On the Beijing Tourist Trail

Monday 14 August

Tiananmen Square was our first port of call on this morning’s itinerary. I am so pleased we visited it yesterday and roamed around for about an hour or so, taking photos and generally soaking up the atmosphere. The feeling then was one of families out for a stroll (reminiscent of Tivoli in Italy) or on holiday having fun. Today there was probably just as many people but it was tour groups and far more bustly, everyone had a purpose. I bought a kite – so when I get home, I shall be going (with Sandy, Adam and Alex?) to fly it on Blackheath.

We then crossed the road and entered the first gate (known as the Middle Gate) of The Forbidden City. Originally built in the early 1400,s (finished in 1420) The Forbidden City was the home of the Emperors until 1911 when the Qing Dynasty fell. The gate was the building that yesterday I thought was the mausoleum of Mao – the one with his picture on the front – wrong – his body lies on the other side of the square in a square, in a relatively modern building known as Memorial Hall.

I had always thought The Forbidden City would be lots of Chinese temples and gardens, with trees and waterfalls – a bit like the temples in Thailand. Wrong again. Firstly it is huge – 6,500 square metres? There used to be 14,000 rooms, but now there are only 9,999 ½ - because this is an auspicious number to the Chinese – 9 being the most lucky or Emperor number (half a room?). Gatehouses join a series of squares – large (nearly as big as Tiananmen Square), small (about twice the size of Trafalgar Square), large, small – with one main building, about 20 feet high, linked by lots of smaller/lower buildings around each square – all of which have a separate purpose, such one for political meetings, one for mental relaxation, one for meeting wives and the Empress (1 Emperor had over 4,000 wives – Colin has trouble with one, I don’t think he could cope with 4,000 – but he might enjoy the selection process, which lasts for 3 years!)

As The Forbidden City will celebrate its 600th anniversary in 2020, they have already started renovating the buildings here in readiness for the celebrations, and many of the larger building are now swathed in scaffolding and green netting (we didn’t see any signs of health and safety). Apparently the original construction involved 1 million workers and 100,000 artists to paint all the beautiful Chinese decorations around the buildings and took 14 years to complete. Laura (I think I called her Lorna before), our city guide, thinks there are probably 1 million people involved in the refurbishment – and there’s 14 years to go.

Adjoining the rear City walls was an area of trees and rocks, landscaped with stone-patterned paths – many of these trees had been here for centuries – and there was a rock wall about 25 feet high that the Emperor had to climb each year to ensure his future and others could climb to ensure they stayed healthy.

We had been walking for over three hours by this time and were in desperate need of sustenance. Nearby was the Beihai Park with a large lake, and building works on one side – we meandered through this building site to get to supposedly the best Imperial Restaurant in Beijing – Fang Shan. Firstly we were taken to a beautiful, ornate dining room, but sadly it was thought to be too cramped for our party, so we joined the main dining room. The food, as last night, was very delicious, many of the dishes very similar to those we have at Chinese restaurants at home. The meal finished with toffee apples, so Colin was happy – but no ice cream.

We were then taken by rickshaws (paddy bikes) to Hutong (which means small village). To us it seemed a very poor area with grey concrete single storey buildings, with small windows, most of which seemed to be in some state of being rebuilt or repaired. Our local guide assured us that middle to upper class citizens lived in this area, and houses were in great demand. We visited a large private house where four generations of one family lived with a dog, birds and fish, which had several televisions, a fridge, and some very uncomfortable looking furniture and beds. We were also taken to a kindergarten school for deaf children aged between 2 and 11 years old. Some of the very little ones were sitting in a classroom, their deaf aids elastoplasted to their heads, and large battery packs on their back, feeding themselves from tiny bowls. All are awaiting surgery to cure their deafness. A little girl of 6 years old, gave us a recitation – she couldn’t speak before she had had the surgery last year.

This evening our tour leader (Hu Lei – Kevin in English) offered to take us to a local Noodle Bar used almost entirely by native Chinese. Sadly no one but us took him up on his invitation, but we had a great time. We ate lotus root in a sweet flower sauce, green bean curd in a garlic and nut sauce, had a large bowl of steamed noodles to which we added a thick soy sauce and a mixed salad of beans and bean sprouts, cabbage, turnips, cucumber, celery and lots of other small bits, and some roasted lamb ribs in a spicy and herby coating. It was all delicious and introduced us to many new flavours. After the meal he took us for a walk through the “bar” area of Beijing – all around a lake were bars and shops, music blaring, coloured lights flashing and touts trying to entice you into their domain. It was a little like Pat Pong Market in Bangkok, without the “nancy boys”. Lei told us lots about the Chinese way of life, and that his girlfriend has probably given him the “heave-ho” today, he has to read an email at the end of the tour! And he’s so sweet.

John and Avril still haven’t got any of their luggage and no one can tell them where it is, They went out this evening to buy some more clothes and other essentials, but had to go to the hospital earlier, to get some medication that they should be taking, that had had to be put in their cases. In the present troubles, I suspect that there are many others in this situation.

When I began planning this trip, it was all about standing on the Great Wall of China – and now it’s going to happen tomorrow – I can’t quite believe it. The weather today has still been overcast, hot, but not so humid – we have had a couple of showers and saw a rainbow earlier this evening as the sun came out to set. Let’s hope we don’t have rain tomorrow.

Sorry there’s still no piccys – we now seem to have the expertise, but not the time. Hopefully on Wednesday we may be able to publish a picture gallery. Here’s hoping . . . . .