19/10/2009

Day 14 - Beijing: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven

Today was a busy and exciting day, so much to tell you. It was the first day of our 'On the Go' tour, we were picked up at the hotel at 9am - our tour guide's name was Michelle, she was about the same age as Mum.

Our first stop was Tiananmen Square. The best way to describe it is that it's like Federation square in Melbourne just bigger, a lot bigger. It can hold 1 million people for special events (Beijing has 16 million people - Australia has about 22 million people in total). So yes it is very busy and extremely crowded. To my surprise most of the tourists we saw were Chinese! I asked Michelle why this was so: she said that it is very hard for Chinese people to get visas to visit other countries so they mostly travel their own country.

Opposite Tiananmen Square is the Forbidden City - it was named this because back in the days of the Emperors only the royal family and servants were allowed in the City. In 1924 the last Emperor of China died and in 1925 it was opened to the public. The Emperors had many customs that seem strange to us. There were five archways into the Forbidden City, the middle one is the largest and only the Emperor could enter through this. He had a 1st Wife (the Empress) and another 3,000 wives called concubines (I could write pages on this - it's very fascinating, but I won't). I learnt that dragons are the symbol for the Emperor as they are very powerful. Yellow is the official color of the Emperor and only he could wear this, and red is considered to be very lucky. I was so excited as I'm a dragon and I'm red and yellow! (Mum told me not to let my head get too big).

Next stop was the Hutongs which are lanes or alleys formed by lines of pre-modern siheyuan, four-sided compounds with houses around a courtyard. We were really lucky as we were able the tour the Hutongs in a rickshaw (carriage for 2 pulled by a man on a bike). We got to visit a family and have a look around their home. The homes in the Hutongs are made up of four building surrounding a central courtyard. The north building was the living quarters for the grandparents and parents and was the tallest building - this was so that it was the warmest building in the winter and the coolest in the summer. The east building was for the sons and was the 2nd tallest building. The west building was for the daughters and the smallest building also the coldest & hottest was the south building for the servants. The quarters did not have private toilets; many homes shared a communal toilet nearby.

After lunch we visited a silk market; I got to see how silk is made. In short: the silk work spins a cocoon (before becoming a moth) it is from this cocoon that the silk thread is produced. It is too fine on its own so 8 threads are wound together to make a single thread for making clothing etc. The silk felt very smooth, Mum wanted to buy many things but there wasn't enough room in her suitcase!
Next up was the Temple of Heaven. This Temple was built in the Ming Dynasty for the Emperor to pray to the heavens for happiness and good rains for the crops. He only visited the Temple three times a year and women were not allowed.
At the end of the garden attached to the Temple was a Tea House where we experienced a traditional tea ceremony. This included smelling and tasting five different types of tea, including jasmine, mixed fruit and lychee. Mum and Dad really liked the lychee flavoured one and bought some.

On the way back to the hotel Michelle asked us if we were interested in a Chinese massage. Mum jumped at the opportunity. Chinese massage is different from any other type of massage that Mum and Dad have had before. They work on the pressure points -which was a little painful at times. There were 5 of us in the one room: Mum, Dad, Uncle Scott, Auntie Jess and I. We had to wear funny tops and shorts made from disposable hospital type of material. It was very good it only cost 180 yuan ($30) for 90 mins.

It was 7.30pm when we got back to the hotel, and because we were all so tired we went to Pizza Hut for dinner, it was pretty good.