Back in the day, if you were an Emperor in the Ming or Qing dynasty and you wanted to ask for prosperity, longevity and good harvest for the people, then you would go to the Temple of Heaven. The temple is set in a 267 ha park, surrounded by a long wall which has gates at its cardinal points. Listed as a World Heritage site in 1998 it has been described as “a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design which simply and graphically illustrates a cosmogony of great importance for the evolution of one of the world’s great civilizations. The symbolic layout and design of the Temple of Heaven had a profound influence on architecture and planning in the Far East over many centuries.” This all sounds wonderful and lovely for our first stop of the day. The reality is a hot, sweaty day and more crowds than you can shake a stick at. Thousands of them. We needed to queue for ages to get in and then we could barely move for people. The central temple is spectacular and quite interesting. However, before long, the hot sun and the pressing mass of humanity started to overwhelm the grandeur of the location.
Around the area are several buildings being used as museums. These are so full of people that you can barely see the display boards. When you do get a glimpse of them, everything is written in Chinese so we do not have a clue what it is about. There are four of these large museum rooms. We managed a couple of minutes in the first one before deciding to abandon the project. At this stage a cool, quiet corner for a cup of tea would have been ideal. The shade from a wall and an ice cream was the best we could do while fending off people trying to cuddle up to us in the shade.
Next stop was the Tiananmen Square. In the West, this square is often associated with the massacre of 1989. In a response to student protests, the government declared martial law. Soldiers entered Beijing with tanks and troops carrying live ammunition and firing on unarmed demonstrators and civilians. The Chinese government claimed about 241 people died (including soldiers), while independent estimates from the Red Cross, student groups, and foreign journalists range from several hundred to thousands. An unidentified civilian carrying shopping bags was filmed standing directly in front of a column of tanks leaving the square. This image became a global symbol of peaceful resistance. The Chinese government labels the event the “June Fourth Incident” and heavily censors all mentions of it online, in textbooks, and in public media. Public remembrance of the victims is strictly outlawed in mainland China. Recent political changes in Hong Kong have effectively ended the large annual vigils that used to take place there. The extensive censorship means that most young people in China are generally unaware of the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.
We needed to show our passports and have our bags inspected before we could enter the square. There is a permanent and significant permanent police presence. Our guide warned us not to discuss or even mention any of the events. He also pointed out that attempting to make any sort of public political statement, wearing the wrong t-shirt, waving a banner or writing graffiti would lead to our arrest. So, best neutral faces on and with lips firmly zipped shut, we walked out across the square. Of course, it was all a bit of an anti-climax. Nothing happened. There were quite a few military types marching around being very military and trying to look scary. Do not photograph them. Do not laugh or even smile at them.
The square is extremely big. So big that the extent of the crowds was only really apparent when we were queuing to get in a later to get out again. In all, it took the best part of an hour to cross the square. Scorching hot and devoid of shade. There is nowhere to hide. Every single lamppost is dripping with surveillance cameras. My rough estimate was of several thousand in the square. A whole, massive networking and data routing system managing humungous quantities of video information. I could not help but wonder what they did with it all.
At the far side of the square is the entrance to The Forbidden City. This is the imperial palace which has been the residence of 24 Ming and Qing dynasty Emperors. The centre of political power in China for over 500 years from 1420 to 1924. The palace is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is the largest preserved royal palace complex still standing in the world. It may also be one of the most crowded palaces in the world. My legs were stiff and sore from our wall climb the day before. It was hot. I was thirsty and was getting worn down by the press of so many people. Is everywhere in China packed solid with crowds of people? I was struggling to engage my enthusiasm. I was even struggling to engage any interest in taking photographs. For me, this was a bad sign.
After a quick group photograph, we got shown around a few buildings. Then we were left to ourselves to wander around some more buildings. The palace is large and grandiose and spectacular. Inevitably, like a clockwork mechanism running down, we ground to a halt. We took a terribly slow walk to the next meeting place and then looked around for shade and ice cream. I should mention that I don’t like ice cream and very rarely eat any. Diane is the ice cream person. I am typically happy with some shade and a bottle of water. We found a stall selling imperial palace themed ice cream and then found a lovely place to sit. A shaded low wall without a crowd of people. Here we sat and waited for the rest of the group. Just as I was starting to regain a tiny modicum of internal balance and cooling down, a guard appeared and shooed me away from the low wall. Either it was of historical significance or I am not imperial enough to sit on it.
The evening ended with Peking Duck. Peking is the old name for Beijing but that is not because the city was renamed. The shift from Peking to Beijing is a change in spelling and transliteration systems. Peking came from older European spellings and the Chinese Postal Map Romanization system used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Beijing uses the modern Pinyin romanization system adopted officially by China in 1958 and widely embraced internationally by the late 20th century. Peking Duck then – the Chinese do not appear to be able to get enough of this. Whole, cooked ducks are served and sold everywhere in Beijing. In the train station there are entire shops that just sell cooked, whole ducks in bags. Peking Duck should not be confused with Peeking Duck which is a duck having a surreptitious look around a corner. Obviously, I was not too keen in joining in with the duck mutilation and was even considering going off to see if we could find somewhere more suitable to us for eating. However, we went along with the macabre process. A poor duck was rolled out and a chef demonstrated how to cut it into little pieces. Why anyone would enjoy watching this is a little beyond me. Diane and I ended up with leftovers again. Some rice, some cabbage leaves and not much else. The company had promised they catered for vegetarians but this was not actually happening.
