Yesterday was our last day in Beijing. We went to Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square was hot, really, really hot. It doesn’t help that it is a large rectangle of just stone. There were flower floats all over it for the ParaOlympics which made it much prettier than the usual pictures of the huge unadorned flat space being paraded with tanks. (Although, there are only so many floral arrangements that can make being condemned to a wheelchair for eternity seem cool.) There is something that seems just remarkably paradoxical about this place. Tiananmen square has 1.the forbidden city-- center of traditional China with its beautiful architecture 2. all the much less pretty communist architecture that came from the utilitarian school of thought and behind it all 3. cranes, building new hotels, apartments, office buildings. Cranes are the omnipresent symbol of Westernization in China.
We also visited the tomb of Chairman Mao, where we got to see his corpse guarded by two soldiers. He was looking good for 30 years dead a little waxy but…Then, we walked to the Forbidden City which was really very cool. We would pass these beautiful huge buildings and the tour guides would say things like “and this is where the emperor would change clothing on his way to the building over there where he would blow his nose…” or “this is the House of Accumulated Estrogen and Elegance where the emperor would keep his 3,000 concubines.” Think about that. 3,000 concubines! Sorry about the delay in posting. Internet access has been limited. Pictures are of the whole crew in the Forbidden City.
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