"Chairman Mao was a very, very great man"

Our tour guide, Jack told us that Beijing is at least a 4 day, 3 night trip in order to fill everything in. We are here for two days and one night. Needless to say, we are all tired after a busy, busy day.

Jack picked us up at the train station this morning at 7:30. We were a little slow moving, a preview of how the day was going to go. We went straight to a restaurant to have a traditional Cantonese/Hong Kong breakfast. It would have made a great dinner. The porridge was like a thick chicken and rice soup, we had dumplings, BBQ pork filled steam bread, and one really great bread that tasted like a cinnamon muffin. There were other things that I can't remember because there was no way I would eat it for breakfast :) Many of the students started talking about cold milk and Apple Jacks. Nathan suggested that "the next time we all come to China, we all need to pack one of those Fun Packs and share Smacks and Froot Loops!"

Cathy (Yaxin) Guan met us at breakfast. It was wonderful to have her with us today! She did not have any of the students for class, but has many of their younger brothers and sisters. She was very helpful and everyone loved her. We are excited to go to the Great Wall with her tomorrow!

Beijing means "north capital." It also has many nicknames, including "first capital" and "first traffic jam," which we learned rather quickly. The traffic here is insane- almost every road has 8 lanes, but they're all packed. People pull U-turns, drive the wrong way, and basically do everything you were taught not to do. Jack said there are 5 million cars on the road, but I would not be surprised if there were more. He also said that the average commute in Beijing, to work and back home, takes 4 hours! This happens because of the number of cars and how expensive it is getting to live in the city.

When we arrived, it was nice and cool, refreshing compared to last week's heat wave. It was a cloudy day, not ideal for taking pictures; however, it was not all the clouds because it was hazy too close to the ground. The smog here is really bad, making the visibility horrendous. You can't see for a distance and the tops of some buildings are tough to make out.

The first stop was Tian'amen Square. It is the largest city center in the world- larger than Times Square in NYC and the Red Square in Moscow. It is impressive. In one direction, there is The Great Hall of the People, which houses chambers of the government and boasts a 10,000 person banquet hall. Directly across the square is The National Museum of China. There is a lot about the 3 Beijing dynasties, Yuan, Ming, and Qing, as well as other history dating back thousands of years. Mao Tse-Tung's (sometimes Zedong?) Mausoleum looks like it is bigger than the Lincoln Memorial in DC. The Monuments to the People flank the entrance. Across from the Mausoleum is Mao himself- his portrait hangs from the front of the Tian'amen Tower. The square also has panoramic TV screens where you can learn about the history of China, as well as a remnant of the innermost part of the city gate. In the center of it all, there is a monument for Mao with some of his poetry on the side. As Jack said, "Chairman Mao was a very, very great man." They certainly seem to think so!!!

We moved through the entrance of the Tian'amen Tower to get to the Forbidden City. As you walk through, you are supposed to touch one of the 81 gold doorknobs for good luck. Why 81? 9 is a lucky number, so the doorways have knobs in multiples of 9 to keep bad luck out.

The Forbidden City was forbidden to the commoners, thus the name. The emperor, the royal family, and high-ranking government officials were allowed within the walls. It is, literally, a city. It keeps going and going- all that for one family! Construction started in 1406 and was completed in 1420. There are two things that make this unbelievable: 1) that they could build something so grand and expansive during the start of the 1400s and 2) that they could build something so grand and expansive in just 14 years. Every corner we turned and doorway we walked through, I just thought "WOW!"

We had the opportunity to see several sections of the City. I don't have a guidebook (and internet is 50 RMB in the hotel), so I cannot tell you the names of everything. We saw the main hall where the Golden Throne was located. The emperor sat there for ceremonies. Oh my goodness- you have not lived until you attempt to push through the crowd to see it! I have never seen so many angry little old ladies in my life! I was worried I was going to run over a small child from one of the school tour groups. Thankfully, I stand head and shoulders above everyone, so I still got a good view.

We also saw the inner palace, which was strictly for the emperor, the empress, the emperor's concubines, and the emperor's servants. In order to be a servant, the men had to be eunuchs, so the emperor knew that they would be loyal to him. Each emperor had at least 20-30 concubines! The emperors who did not accomplish much of anything during their reign had too much "leisure time" and are rumored to have had 3,000! The emperor had his own study quarters and room, the concubines had their own section, and the empress had her room connected to the wedding room, where their ceremony took place. All rooms had intricate details, many from the Qing Dynasty, like carved furniture, beautiful silk fabrics, and ornate glass and jade sculptures.

The last spot was the garden. The garden has trees that are hundreds of years old and little pavilions for each of the four seasons. Again, the detail was spectacular- such bright colors & great carving.

There were all kinds of other facts, but I'll spare you. I was a nerd today and couldn't get enough! Most the students, however, seemed pretty miserable 20 minutes in. It was difficult to get them to get up and move to the next place or to take interest in what was being said. Many were upset with how much walking it was- which makes me worry about the Wall tomorrow! We were all tired from the train and all DESPERATELY wanted to shower, but you do what you have to do.

After lunch, we knew that there would be too much time before hotel check-in as well as dinner. We needed something else to do, so I tried to ask Jack about the silk market that some of the students mentioned. I didn't know what it was called exactly and Jack didn't get what I was trying to explain, so we ended up at a silk mall- which we saw yesterday in Shanghai. I felt so bad for him and for the kids because of their genuine disinterest in seeing how it is made again. Some students loved shopping again, but overall, group morale was low. We were very tired at this point, wanting to shower & sleep.

We moved on and went to the Temple of Heaven. The temple and stairs around it are round to represent heaven, but the walls around the temple are square because they are on earth- Chinese culture uses the circle to represent heaven and the square for earth. It was really cool to see, but the history behind it is so bizarre. They used this temple to ask the god of the heavens to bless them with a good harvest. The emperor stood in the middle of a stone at the top of marble stairs. They made their plea to the god, then burned sacrifices around the stairs. Precious items like silk and jade were burned in cauldrons; animal sacrifices were burned on an altar. Everything was burned because the smoke would get to heaven faster. It's weird, if you ask me.

The temple itself was great- there is a picture of it when you look up "Beijing" on Wikipedia :) So much colorful paint and gold leaf detail! There is a blue tile tablet inside that says Tiantan, heaven, and has a prayer on it. The temple is surrounded by an echo wall. If you say something into it, the echo will wrap around the wall back to you. It was too crowded for that to work today.

We still had a little bit of time to kill, so we stopped at a tea house. This was awesome! We were given a formal tea ceremony for free. This explained the process of the ceremony, but basically was a good way to pitch the products. It worked! We got to sample 5 very different types of tea. Everywhere else we've been, people keep telling us what to buy because it's the best, but the students never get to try it. We all had a lot of fun and learned something new! With our tea & gifts, we left for dinner.

FINALLY we were able to go to the hotel. Oh was it worth the wait! The Jiang Xi Grand Hotel is grand indeed! The students faces lit up when they saw how nice it was :) We're bummed that we're only here for a night, but it was great to call it an early night so we could all get long showers and lounge around in the comfy robes and slippers! Hopefully everyone gets the rest they need for tomorrow morning!

Late departure- 10 AM- then Great Wall all day. We're hoping to add the Bird's Nest and Water Cube (Olympic Park) on the way back from the Wall tomorrow night.

Enjoy your day :)