Tiananmen, Forbidden City

My aim is to describe what we did during our busy day of touring in Beijing yesterday. We are, however, on an airplane en route to Guangzhou to meet our daughter. We'll be united with her later today!!! Her life and our lives will change forever . . . today!! Today! It's still hard to comprehend. And, of course, I'm a little nervous and what not.

Because our minds are racing about the huge events to come today, yesterday seems like a week ago. I'll try to bring it back, since I'm sure once we get to Guangzhou and — even more — once Hannah Dong En joins our family, we will be even less able to think about our tours.

Our group (joined by a couple of other Bethany [adoption agency] families) set out for central Beijing about 9am. We began in Tiananmen Square. Before we set off, Joy, our guide, warned there would be numerous vendors approaching us. She said it is best not to make eye contact and just ignore them, unless you want to buy something. In that case, she said we should negotiate with them, since, because we are foreigners, they will think we are rich.

We began our walk through Tiananmen Square, stopping for Joy to interpret and explain the sites we were seeing. There were thousands of other tourists there, most of them Chinese, of course. Because the square (I had read) is the largest city square in the world, (unlike the Great Wall) there was plenty of room to walk around, despite the crowds. My impression was that the square was very clean and well maintained. There are two structures on the square: a monument to all war heroes going back to the 1800's, and a monument to Mao Zedong, containing his preserved remains. On one side is the huge Great Hall of the People, where China's equivalent to Congress meets.
We did indeed encounter swarms of vendors on the sidewalks around the square. There were less inside the square, but still several. There were a couple dozen police or soldiers stationed around the square. At one point some peddlers selling little plastic kites were near us. A police truck drove up and that small group of vendors ran like the wind. It wasn't clear whether selling on the square was completely prohibited, whether they were doing it without a license, or what. There were still numerous vendors on the square after that, so evidently the police aren't out to round them up en masse. 

We headed across the square, toward our next destination, the ornate "gate" for which the square is named, tian an men, the heavenly peace gate. This gate is one of several entrances to the Forbidden City, which until the early 1900's housed the emperors of China for several dynasties, along with their families and governments.

The restrooms at which we stopped on the way was also the location of one of the official gift shops, selling shirts, hats, postcards, plastic P.R. (People's Republic of) China flags, and several gifts commemorating Chairman Mao.

After crossing to the Forbidden City side of the street, we paused to learn more before entering the tian an men. Ben was again mobbed by people wanting photographs, but took it all in stride, very much like a celebrity dealing with the paparazzi. I think our guide, Joy, was a little irritated by all the interruptions.

Joy explained some of the abundant symbolism in the names of the features and the images and icons through the structures. Like the old extent of the city of Beijing, the Forbidden City is surrounded by a moat. At the Heavenly Peace Gate, there are three bridges leading to three entrances. The center one — the largest — in imperial times was to be used only be the emperor. Today alone, we (and thousands more) would cross that bridge into the compound.
The complex is quite literally a little city, with building upon building and courtyard upon courtyard. Joy told us that the Forbidden City, when it was at its largest (some of it was torn down in the past) had 9999.5 rooms. Nine was used a lot in the architecture since it one of the most auspicious numbers, and the largest digit. She said, given that quantity, if a person stayed in one room each day, it would take 27 years to have stayed in each room. (The current complex has about 8000 rooms.)

Talk about urban planning: everything in the imperial "town" is laid out meticulously to symbolically convey the power of the emperor, and the stability and nobility of his government and his people. Each structure is laid out a specific way in hopes of bringing good fortune, good energy, etc., according to feng shui and other supernatural and spiritual traditions.

The Forbidden City was a bit overwhelming, in its size, the ornateness of its features, but also the similarity of the structures. The same layouts and patterns are repeated again and again but with different variations for different purposes. You no sooner leave one unbelievably crafted royal building than you walk out into a huge square bordered by three similar buildings as incredible, but larger.

The history, too, was compendious, and even the sampling Joy shared with us was more than my memory or little notebook could hold. The last emperor, however, was notable because he was enthroned when only 4 years old. He was removed from his mother and taken to the Forbidden City, where tradition required him to stay overnight, alone, with the body of the dead emperor. The next day, the former emperor's mother died, and he had to spend the next night with her dead body. I can't imagine how terrified he must have been. At his enthronement, he cried terribly. His father stayed next to him and told him not to cry because it would be over soon. When the royal advisors learned this, they were very concerned. Saying "it will be over soon" is not auspicious. In fact, he was emperor for only 3 years.

His short reign was also blamed on the removal of a threshold at one of the gates to the Forbidden City. All gates have thresholds because the Chinese believe spirits cannot jump. Thresholds, therefore, keep out evil spirits. The last emperor removed a threshold so he could ride his bicycle in and out.

The walking and standing was bearing down on our muscles as well. Benjamin, nonetheless, was holding up great, with chances for him to rest by being carried by one of us.

After exiting the Forbidden City via the imperial garden, another colorful and imposing "gate" and the bridge, we returned to the bus for a short ride to one of Beijing's old hutong neighborhoods.

Hutongs traditionally refer to groups of houses located around a courtyard with a central (water) well. The modern use of the word is expanded to neighborhoods accessed via narrow alleys.

The original layout and structures of the hutong that we visited (according to our local guide, Jiang) dated to before the time of the first instantiation of the Forbidden City, built in the 1400's.

Benjamin, who was in a good mood the whole day, became more excited when we reminded him that we would be touring the hutong, in part on rickshaws. These were three-wheeled bicycle rickshaws with cushioned double seats.

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Right now on the plane they are playing what appears to be a very high production music video featuring an attractive Chinese woman in a flowing dress singing in front of the Great Hall of the People. The video keeps cutting to shots of the Chinese flag and the flag of the Communist Party (yellow hammer and sickle on red) flying high in the wind. They also cut to black and white footage of people in uniforms talking, etc. (Possibly heroes of the Revolution.) Before showing this, they were showing what appeared to be the standard airline and vacation advertising (but in Chinese, of course). In between they had clips from a British hidden camera comedy show.

No time to write more. We are off to meet Hannah Dong En!