Day 2

Theres so much to say about China.  I've been letting my procrastination win, so finally here it is.

Day 2.
Ti'ananmen Square
Forbidden City
Temple of Heaven
Fresh Water Pearl Factory
Chinese market


So the morning started in Ti'ananmen Square.  This square is the biggest in the world.  Think Washington DC, The Mall area.  It has the national's capital buildings, history museums and even Mao's dead body.  His body is supposed to last for about 70 years after his death.  So we have about 30 more years to view it.  China should have talked to Sicilians about preserving bodies, they know how to do it right.  So we wandered around this area, not really wanting to go into any of the buildings.  There was a lot of propaganda.  I think there was going to be a big celebration or something.  So there was this:

They (the government) must be super proud of how far they have come.  From what our tour guide told us China is slowly becoming more "liberal" or open to new things like religion, but i still wonder how much of that is really true.  I did see crosses of churches in the distance when we were on out train ride, but its still baffling.  I now know more about China, but it's still very very little.  

We figured we would not celebrate communism, well, except for Garrett.  He's always gotta be the odd man out.  

The entry to the Forbidden City faces the square and Mao's giant face overlooks the entire square.  You have no idea of the size but, it is huge.  His face is maybe 20-30 feet tall.  

Mao is a big deal because he made China a republic.  So they have slightly more freedom than before.  Please, if you're a history buff, correct me if i am wrong about any of this.  Regardless, his face and spirit continue to linger and observe China.  There's no hiding, big brother is always watching.

The Forbidden City

This is also the biggest temple (and surrounding area) in the world.  I've seen a lot of temples since being here, but this one takes them all.  Its huge, it goes for miles.   And we didnt even see it all.  It was built for the emperor and his empresses.  This is where the emperor lived, and he would never leave except for twice a year when he visited the Temple of Heaven.  He was the only who entered the middle gate.  No body else can enter except for the empress.  She can only use it once, the day of her wedding.  There are usually three gates to go through.  

There are more cool "gutter systems" all over.  An incredible amount of gold and marble.  The roofs are yellow, only the emperor can uses yellow, its to show his wealth.  

Oh ya, and it's crowded!  Who would have thought?!  Super crowded, not much breathing room.  

We shoved ourselves through the crowd of people just so we could get a view of a pole with a gold throne behind it.  Behind me is the line, which doesnt do it justice because there are stairs so really theres at least 50+ people behind us.  It felt more like going to a rock concert and trying to shove your way to the front.  It was like this every. single. time.  It gets old quick and I stopped caring for others around me.  You get mean and nasty and before you know you just stepped on a child because the mother brought them into the see the pole, and you dont have any sympathy.  If only it was organized.  Things would go faster and no one would get mean.  I hope.  

There are a lot of incense burners everywhere.  I imagine the the Forbidden city in its prime would smell glorious and would have been beautifully lit too.  There are huge pots all over for fires to light the path.  it would have been beautiful (and quiet).  They have incense burners in the shape of turtles and cranes.  Both animals mean prosperity in  Chinese culture.  The smoke comes out of their mouth.  Awesome.

In the emperor's bedroom he had 27 beds.  Why?  He had eunuchs dress up like him and they all slept in there while he did.  It was incase anyone were to attack the emperor, they would have trouble finding him.  They did this every night.  

You will see little characters on the corners of the buildings.  If there are ten different characters that means its a holy and noble building, or someone noble lives there.  It is the highest ranking and they act as guardians for the building.  

Lunch and Tea

This place was so good.  We as soon as we thought they were finished bringing us food, they brought us more.  It was so delicious, and this is only half of it!  The dish on the right is duck.  :)

Then we went to a tea place.  They gave us a demo of different tea and how each of them can benefit you.  They were really delicious.  Different types of teas should be made in specific tea pots.  Some teas are best in ceramic pots, some glass, and some in your typical tea cup.  China is obsessed with China and have it down to an art form.  It can be just as pretentious as a wine snob.  

The Temple of Heaven

This is where people come to pray.  The emperor would also have a specific place to stand to give speeches too.  Everything about the place is built in a very specific order.  

There are two ceremonies a year, winter and summer when the emperor comes to pay his dues.  

 There is a very specific place where the emperor will give his speech, it is called the center point.  You could stand far away and still hear him.  There are many patterns in the stones with the significant numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 which all represent holy numbers.  I found that half the Eastern culture seems almost opposite to Western culture.  So sometimes the information given felt  bit jarring and like, "what?!  how does that make sense?!"  But thats how they do it.  Also, Heaven is represented as round, and earth is represented as a square.  So a round building is a holy building and a square or rectangular building is considered "earthly."  Every little thing has a purpose in the Chinese culture.  No detail is ever left behind.

This is the actual "Temple of Heaven."  Its a beautiful building.  Well built and enormous.  You have to travel through layers of buildings and go deeper into the park to get to it.  The inside is all painted with exquisite detail and rich colors. 

After the Temple we headed over to a fresh water pear factory.  They give you a demo of how they go about getting the pearls.  Fresh water clams have about 5-20 pearls in them, one never knows until they open it.  Where has salt water only have one.  It was nice, but expensive and they ladies followed you around relentlessly.  You couldn't even think it was so bad.  Their sales must be going down because they were so aggressive.  So none of us bought anything, we wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.  

We then we to a typical asian market where they sold fake goods.  Again, relentless sales people.  they aren't even good, just relentless.  They tried to sell me fake Tom's shoes.  I walked away and almost cried.  I wonder if the people who work there are happy to do their job everyday?

Then we headed to the train station to go aboard our sleeper train to Xi'an.  We left Beijing about 8 pm and arrived in Xi'an around 8 am.  None of us got a whole lot of sleep, but it was still kinda fun.  

We're so high class. 

Those are our beds, two on top and two on the bottom.