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Published: October 25th 2008
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We arrived in Beijing shortly after sunrise to find the smog had lifted and the sun was shining brightly in a brilliant blue sky. After leaving our bags at the hotel we set off for Tianannmen Square. Have I mentioned that China has a lot of people? It seemed that most of them had arrived in Beijing to visit Mao's tomb - the queue to enter the building was hours long and the square was crowded with chinese tourists. Internal tourism has taken off in a big way over the last few years and international tourism is taking a back seat. You can buy Chairman Mao watches and alarm clocks here which are reminiscent of the Mickey Mouse watch that Sylvia bought in Syria many years ago which failed after two days.
There are various other historical buildings around the square - the Great Hall of the People, the Museum of Chinese History, the Museum of the Chinese Revolution - but they were all closed so that history could be revised based on recent events.
October is the anniversary month of the creation of the Chinese state. October 1st 1949 was the day when Mao declared China a communist
country, so the days around this date are set aside for national celebrations. We had arrived right in the middle of them. We were made aware of this in Hong Kong due to a hugh firework display the night after we arrived but there was so much activity there anyway that it had hardly impinged on our concerns.
China, at least Beijing, is still suffering the after effects of the Olympics. The streets are lined with floral diplays depicting various sports. There are signs everywhere exhorting “One World. One Peace”. Chinese television plays over and over the many events won by China. It is difficult to avoid it. The benefit for us is that there is still a lot of goodwill and we have been made welcome wherever we have gone.
From Tianannmen Square we went to the Temple of Heaven, the main centre of worship in the past for the Taoist rulers of China. Here they would celebrate each new year and each harvest by propitiating the god of the sky and the god of the earth. This was believed to be the centre of the universe. This is purportedly China's finest example of Ming dynasty architecture.
Our next visit, the Lama Temple, is the Chinese centre for the Yellow sect of Tibetan Buddhism. It has been an officially recognised buddhist temple since 1744. Miracuously surviving the Cultural Revolution, it has been revitalised by the importation of novice monks from Chinese Mongolia and is now the most important "Tibetan" Buddhist temple in China outside of Tibet itself. Just don't ask about the Panchen Lama, as I did. The response was, no doubt, correct politically but deviated somewhat from the real story.
Day two in Beijing was Great Wall day. What can be said that hasn't already been said. It is truly one of the great wonders of the world. It stretches 7200 kms from Korea in the East to the Gobi Desert in the West. We only saw a few kilometres at Badaling (the closest stretch of the wall to Beijing which has been repaired and refurbished) but it was enough to inspire us to watch out for the remnants which stretch west along the rail line to Ulaanbaatar. It was a lot steeper and more difficult than we expected but we made it all the way to the first lookout station (about 1 km).
It must have been a nightmare march for the troops on the wall.
From there we went to the Ming Tombs. Not really much to see here as most of the tombs are not accessible to the public but the above-ground areas are fascinating for the Fung Shui justification of their placement within the surrounding countryside.
That night we went to a "Cultural Performance" which turned out to be an acrobatic show, somewhat similar to Cirque du Soleil but with a unique chinese flavour. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photographs during the performance so the couple of pictures we do have are only from the finale and were taken surreptitiously by one of the other members of the tour group.
Our last day in Beijing was a "free" day so we let the rest of the group go off and look at the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace and we headed off for the so-called "Silk Street" to do some serious shopping. The Lonely Planet describes Silk Street as...'a jumble of silk shops, tea and herbal medicine shops, theatres and restaurants'. Sadly, it has recently been razed and "modernised" by the Beijing City government and
is presently a site of empty shops which look like a run-down british high street and not very inspiring for a dedicated shopping sojourn. Fortunately we were not deterred and set off down less-than-tourist-quality side streets and found some beautiful and exciting shops and "cafes". For our efforts we were rewarded by being allowed to do lots of bargaining to buy things we didn't really want but which will be reminders of this once-in-a-life-time journey.
After lunching in a Japanese restaurant in Tianannmen Square we went back to the hotel to rest before heading off for a chinese massage to smooth out the kinky muscles we had developed over the last few days. We then went to an internet cafe to upload this blog, only to find that it was so slow, we couldn't even log on. Retreating to the hotel, we readied ourselves for a six o'clock (am) start for UlaanBaatar.
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lorraine lints
non-member comment
fantastic
Hi John and Sylvia - The pictures look fantastic, have put it on the list to visit someday. Hope your enjoying the rest of your trip and getting a chance to relax as it seems you are on the go the whole time. Look forward to seeing the rest of the journey. How is the train ride going? Talk to you soon. Love Lorraine