We met up with our guide, Mei Pei and went to Teinamen Square In the west, it is what many people know or remember about China. It is large, larger than Chiang Kai Sheks's square in Taipei, larger than Red Square in Moscow. It is smaller than the Mall, but is completely paved. Security required to get in, and cameras everywhere. Police and army readily visible. Probably, many plain-clothes officers around also. Chairman Mao's mausoleum on one side, with large lines waiting to get in. People everywhere. Lots of flowers for the upcoming Peoples Day ceremonies on October 1. The entrance to the Forbidden City is on one side, with a huge picture of Chairman Mao. More people everywhere. We cross the street to get to the entrance. Fighting through the crowds of people, including school groups in their uniforms, tour groups with their leaders with little flags and boom boxes and microphones, and more people. Did I mention it was crowded?
The Imperial City / Forbidden City complex is huge, measuring 1.5 miles long. It is built along a central axis, with multiple entrance gates as one goes farther in. There are often 5 archways leading into each subsequent area. The center was reserved for the emperor, and the lower ranked officials were moved further away. In fact, only the emperor was allowed to walk on the central line. There were moats with 5 bridges, 5 sets of stairs as one ascended the entranceways, etc. Much of the complex has been restored, but much still needs to be done, as the paint is faded and peeling in many places. According to legend, evil spirits only travel on the ground, and cannot lift their legs. Thus each entrance or doorway has a raised threshold of a foot or so that you have to raise your leg to climb over. This prevents the evil spirits from getting in.
We continued to penetrate deeper into the city until we got to the main areas for the emperor and the officials and the empress and the concubines. With all the events of the last 100 years since the downfall of the last emperor and the communist takeover in 1949, there really wasn't a lot left. Most of the buildings had fresh paint, and there was a small museum of the porcelains and cloisonné objects. The gold roofs of the buildings and the dragon and phoenix motifs were everywhere. We got a lot of history about Tsu Hsi, or Cixi, the "Dowager Empress" or the Dragon Lady. She ruled in the background for decades, as the "voice behind the screen". I guess its time for me to watch The Last Emperor.
Nondescript lunch at a tourist trap they took us to. We do better on the street.
On the way to the Summer Palace, we were talked into going to the Silk store. This is a government operation for the tourists. We did see the cute little silkworms, and how the make the cocoons. I never did understand how the silk was gotten from the cocoons, but they really do unwind it 1 little strand at a time. They weave 8 together as a real strand, which then is weaved into a fabric. Then came the hard sell. We did get a duvet cover for a reasonable price; reasonable being defined as less than we would pay in the west. At least we were pretty sure it was genuine.
The Summer Palace on the outskirts of town was a smaller representation of the Forbidden City. It did have a very lovely garden, with statues and large rocks recovered from lake beds in interesting shapes. The cypress trees were hundreds of years old. There was a long corridor that CiXi would walk, with a view of the large lake. We took a dragon boat across the lake to be picked up by the driver.
Traffic into town and we were late for the Kung Fu Ballet. Again, the drivers in this place are crazy, and would make a New York cabbie blush and recoil in fright. The performance was nice, but still touristy.
On of these days, I'll find the time to organize our pictures and upload them to illustrate this trip.
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