Did I mention that Beijing is hot? And humid, which makes hot VERY hot. It was like walking around in a steam bath today. And how about big? Did I say that Beijing is big? Well one reason is because it has really big things in it... such as the first three sights above. Way bigger than it feels like they need to be. I mean, they say that Tiananmen can hold a million people (which feels like an underestimate), and that it was expanded from the old square that "only" held 250,000... but who needs a million people in one place at a time? Especially in China where there is always a concern that the masses might decide that those who speak for the masses should no longer do so?
And that reminds me of something else -- apparently one of the sites that is blocked by China is this blogsite... so a) I can't check these posts after I post them, and b) I don't even know if they are making it to the blog! I might be all alone out here, talking to myself....
Back to Beijing. What else to say about Tiananmen? Squads of young soldiers marching across it to unclear destinations. Young women cadres with megaphones telling people where to line up in order to see Chairman Mao's Mausoleum. X-ray scan of bags when entering. Fairly aggressive hawkers. A fair number of people but far from crowded. With two huge new (80m long) widescreens showing Chinese landscapes. Flanked by the aforementioned Mausoleum, the Hall of the People (parliament where they meet once a year for two weeks, according to our guide about whom more later), and the National Historical Museum, both of the latter executed in fine Soviet Neoclassical style (I didn't look back to Mao to see what his place looked like). In short monumental and monumentally unattractive. If not for the Forbidden City complex on its north side, it would have been on balance disappointing.
But the Forbidden City, now THAT is interesting. Monumental, of course, way too big for a palace (even for the Emperor of China), but aesthetically interesting, and at times even beautiful. Massive courtyard after massive courtyard, massive building after massive building (at least along the main axis), all named some exhortatory variant of Harmony. Interesting that this predisposition to exhortation seems to be a cultural constant -- just as prevalent in the times of the Emperors as it is today.
Interesting also to read forty word English translations of four Chinese characters (suggesting either that character to meaning mapping is much more fluid than word to meaning, or that the translators wanted to make sure that the "right" meaning was understood, or, more likely both).
Interesting also that the signs in English were all marked as sponsored by American Express... highly suggestive that the Chinese government is more than a little ambivalent about one of its greatest pieces of cultural heritage (consider: it is unthinkable that English signs in Mao's Mausoleum would have been allowed to have been sponsored by AMEX!). This conclusion is only confirmed when one wanders off the beaten track of the central axis and finds meter-high weeds growing on roofs and in between paving stones.... Or when one peeks into the largely unlit interiors of the main buildings and sees peeling paint and barren spaces (with only a couple of exceptions)....
Interesting also how the Emperor seems to have been a prisoner of his court and established ritual... along the same lines as the Japanese emperors during the time of the Shogunate (most of the exhortations were addressed to the emperor!).
And I could go on but you get the point: interesting!
Not, however, that we learned much that was interesting from our guide. She is very nice, even charming, helpful, friendly, about 28, studied politics then English... who parroted party talking points as regards the modern Tiananmen buildings, then either didn't know or got wrong various points about imperial times, and had an annoying habit of repeating the things she did know. I don't think it was an act... I think she is fairly typical of modern young Chinese (at least based upon the limited reading I have done): näive and rather uninterested in history. Oh well, at least I'm doing better with her accent than I was on the first day.
Wow, this is getting long. So many impressions from this day and I've got to get some sleep before our Great Wall trip tomorrow. Guess I'll leave the rest until later...
...and it is now later.
The Temple of Heaven was... wait for it... huge. 260+ hectares of grounds, several monumental temple complexes (although of simple plan, so not complex, if you know what I mean). We liked each of the three main ones, and in particular the spectacular Temple of Heaven itself. Once again the inside of the building was poorly lit (and inaccessible -- you could only peek in from the door), but the state of repair seemed better. One interesting point -- the representations of the gods were non-representational tablets with a a few characters upon them. And when I stop to think, there were no human statues anywhere in either the Forbidden City or the Temple of Heaven. That coupled with the emphasis on writing as art makes me wonder how much influence Islam has had on Chinese culture... or vice versa? Certainly the riot of bodies one associates with Indian art has no counterpart in Chinese architecture or art from the Ming and Qing dynasties, which is all we have seen so far.
On to the Government-run silk shop. Lovely stuff but even if you hadn't known it was government-run you would have guessed: massively overstaffed, employees standing or sitting around, sometimes sleeping, when they weren't engaged with a visitor, marble walls and crumbling floors, and big portraits of Jiang Zemin with one foreign potentate after another -- Jiang always in red, the foreigner in blue (I wonder if blue is associated with clowns or barbarians? At any rate Jiang always looks as if he is on the verge of breaking out laughing...). We bought a couple of nice light silk summer coverlets, which we will now proceed to schlepp with us all over China :-).
The Kungfu show was impressive, with some acrobatic and strength moves I had never seen before (such as headsprings -- like handsprings but you do it on your head -- and supporting yourself on a spearpoint set at your navel, or three spearpoints at throat and thighs).
And thus ended the first, very full, day.
