The next morning, we had a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel before the group boarded the bus for Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Our guide, Jimmy, advised us that these areas are especially busy and the lines to enter start very early. He also advised us that he would not be able to answer any questions with a political bent, since you never knew if the person next door was a tourist or a government worker in plain clothes. When we got near the area, we could see buses lined up for miles and miles. We got off the bus and got in the queues which stretched for miles and miles. And, of course, there were so many people scurrying around, over, and through us trying to get closer to the front. We had to show our passports a few times and each time was a long wait in a line.
Once we finally broke free and entered the Square, we took deep breaths. Not only because we were finally not being cattle-driven through the entrance, but because we finally had enough space to fully expand our lungs! Ahhhh… Tiananmen Square, like everything in China, is on a scale unimaginable. A few years ago, they started limiting the amount of people allowed into the area on a daily basis to 60,000. This was after one day when 110,000 people entered the square and several were trampled to death by the crush of humanity. Dave calculated that 110,000 people is more than the population of all the previous towns he has lived in since college… COMBINED!
We were fascinated by the enormity of the square, which at 4.7 million square feet is one of the largest public squares in the world. We saw the Great Hall of the People where the National People’s Congress meets and where foreign dignitaries meet the Chinese government. We saw the Monument to the People’s Heroes, a huge obelisk commemorating those who died in the service of the People’s Republic of China, especially those from the Boxer Rebellion and World War II (with emphasis on those who suffered at the hands of the “Japanese Aggressors”) The square also houses the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, the first leader of the PRC.
Of course, no writing of Tiananmen would be complete without a mention of the pro-democracy movement that occurred here in 1989 and was crushed by the Chinese Military.
After walking for miles and miles, we next entered the Forbidden City, home to many Chinese Emperors, including the last emperor who was cast from power in 1911. After his dethronement, warring factions started fighting in China and the emperor fled to Manchuria. He later sided with Imperial Japan which used the excuse of “saving the reigning emperor” to invade China. After a brutal colonization, Japan was tossed out after World War II.
The complex is huge (imagine that!) with over 1000 buildings and 9,999 rooms (9 is a lucky number in China!) We would walk for miles and miles, and then pass another temple or building, only to see the complex go on for more miles and miles. The complex only ended due to a man-made hill which was created by the digging out of some land to make a canal.
We then got bused to the summer palace. This was a beautiful, peaceful place with a tree-lined, man-made lake (and accompanying man-made hill made from the leavings of the lake.) It was not as crowded as the rest of the places, so it felt good to just relax and unwind a bit. In the lake, Dave spotted some beautiful multi-colored ducks, called Mandarin ducks. He took photos, but the ducks were so beautiful and the water a milky white, that the photos look fake. Fittingly, after touring the Summer Palace, the group was taken to a restaurant where we had Peking Duck (and some assorted other Chinese dishes.) All in all, it was a nice, if exhausting day.