Immediately after arriving in Beijing, we were conned by a taxi driver.
We gave him a hotel name but he lied about knowing it or its street name.
He brought us to a much more expensive hotel. There, some of his
friends helped us get discounts. However, I think that he brought us
there to benefit his friends who probably get commission. Another thing
bad about the driver was that he said he charged 20 Rmb for each person
but would give us a discount of 50 Rmb. He did not even use the
meter!
The Forbidden Palace was the first destination. Mao's portrait looks
really huge. But the portrait isn't really coherent with the ancient
archeitecture. The palace was indeed very huge with countless buildings
and many open spaces. Yet, I wished more money could be spent on a
restoring job because it could look even better.
A panoramic view in the Forbidden Palace. My family is walking away
from the camera. I'm the guy not wearing shorts.
Since my brother was left out of the family photo, he is seen here
cursing the skies!
We walked around the area outside the palace. Tianamment Square is
filled with many people. A few people even fly kites here. There is no
indication of any massacre happening in the past. Surround the square is
many government buildings. One of them has a very large clock indicating
the time left until Hong Kong's return to China.
This is a statue depicting the Communist Revolution of 1949.
However, Tom is about 50 years too late to join Mao in toppling the
Nationalists
This PLA soldier stands still for many hours guarding the building.
The government probably wants to show off by having this soldier do that.
Anyhow, he must be bored he gladly allowed me to take a photo of him.
Anything to break the boredom spell...
This is a fast food chain serving noodles. The logo looks vaguely
familiar, doesn't it?
The next day, we took a tour, riding a bus all over Beijing's
countryside. We started with a place which contained minature replicas of
all the famous structures in Beijing, including the Forbidden Palace. It
was supposed to represent ancient Beijing. However, everything seemed to
repeat itself, especially the roof designs, so it was not that
interesting. We also went to a museum depicting the history of the Ming
dynasty. It contained many moving wax figures wearing colorful clothes
against a well designed backdrop. Eventually we went to the Ming tombs.
The Ming tomb was at least fifty feet underground. Down there was a very
large empty chamber, and I mean empty. All the valuables have been
removed for safe keeping. It just looked like dark rooms, except the room
because all the valuables have already been removed for safe keeping.
After the bus went through a very long and twisting path at high
altitudes, it approached the Great Wall
This is of course, the Great Wall. There are ski lift machines that
can take you up here, unless you want to spend hours sweating by trying to
climb up. It costs about $1US for Chinese and $10US for foreigners! I'm
glad we passed off as Chinese citizens.
Another photo of the Great Wall. Tom is practicing his kung fu on
that ledge. Show off!
The third day we went to the Summer Palace. This was supposed to be
where the Empress Dowager and other royalty spent their leisure time. It
contains a very long outdoor hall which contains hundreds of paintings on
the ceiling corners. Among the paintings includes Journey to the West
and Romance of the 3 Kingdoms. There was also a very large lake in the
Summer Palace, along with a very large boat, where Empress Dowager is said
to have dined.
Afterwards we went to Beijing University to take a look at the campus.
However, security guards would not admit us because we were not students.
Near the school was the old Summer Palace. Long ago, it was a very
beautiful place, including a modern mansion of some sort. However because
of China's war with foreign countries, foreign soldiers invaded the summer
palace, looted it, and burned the buildings down. All that is left now is
a few still erect structures, and the ruins of the mansion. China has
preserved this place like this as to remind the people about the
humiliation in the past.
After those three full days in Beijing we headed towards Shanghai. Again
it was the train again. The trip times was roughly 13 hours. We found an
excellent hotel with very nice archeitecture. It was also very cheap.
The ceiling is very high and the place gives a very classical
feel.
This famous area contains many old European style buildings. They
are still in use today. Some of them are hotels.
Shanghai has a very well kept family house there. It is very well
restored and simply beautiful. Around this house was many shops
selling cultural items such as jewelery and weapons. There is
also a very good museum in Shanghai. It is supposedly a
world-class one, having been constructed less than a year ago. It
contained all sorts of artwork such as money, jade, paintings,
bronzeworks, weapons, ceramics, and foreign currency. Every few
minutes you can see workers wiping the glasses of the displays.
An hour away from Shanghai is Hangzhou. This place is well worth
the visit. Many people say that of all of China, Hangzhou has the most
beautiful women. For that reason, people come here to watch them.
However, we came to visit a very large active Buddhist temple, a beautiful
lake, Buddhist "caves," and Yue Fei's shrine.
This place has many Buddha carvings on stone walls. The environment is
filled with grey stone and green plants. It is simply astonishing. There
is also a story with this place. Long ago a village used to be here. A
huge rock was destined to destroy this village. The Mad Monk knew this,
and he knew no one else would believe him. So during a wedding he
kidnapped the bride. The angry villagers then all chased him. He led
them away from the village to save them, as the rock struck an empty
village. Strange story...
The Buddhist temple was the largest I had every seen. It was a really
strange sight, large buddhist statues, praying monks, burning incense,
tourists moving around, stores selling souveniers. I really enjoyed it
and it is definately a place worth visiting. The temple is near those
carvings.
The beautiful lake is very large and we took a boat around it. There are
many ponds with hundreds of lillies growing. This place was supposedly
admired by an emporer and so it got its fame.
Yue Fei was a general who lived during Song Dynasty. He fought agaisnt
the northern barbarians to protect the people. Unfortunately there were
some court officials who disliked him and spoke bad of him, eventually
getting the emperor to sentence him to death. He died but the people
loved him. Eventually, those officials were executed and Yue Fei was
given a shrine. There are statues of the 4 officials who drove him to
death, tied and kneeling in front of the shrine. Story has it that the
statues were originally wooden but people so much hated them, they
vandalized and destroyed those statues. The statues were then made of
stone. People still were able to destroy the statues. Now the statues
are made of metal...
We stayed only a full day here. The railroad station that we got off
was to be demolished to make a newer one. So we needed to take the other
one. On the morning we were to leave, none of the taxis would seem to
take us over there. We were pressed for time, as the tickets did not have
refunds. Taxi drivers apparently would only drive nearby but were
unwilling to drive far away. That does not make sense because either way,
they earn money. They refused to take us and we luckily caught a bus.
The bus was overfilled so as it passed some policemen, the money collector
asked some of the people to duck down. It worked and we headed towards
Guangzhou.
Next Stop:
GUANGZHOU