Wednesday, November 12, 2008
November 8, 2008
- Today is my last day in China…I’m anxious to get home, but at the same time very thankful and appreciative to have had this experience.
- We went to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City this morning. The square was only a very short bus ride from our hotel. Many in our group have already walked there in the evenings.
- Although it was just 8:30 AM, the square was filled with tourists, even more crowded than the Olympic venues. The square is huge. The hawkers swarmed over us like black flies in June. They were selling kites, postcards, Russian fur hats, and a variety of other items. The hawkers wouldn’t let up, and would even keep following you as you walked away. One of our group members, Richard Voltz from Springfield, Illinois, even had a man put his hand right into his pants pocket and once initially reacted he kept following Richard and smiling at the same time. I was wearing my Red Sox hat so one hawker said, “hey Boston!”
- It took us about 15 minutes to walk across the square. We kept stopping to take pictures of both the Forbidden City on one side and Mao’s tomb on the other. I would have like to go in Mao’s tomb, but we didn’t have enough time.
- Mao’s portrait hangs over the main entrance. According to the guides, a new portrait is put up every year on October 1st. Each new portrait is identical to the previous. The painter is very old…don’t know what they’ll do when he dies.
The Forbidden City was overwhelming. I can only compare it to the other monarch’s palace’s that I’ve seen: Versailles, Fountainbleau, Buckingham Palace, and Windsor Castle. It was overwhelming it its size, yet it had a simplicity that I found very appealing.- We got conflicting reports on the construction details. Depending on the guide it took 14 or 40 years to build and 1 million workers were involved! I really love the painted woodwork that is underneath the roof line, and the sculptures on the corners of the roof.
- The Emporer’s quarters hardly seem homey…they’re way to large to appeal to our standards…yet I’m sure that’s the intent.
- The floor of one of the inner court yard’s is 50 brick’s high, yet the overall level of court yard is not noticeably higher than the rest of the city. No worry about frost heaves there.
- There were multiple throne rooms, each with a specific purpose, and the buildings and inner squares just seemed to go on forever. There was also an inner moat.
- We were really overwhelmed with information about the Forbidden City. All of us stated we will go home and rent the “Last Emporer” on Netflix…I’m sure everyone does that. It’s so hard to imagine what it would be like to be part of that world.
- After leaving the Forbidden City, our group divided in half. One group went shopping and the other went out to lunch. I made the wrong choice and went for the meal. Those that shopped got tremendous bargains.
- By the time we got back to the hotel I only had an hour to find a post office, purchase stamps, and write my cards.
- 11 of us hired a minibus to take us to the airport, and back to our real worlds.
- We joked about having a reunion of Bus B at the Great Pyramids next year, and continue the yearly get togethers until we’ve seen the 7 wonders!
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