Well, my back still hurts. And we left the curtains open again, though it seems my unconscious self decided to tough it out for an extra twenty minutes and I woke up at 5:50, a small victory. But I was excited to start my day, got ready relatively quickly.
The bus ride was relatively uneventful and fairly short. When we stopped near Tiananmen Square, no buildings of significance could be seen. It appeared like any other street in Beijing, and seemed strange in that. But we walked a few blocks and saw what we would later find out was the one of the first old gates to the Forbidden City. One of our hosts explained that it was the belief that spirits could not pass through these gates that gave reason to build so many of them, and they served to protect the emperor from harm and influence. She explained that moats and rivers also were believed to have this effect, and that we would see many around the city, especially as we walked closer to the Forbidden City.
We entered Tiananmen Square after passing through security and got closer to the gate that we had seen from the street. It was bigger than I thought it was, and there was another one identical to it on the other side of the street that I did not see before. Also in view was Mao Zedong’s mausoleum, or the “Maosoleum” as we preferred to call it. There was an absolutely gargantuan line to get into it; one that was full of Chinese nationals. Most foreigners seemed to pass by the mausoleum with a scant glance and a few pictures, but Chinese people milled around it and probably waited hours to get inside. Especially as Americans, we have a low view of communism and its leaders. On top of our own ignorance of Chinese history, we knew nothing of the subtle differences in Maoism versus Stalinism or Leninism. To us, Mao was a dictator and a communist; a leader who would have eventually ground his country into the dirt if not for his capitalist-leaning successors. But the Chinese waiting in line were older, most of the younger ones were milling about with the foreigners. I suppose older Chinese lived through World War II and the political, economic, and humanitarian strife that occurred afterwards. To them, I guess, Mao led the country out of the darkness that probably would have happened if the Nationalists had won the struggle for power. It was interesting to see the reverence and patience by the old waiting in line next to the young, who were rushing by and ignoring the Maosoleum.
But we kept moving and passed by the large obelisk monument, whose name escapes me, but was explained to be the Chinese version of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the United States. It seemed odd that despite the ridiculous number of people about the square, this monument seemed to be largely ignored, especially since its American counterpart does not share this. Behind it from our point of view was the parliament building and the modern seat of power. The architecture of building was distinctly Russian, which seemed at odds with the next building we saw; the entrance to the Forbidden City.
Tiananmen Square was impressive in its size as a city square, but does not even begin to compare to the size of the Forbidden City as a dwelling for political leadership. We had all heard of the opulence of French kings and their palaces, but they have nothing on how the Chinese emperors lived. The Forbidden City was huge and the Outer Courts were impressive to say the least. They held large open courtyards between spirit gates with a couple moats running in between them. We passed through at least three or four gates and courtyards before getting to the courtyard with the throne building. Now I suppose most accounts would write about how great the solid gold throne was to see, and I would do so here as well if I had seen it. The plateau that the throne building sat on was absolutely covered in people, and I would have had to fight to get anywhere close to it. I did push and shove to get as close as I could, but a mix of newly found claustrophobia when people violate my personal bubble forced me back and I gave up. There were no line, no sense of “you were here first, so go ahead,” and no patience; only pushing and shoving.
What was the ultimate surprise however, was the Inner Courts. Not because they were awesome, but because with all of the buildup of the Outer Courts, the Inner Courts seemed bland, small, and boring. Not to mention my claustrophobia creeping up again because of all the people in the cramped spaces. We were in and out of the Inner Courts in 15 minutes, and it was a pretty big disappointment.
We then walked for a while to a place where we sat to wait for a bus. A lot of people had asked to take pictures with us earlier that day, but when we sat down to wait for us, we got a multitude of people that came up to ask for pictures. There were also a few people who tried to surreptitiously take pictures of us, “snipers” as we called them.
Eventually the bus came and took us to a shopping district where we sat down to another traditional meal. This one was different in one dish: the fish soup (now with real fish!). A few girls in the group couldn’t handle its presence and were about to throw up, so Dr. Gao asked the waitress to take it away (in Chinese). Then he said that he wanted the fish taken away because the girls were afraid of fish (also in Chinese). I understood both of these statements. One of the girls asked what he said, and he stated that all he said was to ask that the fish be taken away. I spoke up and noted that that was not all that he said; that he had said they were afraid of fish as well. He denied a few times but I kept on him about it, and he admitted what he said, much to the amusement of the table.
After the meal, we went around Wangfujing Street to shop. Nothing was significant except in a small alley that branched off the main street. This was what we had considered the typical Chinese street market, cramped and crowded. The vendors spoke very little English, and all numbers were negotiated on small calculators. But by far the most interesting vendors on the street were the ones selling kebabs. In addition to chicken, beef, and pork, there were scorpions, starfish, seahorses, and larvae. The scorpions were still alive and moving on the kebabs before being cooked. I, needless to say, did not go for one.