Gone skiing

We have been totally surprised and captivated by Beijing. It could be that our expectations were not high, too many memories of events from here, perhaps. But if Shanghai, Hong Kong and Bangkok are about skyscrapers and wonderful lights, and rush and bustle, Beijing is about wide tree lined avenues, massive buildings, and quiet night lights. You can not imagine the shear size of The Forbidden City or Tiananmen Square. We started with the Forbidden City (a walk from our Hotel) . The hotel recommended we take a guide as we would probably find it, overwhelming. It was very good advice and was indeed , overwhelming, even with a guide. She was very experienced and was mercifully brief about describing each building (there are many many temples) and just let us sort of slowly try and take it all in. While there were plenty of different buildings to see, many are under renovation. I gathered the government wants as much restored as possible for the Olympic visitors. During the cultural revolution appreciation of the Ming and other dynasties disappeared. In fact some tombs in China were actually looted Fortunately this phase didn’t last long(in Chinese time !)
We have been sticking to our “up early to do a good fast walk” to start the day. This advice had been offered in lots of guide books and it has been a great way to see the city streets before they get too crowded, to watch people scurrying to work and going about their business. One of the most interesting walks has been the fast hike over to Tiananmen Square to join the Chinese tourists line up to watch the flag raising. This occurs each morning at first light, so the time is not fixed, hence a bit of a gamble as to when it actually starts. We were in luck, got there it time and joined thousands of Chinese already there, quite a stirring site really. But as Peter says, “Not quite up to British Standard in London”!. Still I am sure I was the only person out that morning in the entire world that was marching along to the Ohio State Marching Band on her IPod, which did give me a good giggle. Go Bucks
The tourist maps on the internet may tell you where things are, but you just don’t understand how far things are away from each other. The blocks are huge and the hotels and office building make us with mass but they lack in height.
We were very lucky to get the same guide, Rose Lee for out trip to the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall. The Tombs are in a very favoured site in the hills near Beijing, chosen for the wonderful feng shiu. These fellows wanted to spend their after life in perfection. Only one of the tombs has been opened, and few years ago and was filled with gold silk, gems etc. A few of the smaller tombs were looted in the cultural revolution times, but the big ones remain untouched. The scholars feel they are full of huge wealth. Rose said it is considered very bad luck to disturb the tombs, so they are being left alone. I did share with Rose that it seemed a pretty good life for the Emperors, and their families but how about all the other poor people who had to support them. This did strike a cord with Rose—these people are communists after all!-- There are 56 different peoples that make up what we know to be China (Rose says the Hans are the true Chinese)—everyone else is just nations within China,-- a very interesting comment I thought!
And the Great Wall is just that. It is two thousand years old and six thousand kilometers long. We have been blessed with great weather on this trip. For our trip to the Great Wall we actually had blue skies. It cannot be described, except it is a thrill to have actually stood on the Great Wall of China. At one time more that 30 per cent of the population was working on the wall. Most Chinese shared very little in any riches, really generation after generation of serfs. The last Ming emperor was still around in the early 1900’s. These very old civilizations of the nations that make up the Chinese probably that good old Chairman Mao was not such a bad comparison. As ever Katie