There was little time for rest as the gecko tour had scheduled 2 days to do Beijing and the great wall of China (which is a few hours drive from beijing itself). After dropping our bags at the hotel, splashing the weary face with water and brushing our teeth, we hopped straight into taxi's to take us to the forbidden city. The forbidden city is not the only forbidden city in Asia, as it is merely the term used for the
emperors residence, and signifying that the common person is not allowed to enter. The taxi drive took us on road tour, past remains (or replicas?) of the old city wall, Tiananmen square, Chairman Mao's mausoleum and the southern entrance to the forbidden city, iconic with the painting on Chairman Mao of the main gate. Here we were in the political heart of China.The official name of the Forbidden city is now the Palace Museum, which is also the agency that manages the complex. The complex is 72 hectare and takes a good hour just to walk from one end to the other. Smart as always, Anson, our guide took us to the
rear (northern entrance of the forbidden city), entering from the opposite side that the majority use and thus walking in the opposite direction to the crowds. This was a as we got to see the most interesting parts of the city (the royal gardens and residences) without a large conglomeration of tourists which we meet as we reached the end of our tour. The forbidden city is full of stories, and it is worth taking a guide for the experience. As a museum it also contains numerous artifacts and art works from the previous Chinese dynasties. Though a large part of the collection in now in Taiwan, removed by the Kuomintang when they lost to the communists. Even after walking a few hour we still missed most of the complex, much of which is still unaccessible to the public. Unfortunately some of the main building were undergoing restoration as part of a project to restore the whole city.Our guide through the city, a middle aged lady with walking stick, had studied Chinese history and provided a multitude of interesting stories and information about the museum. Entering from the northern end, first is a series of gardens which built around the symbolism of Chinese mythology; such as Dragon = Emperor, Phoenix = Empress, the Crane and Turtle = longevity. This kind of symbolism in animals, design and action is a big part of Chinese life and construction. All in an attempt to control life. The belief in all these symbols and precedents are still important for the Chinese people today.
After walking through the gardens, some small museums and a short walk through the emperors residence (as in the Qing (pronounced 'ching') dynasty, as the Ming dynasty residence was in another part of the palace) we arrived in the ceremonial district.
This area was where the emperor interacts with his advisor, business men and the public. The ceremonial area is mainly large buildings and court yards built on the central axis of the city. Here there is not a lot to see, but to walk through it as it goes on and on from courtyard to courtyard.Exiting from the southern end you emerge from underneath chairman Mao where a six lane road sit between you and Tiananmen (Qian Men) square. Entrance to the square is only available through underground tunnels, still under maintenance to for Olympics, these conduits allow for easy closure of the square at night and bag searching and
interrogation for people entering the square. Tourists get little attention from the security guards. But middle aged ladies, tended to get the most attention, as suspected members of Falun Gong, I was told.Tiananmen square is politically sensitive location and thus also one of the most watched places on Earth. The square s covered with lamp post in thirty meter sqaures. Each lamppost post has 2-3 security cameras on it, monitoring the movements and actions of those on the square. Other than that there is not so much that is interesting about the square, except that when dignitaries enter the 'Great Hall of the People" a third of the square is closed to the public, putting around 100m and a road between the public and the dignitaries.
Walking across the square and out the southern end, past Mao's Mausoleum we got in a taxi to take us back to the hotel. Beijing is a very un-walkable city. The afternoon we had free, so Tobias and I walked down the road into the Temple of Heaven park. Set in a large park the Temple of heaven consists of three building complexes set in a
much larges park. The dominant feature of which if the circular construction of the taoist temple buildings. Having recently undergone restoration, the buildings are resplendent and for me more attractive than the buildings of the forbidden city. The three main buildings are in a line down the central axis of the park. for me the most interesting is the central complex called the Imperial Vault or Heaven. the out wall of which is circular and called the echo wall. The stupendous thing about the wall is that you can stand at one end of the vault which is probably 40 meter in diameter, and yet you can have a conversation with someone at the other end even though there are two buildings between you. the voice of the other person sounds like it is emanating form the wall right next to you. Strange but true.On the way back we were greeted by a young student who wanted us to come and look at their artwork collection, as they had a small exhibition on the park. Supposedly from a well known art school in Xian, with nothing else to do we had a look. This scheme is listed in the Lonely Planet as a scam, but one the whole I have to say the quality of the artwork was quite good. And it is probably because the prices are expensive (but still cheap by European standards) for the quality. We spent a while looking around and Tobias bought some artwork. There was a four piece set of paintings representing the seasons (a common form of work in China) that I really would to have liked to buy. However I didn't have enough money and was unable to get back to purchase it at a later time. (I would later be caught out by another set of students in Shanghai, where the scams are more prominent)
After the long walk and discussions on the way back to the hotel, frustrated that there was no one selling drinks on the footpath just when I needed one, we changed to go out to a Kung Fu Show. This is a show that uses Kung Fu artists instead of dancers to present a theatrical story, mainly through music, movement and narration. Again the athleticism and accuracy of movement is impressive and I was somewhat surprised not to see more of them in the Olympic Ceremonies. Details of the show are freely available as it is a standard on the china tour route.
The following morning it was an early start, for a day at the wall. You know the one! The drive is about 2hrs from the city a takes a mixture of highways and country roads. About two thirds of the way, one of our tour group had to go to the toilet. With no toilets around what was required was a roadside stop, which the Chauffeur was initially not willing to do, much to the surprise of those in the back. But after some negotiation we stopped and the deed was done hiding behind the vehicle while the driver went off to have a cigaratte.
We continued on as the weather to continued to deteriorate, so that by the time we arrived at the entrance there was a constant light rain. To which one person in the car responded "This is going to be awful". Now I figure if you've travelled a few
thousand kilometers to get here, your not going to let a little light rain get in you way. So on with the rain jacket and all smiling and singing I stepped out of the car.
I of course had my expensive Goretex jacket to keep me dry, however for those that forget there is a set of entrepreneurial shop owners that can always pull ponchos and umbrellas out as soon as it starts to rain. Not familiar with Goretex, all the shop owners eagerly tried to sell me a cheap poncho and umbrella. It was not until I demonstrated that I could shake the water off me that they understood that I did not need a jacket. So with everyone dressed up in new ponchos and umbrellas we headed up to the Wall.
The locals here pull the same trick as in Yangshuo, loaded with refreshments they follow you up the hill in the hope that you will feel guilty enough to buy something. I avoided this by pretending I could only speak German and thus could not understand what they were saying. Mildly confused they just laughed and me and left me alone. Our erstwhile companion however did not fare so well with his indecisiveness.
There are in fact to sections of wall available to tourists. One is a fully restored section, giving you the impression of how it once was. The other section is the
remains of the original wall. Our tour took us to the latter. That section of the wall is quite substantial and we did not walk the complete length and the low mist meant there was little more to see except the wall itself which began to get repetitive. The lack of vision was disappointing as you could hardly see the wall winding away into the distance, however it did clear up a little as we left the wall, back to the carpark. It was a pleasant walk in the rain and on the wall, though the slippery walk back challenged our footwork. Back in the carpark we headed straight back in the van and back to Beijing. This was the last day of the tour and to finish it of, we were to go to an acrobatic show and then our final dinner together.
Dinner was of course Peking duck, which was delicious with some extra dishes on the side. Again we stuffed ourselves, had a few drinks and toasted our fearless leader. Then paying the bill we headed off to the Acrobatics. What was interesting is that we paid about 30 yuan per person for the meal which was plentfiul. However the next day we ate there again with the three remaining tour members (and no Anson) and suddenly the price was 80 yuan per person. Not quite sure what was going on there?
The acrobatic show was the least impressive of the shows that we had seen, but still of considerable quality. Some of the kids (they all looked young) in the show were
surprisingly strong. Anson our guide was supposed to watch the show with us, but after dropping us off in the hall he disappeared. At the conclusion of the show he was also nowhere to be seen except for an unanswered phone call. A little confused we walked back to the hotel , a little confused, checking the pub on the way. Only after we arrived at the hotel did he suddenly appear from the street, all done up with a new haircut. We went to the pub and ordered drinks and prepared for a big night of Karaoke. To my surprise everyone sang individually and properly and it didn't descend into to the usual Summer of 69 chaos that usually accompanies westerners doing Karaoke. And so after three hours of karaoke we decided to go out to a night club, with a final goodbye to Anson who left us for the last time.
After that we caught a taxi to take us to the nightclub area, which was about 30 to 40 minutes drive form where we were. After walking up and down the street and not finding anything interesting we headed to another nightclub area down the road a few blocks. This turned out to be another 30 min walk before we got to an incredibly loud nightclub but spectacular nighclub. After dancing there for a few hours and reaching 3 am we got back in the taxi and went to the hotel.
The following morning we said goodbye to Sarah and some others, before Tobias, Lynette and I headed out to see the Olympic Stadium (the bird cage) and the Summer Palace.
The time was the end of June and the Olympics was less than two months away. However the stadium was still surrounded with a fence and you could get within 100 meters.
Unlike the Sydney Olympics where the stadium went through a variety of trial runs, the Olympic stadium in China would first be used in the Opening ceremony, and as we all know this turned out not to be a problem. So the construction site that was the
Olympic park, was completed with Chinese speed to be ready for the Olympics.
Onto the Summer Palace, a large park and building complex built over many centuries until it finally became the summer palace of Empress Dowager Cixi, in 1888. IT is a
large park complex surrounding kunming lake an is a popular place for tourists and local to enjoy the good weather. We walked and sat on the waters edge for a while recovering from the night before, before heading up the stair in to longevity hill and over the top to the other side. The buildings and garden layouts a prime example of Chinese architecture and design, went most of the time just wandering and talking, and losing our way to the toilet. Once on the other side we descended alongside the river to have something to eat and start a conversation with what looked like a ten year old girls whose English was surprisingly competent before being laughed at for our bad Chinese pronunciation.
After that if was off to the pearl market for a bit of shopping, and for me lots of waiting, as one person went somewhere just before the other returned. However finally we were reunited and went for dinner.
The following morning we were down to two. With nothing on the plans we decided to explore two other parks just behind the forbidden city. Again more general walking, a
quick walk past the rock where the last emperor hanged himself, a watching a security guard try and find the right ringtone for his mobile. In the afternoon in Beishan park we hired a waterbike and cycled around the lake for an hour. By this stage the weather had improved and we basked in the sun, with some water and biscuits. Some more wandering around the park and some shopping at an Olympic store completed the afternoons entertainment.
It then became time to think about food. Nearby was a street market where a smorgasbord of food was apparently available. It turned out to be a line of red and
white striped stalls alongside a main road, selling BBQ everything and more. Cockroaches, Spiders, Squid, Chicken, Pork. After warming up on some chicken and pork skewers and some noodles, and a fuming sugar drink, I decided to get into the exotics. SO I took a skewer of snake. This was mighty difficult to consume as it was tough and definitely did not taste like chicken. In fact I could barely get the thing down but I did.Then it was off for drinks, in one of the more flashy shopping districts, and then a 45 min walk in the rain for a taxi as the ones there refused to use the meter. I am surprised they can still make money out of tourist that willingly pay exorbitant prices for taxis. But after finally haling a taxi we returned back to the hotel and bought some more drinks. But both tired at the end of a long day. We headed towards bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment