Beijing
The above photo is of me in Tiananmen Square with the famous view towards the entrance gate to the Forbidden City adorned with Mao’s picture. The photo below is again taken in Tiananmen Square with the Great Hall of the People in the background. The Hall is massive, you can only see about half of the façade in this photo.
Ann in front of Mao’s Tomb. Unfortunately we missed seeing the coffin, as it had been lowered back into the vaults. It is raised up from the vaults on a hydraulic lift every day, for a short time so that visitors can pay their respects.
After a while walking round the square, we noticed vans strategically parked with policemen photographing everyone passing by through the windows. Being our first day there we thought better of trying to photograph them back!
The Hutongs are the older parts of Beijing, with traditional small, single storey houses huddled round communal courtyards in winding alleyways. This is where I bought the Yangtze watercolour, hanging in our dining room.
The week we were in Beijing was when it was announced that the city had won the 2008 Olympic games. Apparently the authorities will stop at nothing to ensure they are a success. A lot of the old parts of the city are going to be “redeveloped” to impress the 2008 foreign visitors.
The obligatory Tea Ceremony. We were offered weak, but refreshing tea in just about every large shop or museum we visited. A nice custom.
Being serenaded on Houhai Lake was very romantic, even if it was rather crowded with lots of other boats. The lake was previously the exclusive pleasure area of the Emperors.
Drum Towers were significant buildings in old Beijing for informing the population of imminent events.
The Temple of Heaven complex, below, is the largest religious structure in the world. The Circular Mound is a massive three-tiered circular construction built in the 16th Century. Every winter solstice, the Emperor would perform a thanksgiving ceremony to ensure a good harvest for the following year.
Temple of Heaven was one of the most imposing temples we saw. The interior of the Prayer Hall was fantastically decorated, this photo hardly does it justice.
Circular Mound Altar
Temple of Heaven
Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests
The Summer Palace
While visiting the Summer Palace, I noticed several French couples and initially thought it sweet that they had all brought their small babies with them on a trip to China.
Then I noticed that the babies were all Chinese and only after pestering our guide did she admit that it was common to have visiting groups from European countries come to adopt Chinese baby girls (note: not baby boys)- a consequence of the one child policy.
Our guide, Sunny, was in her mid twenties. On another occasion she joked about how she liked playing with her sister. After our surprise, she then joked that her “sister” was her pet dog. On reflection I thought her joke was rather sad.
Kumming Lake, Summer Palace, below. We realised that this was designed to be a very peaceful place in tune with Nature. However the air pollution & crowds did detract a little bit.
After the obligatory tours of state factories and workshops, such as this Cloisonné Factory, came the obligatory tour of the associated shops. Needless to say we noticed that the items were very expensive in such official places, but elsewhere such as street stalls you could buy just about anything for $1 (about the only English that all the sellers knew). When we went, having American $$s was very useful – forget about British ££s. We bought our Terracotta figures from a street merchant for about $1.