After our detourous route to Beijing, we ended up having an extremely full day, with Dawn’s pedometer reading over 15000 steps by the end of the day.
Given the reason our initial flight to Chicago was cancelled – a Storm Bomb, I think they called it – we expected choppier conditions on the first leg of our flight to LA. Although it wasn’t the calmest flight, it certainly wasn’t a white knuckler. The biggest problem with this particular route was the 5 hour lay over in LA. It meant going from an original traveling time of 16 ½ hours to 22 ½ hours. To get to Beijing in time for the beginning of our tour, it was worth it.
We arrived in Beijing at 5:00 a.m. following an excellent Air China flight and were greeted by our in country national guide, Ling Ling. This poor young girl hadn’t much sleep last night, because we weren’t the only members of the group with delayed flights, so she’d been back and forth to the airport – 40 minutes from the hotel - 3 times during the night.
We arrived at the Jade Palace Hotel with a couple of hours to spare before starting the tour. So we showered and had a fabulous North American style buffet breakfast, before heading out.
We met with the rest of the tour group, totaling 14 with our national guide and then with our Beijing guide, Tina, headed out. So far, our printed itinerary appears to be more of a suggestion than a hard fact, since The Summer Palace was first on the list today.
We quickly started to get a feeling for the over population of this country. The Chinese, who until recently were not affluent enough to travel, are making up for it now. Hordes is the best description!
The day was sunny and coolish, but pleasant enough for the amount of walking to come.
Tina was really up on her history, so we got lots of interesting background stories and probably way too much technical fact.
Our stroll through the gardens and buildings on this site with its man made lake – Kunming- ended with a boat ride in a dragon boat – that’s what I call it anyway - across Lake Kunming.
From the Summer Palace, we went to have lunch. It was good food, but nothing like the Chinese food we know. We sat around a round table with a big lazy Susan in the middle and waitresses kept bringing plate after plate of mostly unrecognizable dishes. There were no, what North Americans would describe as disgusting ingredients – like, they kept the dog, cat and bugs off the table. Our guides helped with the explanation of each plate and actually everyone was pretty happy at the end of the meal. The only alcoholic beverage served was beer, so I guess happy was a relative term.
With lunch out of the way, we were off to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. This site has more than 800 buildings and goes on forever and ever. As we walked, we got to know our guides a little better. Both were young women in their mid-20’s – my guess- only children and University educated. I asked whether they knew about Facebook and Blogspot and even though this is a cell phone rich nation, their social networking is confined to Chinese sites, who of course can control and scrutinize their content. I guess Facebook type sites allow for the possibility of too much outside information and potential dissent. Thus, the need to use e-mail as a new communication format for this trip! NOTE: This blog site was updated with all my daily writings when we got home.
Tina in particular is a government hardliner and it appears Mao is more revered than ever. She knew nothing about the Nobel Peace prize winner being in jail. When asked whether the Chinese fear terrorism from “Muslim” extremists she replied with an emphatic NO and she considered the Dali Lama the greatest enemy to China.
Walking though the Forbidden City, we thought it would never end – building after beautiful building, large open space after more large open spaces. It’s important to remember that this city was forbidden because only the Emperor and his family were allowed inside.
During our tour, the city was temporarily shut down while some dignitary was toured through. As a result of this, dusk was approaching as we arrived at Tiananmen Square. We got there to witness the army taking down the flag – cool!
Immediately after this ceremony, the police started driving through the square telling people to move on. After 7:00 p.m., no-one is allowed in the square. I guess they’re making sure that there are no more Tiananmen Square riots.
The square itself is as huge as everyone imagines and is bordered by a museum, government building and of course Mao’s tomb. Mao is still viewable daily, but since his shrine closed after the flag lowing ceremony, we missed seeing the old communist.
We did however, grab a group photo in the square and then moved on for dinner – more beer. The lady at the far right is a Chinese lady who just jumped into our picture. Ling Ling and Tina – we can’t pronounce her Chinese name – are at left.
What a full first day! We crashed immediately after returning to the hotel, hoping that a good night’s sleep would set us up well for tomorrow’s walk on the Great Wall.
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