Another day of travel, another day of amazement. Today began (after a healthy breakfast of coco pops and waffles) with Lily taking us to Tiananmen Square. Before we got in the car she reminded us to ensure that we had our passports with us and to not ask any political type questions as there are always a number of plain clothes police who understand English walking around the square. Now, I know the hype about how it’s the biggest city square in the world, and is soooo fantastic, but I’m sorry, it’s just an open square. Big, I’ll grant you, but meh. It does have the mausoleum of Mao there, an impressive pillar to the Unknown Hero and a big flag on a pole. (YAWN). The interesting part of this section was the Delegate House where the 10,000 delegates from around China come to sort out who the thousand will be to represent the country. The dining hall can seat them for a buffet as well so the size of the building is fairly impressive. However, and there is a big however, when you get to the flagpole and see just one of the gates to enter the Forbidden City and realise that Tiananmen Square used to hold a further 3 gates to the City, you get a better sense of the importance it plays to the Forbidden City, if not modern Beijing.
You are then confronted with the main entrance to the Forbidden City (let’s call it FC from now on), and emblazoned above the gate is the now dignified portrait of Mao. Gone is the original version with the cap, and the youthful leader to leave a more inviting pose. The gatehouse is huge, and there to impress how insignificant you are compared to the Emperor. Needless to say, Mao had it all knocked down and rebuilt before his introductory speech to the world introducing the PRC.
After the entrance, on both sides of each courtyard are the offices of various officials. The closer one gets to the Emperor, the more important the official. FC is roughly rectangular in shape, with the intention of moving straight towards the Emperor. After the offices to both sides of each plaza were barracks, storage rooms, smaller palaces and sections for princesses, concubines and the eunuchs. When you finally get to the Emperor’s Court there is a sense of power here. His official ‘throne’ room leads on to his preparation room which in turn leads on to his bedroom. We did get some information from Lily about how when the the ‘Dragon Lady’ was in charge, just before the end of the regime, she did have quite a few changes implemented to keep an eye on the young prince, and to .... help him with his decisions.
From here we went to lunch, where, as we had all stated that the Kung Pao chicken of the night before wasn’t hot enough, Lily had organised for us to have a slightly hotter version of it. Lunch consisted of, Kung Pao Chicken, Fried Cauliflower, Braised Beef and Egg Soup. It was all good and mostly demolished.
Unfortunately, by this time it was raining, so Lily took us to a silk shop, which who were more than happy to show us around the shop and showing us how the cocoons with 2 pupae produce a different texture of silk which is used in doonas, creating a non-alagenic filling. The hard sell came next and I was fortunate enough to mention that my in-laws had just visited China and had brought my wife and I back one. It was now up to the others to try to fend the sellers off.
Despite the rain we set off for the Temple Of Heaven, a large area with one central stupa setup for the slaughter of an animal to appease the gods. The park and gardens surrounding the area are pretty, and due to the rain the grounds were fairly quiet. The interesting aspect to the temple is that just down from the stupa there is a building set up to be the god’s bedroom. To be close to the offering. Overall a busy walking day with another 18,000 steps. Ben’s FitBit informs us, as well as telling him he should breathe occasionally. Good advice.
After dinner we had the Chinese Massage that Lily had organised for us. She certainly worked through the muscles in my calves and thighs, and then after asking how old I was told me that I only looked 35 as I had such a ‘pretty face’. Hey, her words not mine, but I’m not going to argue with her!