As I mentioned on yesterday’s blog, I messed up my alarm and was late for a meeting with a guide for the first time in my 6 weeks or so of travels. I was only 5 minutes late but in the 20 minutes from getting up to being downstairs, I had no time to eat or think. Eating was pretty much out of the question anyway. The cliché of getting sick in India was getting to me. I think I may have lost some weight, maybe 5 pounds or more according to the scale in the room, from eating one meal a day for a few days now. If I did that for a month, I’d be thin. Maybe anorexia isn’t the best choice though. I’m eagerly awaiting my appetite to recover. This is the longest I’ve gone without coffee in quite a while.

We had a short 10 minute or so drive to Tiananmen Square, maybe the best known public square in the world. Only Red Square in Moscow might be as famous. The first thing I saw were the enormous lines to get in to see Chairman Mao’s tomb. It would have taken many hours of waiting to get in and no pictures are allowed.

Line to get into Mao’s tomb looking to my left. Line looking to my right, from the same spot.

Vast expanse of Tiananmen Square, Great Hall of the People behind me

Massive flag (left), policeman seemed to be enjoying showing off his toy (right)

When I was at McGill University in Montreal as an undergraduate in the 60’s and 70’s, I hung out with some people who were big fans of Mao. They taught me the song “The East is Red”. Middle grades children in China still learn it. I sang it in English at the square and my guide sang along in Chinese.

The East is Red,

Shines Like the Sun.

The Chinese People

Have Brought Mao Tse Tung.

I got the Chinese words from her and I even had remembered a few of them from the past. There are also more verses.

Dong fang hong

Taiyang Sheng

Zhong Guo Chuo Le Yi Ge

Mao Ze Dong

Singing this song at this location made for a nice match with my singing Hare Krishna with my driver near Hindu Temples in India just a few days ago.

I came to Tiananmen Square with a feeling that it would be creepy, a sort of police state where people were afraid to say anything. I didn’t get that feeling at all when I was there. It had dozens of groups of Chinese tourists and young couples. It was like any other major tourist site pretty much. I’m sure if someone had started to yell out something controversial that police would have appeared quickly. We did have to go through a very quick screening of bags but no metal detectors like in the airports. India was much more security conscious, due to the bombings in Bombay a couple of years ago. I asked my guide about 1989 and she said it was students who just wanted to know more about things like how much government officials were being paid. I think it was about a lot more than that.

However, the feeling I had on that day was good. The sun really was shining in the east, the Chinese people did bring Mao Tse Tung as the father of their country regardless of what he did, and it brightened my darkened spirits to be there with all those people who also seemed very happy to be there.

Right above the picture of Mao below is the spot where he declared the formation of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1, 1949. I remember seeing this on a scratchy film on TV.

Who’s the sexiest, the guy on the left, me, Chairman Mao, the soldier, or the woman on the right?

Groups of Chinese Tourists with their color-coded flags and caps

After a hour and a half or so in Tiananmen, we moved on to the adjoining Imperial City. It’s hard to know how to deal with my next few hours in this blog. Every time we went through an area of amazing buildings, many built in 1402, we would exit to appear in yet another area.

It was fascinating but there was so much to learn that I’ve decided not to look it all up and report it here. Alice did go through a great deal of the history with me and I took notes about some things, but I want to keep this light.

The ancient Chinese (and maybe some current ones) from what I got from Alice believe that 10 is the perfect number and cannot be achieved on earth so 9 is the luckiest number. I liked the 9 by 9 grid indicating 2-dimensional happiness. I’m not sure what the two dimensions are. If you asked me they would be the mind and body but knowing the Chinese it is probably something much more elegantly stated.

9 x 9 grid, 9 is the ideal number on earth

There was a military station right next to all the tourists that was training soldiers for being in the raising of the flag ceremony. It was strange to see this base in the middle of all the ancient glory. I enjoyed watching the superior officer checking the marching quality of the newbies.

Military recruits just off the bus

Soldiers being inspected for their marching skills by the superior officer on the left

As the song says, “The East is Red.” A group of Chinese tourists in the Forbidden City all with their red caps. For once, I’m not the only one wearing a hat.

As I’m typing this in the day after, chimes just went off outside my hotel at 9 PM to the tune of The East is Red. I guess it’s not a song from the distant past after all.

There were a series of footbridges, each one designed for a different group in ancient times. We crossed on the center one, which was only for the Emperor and Empress. Only the best for me.

The Emperor’s bridge

Some of the other bridges

There was a female lion on one side and a male lion on the other side who had the job of protecting the palace. Their ears were pulled back as a sign of readiness to pounce.

I would have looked just as scary as the female lion here but I couldn’t get my ears pulled back.

Beautiful sculptures on a marble staircase

View of one of the many palaces in the Forbidden City

One of 858 incense burners, one of probably many more than 858 adorable looking kids at the Forbidden City

This part of the roof below had 10 monkeys on it. Apparently nothing can be 10 that is earthly but this was 10 because it’s above the earth.

10 monkeys in the roof, symbolizing perfection that cannot exist on the earth

A dragon turtle, symbol of longevity, looks like it’s about to immediately remove my longevity.

I think the crane is the female equivalent to the dragon turtle

One of 100’s of vats used for storing water to fight fires. Our firefighting equipment is not quite as beautiful

Description of the vats

The rhythm of the Forbidden City is to go from a massive courtyard with a palace in the center on to a gate at the end, which then brings you to another massive courtyard with a palace and a gate at the end. I lost track of how many we went through. There was the Hall (or Palace) of Middle Harmony, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of the Protector, the Hall of Earthly Tranquility, and many more. Again, I could look this up but I’d rather just give you my impressions.

The Hall of Middle Harmony

Inside the Hall of Middle Harmony, nice place to hang out but they probably didn’t get many TV channels back then

There was always a large crowd at each doorway to see inside the palaces. It struck me early on how much taller I am than most Chinese. I could often just put my camera above the people in front of me. It also didn’t take long to get to the front. In some places, people had no problem jumping in front of a person taking a picture. Many people were good about this but not all. I’ve had very little of this problem elsewhere.

House of Protector Harmony. Some of the artwork on the top of these palaces was redone for the 2008 Olympics. This one has less brilliant colors above the doorway which indicates it’s one of the originals.

I wondered how these Emperors and Empresses would have felt to see thousands of “commoners” in casual clothes walking around their private places, crossing their private bridges, etc. Actually, it’s not hard to figure out how they would have felt.

Entering the Back Palaces, which were the living quarters

Below is the largest stone carving, 16.75 meters long (55 feet), 3.07 meters wide (10 feet), and 1.7 meters thick (3.5 feet). It weighs 200 metric tons (440,000 pounds). I love this story. The stone was brought from the quarry by sprinkling water on the road to make it an ice road. They then dragged it over the ice.

55 foot long carving, stone brought from quarry by creating an ice road

Touching the double happiness characters, supposed to be good luck, especially for newly weds. I’m hoping it will work for people with stomach problems brought over from India.

In a store. Clockwise from the upper left, they mean happiness, double happiness, laugh, and long life

At the very end, was the Imperial Garden. They had labeled trees with one color sticker being over 500 years old and another over 300.

Imperial Garden

Imperial Garden. Thought you might enjoy seeing someone besides me in pictures

Hill made of eggshells (left), Sign saying North Gate in Manchurian on one side and Mandarin on the other (right)

As we exited out of the Forbidden City, actually now called the Palace Museum, I was worried we would have to walk all the way back. It felt like a long walk but a magnificent one. We passed by so many memorable monuments. Fortunately, our driver was waiting for us very close by. One of the real joys of working with a personal guide is having the car sitting waiting for you when you’re done.

This morning was so full, I’m going to put the afternoon on a separate blog entry.