Imperial Beijing

Its a good thing this sign warned us not to climb the perilous hills. Whew!
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We passed through Beijing three times during our travels through China and Mongolia. The city is loaded with some of China’s most famous tourist attractions and we visited as many as we could afford. Some of the highlights included the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, ancient Hutong districts, the Temple of Heaven, and of course the Great Wall.

In case you aren’t aware, Beijing is hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Chinese government is determined to leave their best impression on the world and not be embarrassed. To reach their initiative, they have launched a massive campaign to put a new face on the city spanning from their buildings to their people.

Tiananmen Square.
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We saw the workings of this undertaking everywhere across the city. When first going through customs at the airport we had to respond to an electronic survey about the officer’s customer service. Just outside the airport, major construction work to extend the subway was underway, and on the streets brand new busses cruised by. Famous cultural relics were being repainted to look new, including landmarks in the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. In the Forbidden City we were approached to fill out a two page survey with questions ranging from “How can we improve the experience for Foreigners?” to “Which Chinese social habits are most off-putting?”

Canal running through the Forbidden City.
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If improving infrastructure and people’s habits were not enough, to top it all off they are even trying to control the weather during the games. First planning to wipe the air clean by forcing it to rain, and then following it up by clearing the skies with rockets. Only the Chinese would go this far to impress the world.

Perhaps their most ambitious goal is to change the habits of their population to match western ideals. Among other things they want to replace poorly written signs with correct English, and teach all public service workers basic English and Western manners. There are numerous articles out there – just take a look.

2008 Olympic renovations in progress at the Forbidden City.
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The first attractions we visited in Beijing were the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Though no more visually inspiring than a parking lot, Tiananmen Square is rich with political history. It was here that we had our first encounters with Chinese group-tour reality and their fascination with westerners.

Across the street from Tiananmen is the Forbidden City. The city was used as the imperial residence from the mid-Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. There are over 800 buildings containing 8,886 rooms, covering an expanse of 720,000 square meters. It is guarded by a moat and a 30 foot high perimeter wall. During the time of the Dynasties, no one was allowed to enter or leave the city without the Emperor’s permission, hence the name “forbidden city”. This is one of Beijing’s premier tourist attractions and a river of sightseers was flowing in through the main gate.

Cauldron scraped for its gold during an invasion of the Forbidden City.
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Just inside the city walls are two large successive concrete courtyards. At the north end of each courtyard, sitting atop three tiered platforms, were the city’s largest and most famous palaces. They were encased in bamboo scaffolding and hidden from view by green cloth. On the upside, over the green cloth hung a life-size computer image of the building – just as good as the real thing!! They represented two of the many victims of operation “2008 Olympic facelift”.

We have mixed feelings about the decision to repaint many of the city’s cultural sites. The temples and palaces that had already received their makeovers looked stunning. The paint work was perfect; exquisitely detailed and packed with color. Seeing the freshly painted temples was like going back in time and experiencing them in their original splendor. On the other hand the paint made the buildings look brand-new which detracted from their true historical nature.

Forbidden City palace.
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After passing the two main palaces under construction the city was essentially renovation free. The complex was enormous and we spent nearly all day wandering through less than half of it. There were hundreds of buildings, temples, and palaces forming narrow, disorienting streets on either side. Among the buildings were hundreds of statues, cauldrons, and lanterns. The complex ended in a large and soothing garden filled with oddly shaped stones and deformed trees as well as beautiful flowers.

Spring blossoms in the imperial garden of the Forbidden City.
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On our first full day in China, we went with Mr. G to meet up with the Hash House Harriers for a run around the city (here’s some info off the Boston page about the hash runners). One of the places we went through during our run/walk/pub-crawl was a part of Beijing termed the Hutong. The Hutong areas are the old neighborhoods of Beijing set up with compounds of houses facing an inner courtyard and connected to each other by small lanes. Since we didn’t get to explore at a leisurely pace (we were following the hare marks after all!) we came back to explore the Hutong during our second stop in Beijing. There are a few areas in Beijing where the Hutong survive and many have become hot tourist spots, with the rickshaw tours causing traffic jams in the small thorough-fares. We found a peaceful part of the Hutong near the Forbidden City and checked out the small streets, old doorways, and groups of people playing Mahjong.

Elephant statue.
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On the outskirts of Beijing rests Empress Dowager Cixi’s summer retreat, appropriately coined the Summer Palace. This was probably the largest and most crowded of all the attractions in Beijing we visited. Through the main entrance gates we were greeted by familiar bamboo scaffolding, complete with artistic rendition of the post-renovation building.

Once inside we found ourselves in the midst of a Chinese group tour frenzy. Everyone was competing with each other to see cultural relics inside a few small, glassed in buildings. We found ourselves being jostled around like rag dolls and quickly headed for a quieter section of the courtyard. As soon as we found some room to breathe a Chinese woman came running up the steps behind us. Too eager to wait in line she shoved Katy aside, tripped over her feet in the process, and slammed head first into the glass. And you wonder why the government is putting so much effort into their Olympic preparation.

Open door in the Forbidden City.
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Dozens and dozens of buildings were scattered across a small hill that rose above Lake Kunmig that dominated the palace grounds. The largest temple in the complex sat on top of Longevity Hill and overlooked the paddle boaters out on the lake. A small Willow lined strip of land had been built across the lake and was connected by 6 ornate bridges. The palace was considerably cooler than the Forbidden City, with plenty of water and shade it’s no surprise why it was an imperial summer favorite.

The back alleyways of the Forbidden City.
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For our final China experience we set out to climb the Great Wall. We headed away from Badaling, the upgraded widened touristy section of the wall, and towards Jinshanling some 2 hours outside of the city. We lucked out and caught a ride with a group of British “Gap year” students who were mid-negotiation with a mini-bus driver.

We arrived at the remote section of the wall and were greeted by a beautiful sight: an empty entrance without tour busses, and with no people other than ourselves and the gate keepers. There was a 10 minute walk up a dirt path and then we were on The Wall. Of course, even on this route virtually devoid of tourists, we ran into people selling t-shirts, water, beer (is that such a good idea on a crumbling old wall?!), and their services as “guides.”

Freshly painted roof beams.
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We ran into an old woman and her friend resting along the path that led to the wall. "How many of you?” she enquired, “So hot!” she said. “Yes! So hot!! Just us two”, we replied having lost sight of our British comrades. She continued on in front of us and we joined a few others on the wall climbing the route to Simatai. After our lunch stop at one of the Guard towers we noticed the old woman and her friend from our earlier encounter were also stopped. We packed up and started our walk again, and of course, they followed behind us. Voila, just like that, we had ourselves two Guides – and how helpful they had been so far by trailing behind and following us! Strange but true, it is common to pick up these “guides” who follow you or walk just in front of you and then harass you and demand money at the end of the journey. We had to firmly say “Go away!” to two sets of guides during our walk. We then employed the strategy of “don’t make eye contact and don’t respond to questions!!” when passing the Guard towers where touts congregated to sell their goods. This seemed to work and we didn’t attract any more Guides.

This angry looking door knockers were commonplace in Beijing.
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It was a long hot walk with beautiful views. Looking to either side of where we stood were valleys, mountains, and more views of The Wall. It looked as if it went on forever, stretching literally as far as we could see, and tracing a path along the mountain ridges. The Great Wall is believed to have started as separate defensive structures built by individual towns from the period 800 through 400 B.C. At around 220 BC, following the unification of the country, construction began to link the separate pieces together. 15 years and 300,000 men later, some 1,200 miles of the Great Wall was completed. Further extensions and construction continued through successive dynasties until the Ming Dynasty in 1644 reaching a total length of about 1,500 miles.

Empty alleyway deep in the Hutong district.
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As we stood on the wall we were reminded of all the steps on Huangshan, the rows of Xi’an warriors, and images of Egyptian pyramids. What amazingly grandiose things have been done with seemingly limitless manpower. We were not too surprised that the Emperor who ordered the Xi’an warriors built to guard him in his afterlife was the very same one who ordered the initial construction of the Great Wall.

China is a country comprised of a complex mix of old and new. In the peaceful countryside of Yangshou, farmers live like they have for hundreds of years using water buffalo and handheld tools to plow, sow, and reap their fields. In many of these areas, the farmers make just enough food for their family to survive and have no money for extra comforts. By contrast in the larger bustling cities, such as Beijing, the country appears to be closing the gap and making gigantic leaps towards Western standards, cultural norms, and earning potential. Unfortunately, in their attempts to appear on equal footing with the world, the government seems willing to sacrifice everything. The communist government can, and frequently does, kick out businesses and families from their residences. This is especially the case in Beijing where China wants to look as fresh and cutting edge as possible. Just see the last few paragraphs of this article from CNN.

Bicycle calligraphy.
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The natural landscapes of China that we explored were breathtaking, as were the historical structures remaining from the time of the Emperors. Aside from the shadow of “Operation Facelift”, and our cringing at certain habits, we found China to be a great country to experience. Oh yeah – and the Chinese are master fakers, from Polo, Gucci, and Coach to their bootlegged movies. We (Katy) had a ton of fun browsing the markets and bargaining – 60Yuan ($7) for a Lacoste shirt hmm…ookay!