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I apologize for the delay in posting these two blogs about Beijing; it has taken me a while to overcome jet lag. Without further ado, here is a description of our 4 day stay in Beijing:
OVERNIGHT TRAIN:
We left Hangzhou on Saturday afternoon (June 26th) on an overnight train, which was certainly an experience. It was slower and not as smooth as the Maglev I wrote about several blogs ago, but the train itself was fairly nice. The cars (which of course had beds- this was an 11-hour ride) were cramped because we had so much luggage, but otherwise it was comfortable. There was a restaurant car as well, and the food was better than airplane food. As with the first two times we took trains, it was a much better experience than flying.
BEIJING:
Beijing is the capital city of China and is 10 hours by train north of Shanghai. That makes it the most northern place we visited in China, and there were some regional differences. The language dialect is different than in the south, although they understand the Mandarin dialect we learned in class. The food is much spicier than in the south (and I
think better). Beijing’s specialty is duck, and we ordered a whole duck (complete with head, bill, and neck) for dinner one night. It was really awesome and I wish duck was more common in the US. I also had frog legs sautéed with several types of peppers and onions and what we strongly suspect was chicken hearts sautéed in the same style. Both were really good.
I haven’t uploaded any pictures of the city of Beijing itself because there really isn’t much to see. Shanghai has a booming financial sector that has driven the Westernization of the city, and it has also been beautified a great deal for the World Expo. Hangzhou is the tourist city of China and is naturally beautiful. But Beijing lacks either of these aspects and the parts we saw weren't as impressive. Also, the smog is somehow even worse than in Shanghai and the city smells bad. One refreshing change in Beijing is that car horns are illegal. In the rest of China, car horns are used for anything and everything.
TIANANMEN SQUARE:
On Sunday (June 27th) we visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven. Tiananmen Square is the
largest city square in the world and is situated just north of the Forbidden City (more on that in just a moment). The square features a massive gate and a monument to fallen Chinese soldiers. It also borders the Communist Party chairman and founder Mao Zedong's mausoleum and China's Transportation Museum. So the Square itself is fairly interesting, but the history behind the square is what attracts so many there. Tiananmen Square is the site of several protests against the Chinese Communist Party.
The most famous of these protests was a pro-democrasy riot in 1989. While I'm sure you are aware of the Tiananmen Square riots, you may not be aware of the scope of this protest. The protests began on May 4th, 1989, and by June 4th more than 100,000 students and intellectuals had gathered to demand democrasy. What happened next is pretty unbelievable. The Chinese government, correctly recognizing that the protests were gaining strong momentum, ordered total military control of the entire surrounding area (a good portion of Beijing). Tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square and either ran over or fired upon thousands. The government took control of the entire nation-wide media, foreign journalists were expelled from the
country, and thousands of people were arrested.
The impact of the June 4th incident is widely underestimated. No one knows precisely how many people were killed, but estimates range from 3,000 to over 10,000. The Chinese government was much closer to being overthrown than most people recognize. There are strong intelligence reports that the military was deeply divided, and a number of extremely high-ranking officials within the government were removed from office and imprisoned. The Chinese government still denies that any of these events ever took place, and anything to do with these events is censored within China. This page would have been removed had I posted it from China, and there is even a chance that the Chinese government would have tracked me down for writing it. This riot was one of the most significant events in Chinese history in the last century, but most Chinese people know little about it. Today, the only reminder of the June 4th protest is the large military and police presence we witnessed within Tiananmen Square. We also heard rumors that the place is crawling with undercover policemen out of uniform.
THE FORBIDDEN CITY:
The Forbidden City is an imperial palace
that was home to Chinese emperors for over 500 years. The buildings, while still very old, have been rebuilt multiple times because of several large fires. It was a pretty fascinating place to visit, but I can't possibly cover its 500 years of history here, so I'll keep this section short.
TEMPLE OF HEAVEN:
We also visited the Temple of Heaven, which was originally constructed in 1420. The Temple was used annually to pray for a good harvest, and as you can see in the pictures, it is a stunning piece of art.
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Josevich
Josevich
wow
very few people. its like its not a sunday. im hoping for similar circumstances when i go there in the fall