is also Ancient!) Before the temple was built the land was used as a cemetery. Most of the trees are cedars or pines representing life cycles. In 1911 the monarchy was abolished and the area was open to the public.

In the Temple of Heaven area we saw the altar tables and vessels for collecting blood. There were also different size ovens for burning the different animals, the largest being for the cows.

As well as the central temple there were temples dedicated to the moon and sun and other aspects of nature; sacrifices were made as prayers for a good harvest. The roof of the temple is made up of 365 lines of representing 365 days of the week. Four pillars each of 29 meters high support the roof. Four represents the 4 seasons. At the bottom are 12 pillars representing the 12 months of the year. Supporting levels consisting of 24 portions represent 24 seasonal changes,

The outside wall is square as the Chinese believed that the world was square but the inside wall is round as the heavens are round. The colours inside the temple grounds are blue representing the heavens and green representing the earth. The totems have Dragons representing power and the Phoenix representing beauty.

In 1530 the tablets to the gods were moved to storage temples within the Temple of Heaven area.

From there we proceeded to Tiananmen Square, claimed to be the biggest in the world. i didn't walk the one kilometre across the square with Richard and Don but drove round with Cheng. There I saw three soldiers standing in a triangle formation - looking for protesters? We also saw the Mao Tse Tung memorial which is big. We all met up and drove across China's largest road. It is 18 lanes wide (here) and 52 kms long. 9 is the most positive number in Chinese belief and so the road is 2 x 9 lanes. The centre point of the 52-km road length is Tiananmen Square. (Did we mention how large everything is?)

The sculptures in the square represent the farmers, soldiers and workers revolution. The flag of China contains one big star (the Communist party) and four smaller stars for workers, farmers, soldiers and students.

Then back to the hotel for a supper of fresh peaches as given to us by Richard along with Haagen-Daas available in the hotel. Finally dropped into bed at 9 pm. And straight to sleep. (Our hotel suite is so dark that Don wandered into the dressing room seeking the loo just before midnight. After putting on a light and realising his proper destination, he also helped Lesley find her glasses which had fallen off her night table, thus evening the glasses-wakeup score from the previous night's flight.)

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Photos

Temple of Heaven in Beijing with our guide Richard W (Xue Liang Wang)
www.toursbylocals.com/beijing-private-tour-guide