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Forbidden City and farewell to Beijing
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Wednesday 8 June:
Made an 8am start this morning for our visit to the historic and cultural heart of China's giant capital - Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Our guide, Fenny, led us into the subterranean madness that is the metro system for a rush hour ride to the Square. Tiananmen Square is truly vast in size and very Communist looking - red flags, super-realist sculptures of workers raising clenched fists to the skies, and the imposing architecture of the massive People's Congress Hall and other official buildings. On the north side, the first outer gate of the Forbidden City is adorned with a giant portrait of Mao.
We were ushered into the queue for Mao Zedong's mausoleum, another huge, stark building on the Square. With hundreds of Chinese, we shuffled silently towards the door for what is a bizarre pilgrimage. The queue is moved along swiftly by the many guards on duty, people nip out of the queue to buy plastic flowers from a vendor by the gate. The culmination of the whole experience is a brief moment inside the building to file past the embalmed body of the Great Leader, displayed in a glass case. Very macabre, I must say.
In contrast to the Soviet-style order of the Square and the sense of sadness that seems to haunt it, the Forbidden City is a feast for the eye, an exuberance of colour and design. This massive compound of historic buildings was the seat of successive emperors until the early 1900s. Its popular name derives from the fact that, in days gone by, it would have been out of bounds to everyone other than nobility. Now the palace is China's flagship museum and is currently undergoing renovation in preparation for the Olympics.
It took us more than two hours to walk through the complex from south to north, looking at the intricately decorated ceremonial halls and the living quarters of the emperor, his family and concubines. The intricacy of decoration on roof tiles, walls, beams and doors was exquisite.
Our visit to the imperial palace took us up to lunch time, and we were whisked off to a local NGO (non-governmental organisation, or voluntary organisation, as we would call it) working with disabled people. Situated in a pictuersque hutong, the day centre provides activities and training for handicapped adults. The students treated us to a musical performance and lunch, and taught us some calligraphy. The visit was super fun and it was fascinating to see the courage of the voluntary workers and parents who make the most of scarce resources to help those forgotten by the state.
After a rickshaw tour of the hutongs, we returned to the hotel to grab our bags. We boarded the 6.30pm sleeper train for a 13-hour ride to Xi'an. We'd been booked into 'hard sleeper' class, and of course we were all dreading it - didn't sound very comforatable! In fact, it was not that bad at all - open carriages with 6 to a compartment (triple bunk beds, no door for the compartment), but at least the beds had matresses! We spent the evening eating, drinking beer and chatting before lights out at 10pm.
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| 7. | Forbidden City and farewell to Beijing - Beijing, China Jun 08, 2005 |
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