Day 2...A Day Late

Walking toward the Square

Friday we visited The Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square.  Our hotel is not far from the city center so the drive was rather quick and uneventful…which is saying a lot in Beijing the city with 22,000,000 people.  As we approached the square it seemed that a good number of the 22,000,000 had decided to visit as well.  There were lines and people everywhere.  I asked our guide if is this was a normal crowd she responded it was, but the people were mostly there to “see our Chairman Mao’s tomb”.  Apparently people wait in very long lines to walk through the mausoleum where his body is entombed.  I guess for a country that has spent thousands of years under some form of tyranny one tyrant is no worse than another.  The difference I think is that the emperors believed themselves to be sons of the gods and everything was rightfully theirs, Mao changed the language and referred to everything in China as the “peoples’”. Whether or not it actually is “the peoples’”.  Everything is owned by “the people”, of course all decisions are made by the government and the government controls everything “the people” have and a lot of what they do, but it seems he was brilliant at making the people believe its all about them.

Looking across the street are th people waiting to walk by the tomb...

I love cultures and the study of people so this has been a fascinating few days so far.  It’s amazing to me that the citizens can only drive on certain days, must live in the city to have a car in the city, have poor water, terrible air quality, I could go on and on yet the people are amazingly loyal to their government and their Chairman Mao.  There are large screens in Tienanmen Square reminding the people how great life now is in China; with constant video of happy children singing and families and parks.  It all looks so endearing.  To me, though, it seems if you have to put up signs and huge screens to tell the people life is good…it may not be that great.  Now that we’ve been here three full days it still appears to me that smiling isn’t common, even the children seem somber and restrained.  There all policemen and guards everywhere and even instruction signs all over the airport telling people to remain quiet…it’s strange. Our guide has assured us that walking around Beijing, day or night, is okay because the city is very safe. I wonder if it is or if no reports of crime ever reach the people.  The government tells them there is no crime therefore there is no crime. It’s such a controlled and orchestrated world and life.

We walked through security to get into Tienanmen Square, which was kind of like airport security except with a lot of pushing and disorderly conduct.  We came out from the underground security check and amazingly there were still A LOT of people, tons of people…people everywhere.  Our guide smiled and said something like “see much less people”.  I wasn’t really seeing that, but I smiled and agreed. 

Behind Katie and Max are the large screens depicting the great Chinese life

As we walked and talked people stared, stopped and watched, pointed, you name it. Then this man came up pointing and talking to Max.  My sweet boy jumped as fast as could be almost into my arms! He was having none of it. The man apparently wanted his girlfriend, or wife to have a picture with Max. They were laughing and asking so our guide said it was fine and Max was reluctantly willing as long as I stood very close.  As a mom of a former orphan the fact that Max wanted nothing to do with the stranger; and was stuck to me for safety; and watched me for clues on how we were responding to this situation was a huge blessing. It was a kind of confirmation that bonding has gone well with our amazing boy.

We got to the Forbidden City and people were still everywhere!  This time even our guide was surprised.  Veldon heard people saying Obama and then our guide told us that Michelle Obama was on the way and security was very tight.  That we would be standing there for a very long time and it would be better to come back later, we all agreed.

All those people are waiting to get into the Forbidden City, and the picture only shows 1/2 the courtyard!

The name of the neighborhood we walked through.

Because of the tight security, road blocks everywhere, our driver couldn’t get up close to pick us up so we walked through a neighborhood.  Our guide was very sorry and kept telling us it was not much further.  We had a blast walking these roads, taking pictures and seeing a part of life in Beijing that we normally would not have been exposed to.  There were tiny, little shops, doors in walls that are actually homes, and dogs and people wandering in and out of the little shops…which seemed a little sketchy to me (as my girls might say).  Shop owners were sitting on their stoops, laundry was hanging out to dry, and allies lined with cars, drying laundry and stuff.  It was very interesting.  Our guide wanted us to keep moving.  I think she was afraid we would be annoyed with her that we were being inconvenienced, but we loved it. 

We then went to a government owned tea shop for some high pressure tea tasting and sales.  We didn’t buy anything and I felt guilty because I’m sure the sweet little hostess and even our guide get some sort of commission, but honestly $50 for tea we wouldn’t drink was a little high for me.  We then returned to and walked through the Forbidden City.  Security was eased and there weren’t quite as many people as before. It was very interesting.  The city was only for the emperor and his officials and family.  It’s amazing to see the opulence that surrounded these mere mortals. We inadvertently had our pictures taken with a Chinese family who kind of pushed their beautiful little girl into a picture with Veldon and me and smiled and laughed and snapped away.  Then the wife grabbed Katie and took more pictures and everyone smiled and laughed.  I think they were tourists too and don’t see white people very often.

 

We met one young man with an older man, maybe his granddad, who was from south China. This was his first visit to Beijing and he was very clear he did not think much of the people. He said they were very rude and not friendly like in the south. I guess southerners in China and in America have something in common.

We returned to the room exhausted, but we had a great day.  We leave tomorrow morning on the bullet train to head south and on Monday we get our boy!!