Day 1 of the actual Tour seemed to follow the theme: Places Where Large Numbers Of People Can Loiter
The first stop of the day was a quickie at the Temple Of Heaven. We couldn’t get into the actual temple, which was a bummer, due to renovation, but we were able to tour the gardens.
The temple was closed for renovation, but the gardens were very interesting. It’s a huge expanse with intertwining walkways amidst trees and lawns where there are scores of locals, both old and young, engaged in various activities including ballroom dancing, kung fu, tai chi, fan dancing and hackey sack. For those uninterested in the physical activities, there are long open-air hallways where we encountered groups of old men exchanging money over Mahjong, and little old ladies singing old Chinese songs to small clustered groups of onlookers. We even had the pleasure of hearing a choppy version of Yankee Doodle Dandy awkwardly honked out on an old Saxophone as we walked by (this was especially amusing since we three where the only Americans from the group of 39 who are mostly Canadian and Australian).
Our next stop was Tiananmen Square which is much grander and larger than any picture can suggest. This is when the giant nationalistic symbols: Portraits of Mao, Chinese Flags and Various Government Buildings and Statues remind you that you are in the Most Powerful Communist Nation in the world.
As we drove past it to the parking lot for the bus, we were able to see the mult-hour long line of people waiting for access in to the Mao Zedong Memorial where the actual body of Mao is encased in a glass case for all to see set in suspended animation assisted by six gallons of formaldehyde pumped into his body immediately after his death.
The grounds of Tiananmen Square were jam packed with Asian & Western tourists, most of who were surrounded by the persistent street vendors selling books of postcards, Rolex knockoffs and cheap had waving mao watches which in my opinion are the goofiest, most perfect souvenirs ever imagined.
We didn’t stand in line for the corpse-of-Mao show or for any of the museums, as we were saving our legs for the march through the Forbidden City…
The Forbidden City is probably best described through pictures (see link at bottom) or by watching The Last Emperor which was partly filmed on location. Like the Temple of Heaven, much of the Forbidden City is under renovation but luckily wasn’t closed to tourists. But just like the art museums in Europe, you can get burnt out quickly by the sheer number of wow-take-a-picture-of-that views.
Following a short lunch, we arrived at our final stop for the day, the Summer Palace. Like the Temple of the Moon, and the Forbidden City, there were plenty of good picture taking opportunities including the large man-made lake adjacent to the palace grounds, the hand painted hallways, and abundant, beautifully designed palace guest houses and servants quarters that seem to magically spring up from the sides of the mountains.
The summer palace is best know for the “world’s largest” corridor which is open air, roughly the width of two Americans, about ¼ - 1/3 of a mile long and covered in thousands of handpainted Chinese landscapes and mythological scenes.
By this time, I was totally exhausted and burnt out… and am still dog tired while I write this, so while the marble boat statue and creaky old dragon boat ride deserve at least another 1000 words of explanation, I’ll let the pictures tell the story…
Previously added pics:
...PLANE AND ARRIVAL TO BEIJING
No comments:
Post a Comment