Beijing Day 5

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We had a few hours on Wednesday morning before our afternoon flight back to Japan, so we decided to visit Chairman Mao's Mausoleum. Photography is forbidden inside the mausoleum, and the guards were quite serious about this. Joe and I had to take turns going in because we weren't even allowed to bring our camera in (no large bags are allowed either). We each had to wait in a line outisde for about 10 minutes, show identification, and pass through metal detectors before entering the courtyard infront of the mausoleum. From there we had to wait in another line for about 10 more minutes before entering the building. Upon entry everyone must take off their hat, and a policy of silence is strictly enforced. The first hall includes a large marble statue of Mao, seated on a chair with a landscape of mountains and rivers behind him. The sculpture is surrounded by hundreds of potted plants, and there is a designated place in front of the sculpture for flowers, which are sold outside of the mausoleum. Visitors then pass through a hallway and into the room with Mao himself. After his death in 1976 Mao was embalmed, but rumor has it that his doctors did a poor job and needed the Vietnamese to fix the corpse. Other rumors say that there is a wax copy that sometimes replaces the body. In any case, Mao is in a clear coffin, draped with a red flag and behind a second layer of glass, surounded by potted lilies. He doesn't look too good these days.... Visitors are not allowed to stop in the room, guards make sure that everyone keeps moving. After passing through the room with Mao visitors walk through one final room, this one containing gift shops selling every manner of Mao memoribilia, including objects that are close approximations to religious funerary goods. I thought it was interesting to note the crowd at the mausoleum- for all the throngs of foreigners throughout Beijing, Mao was mostly visited by Chinese people, and many of the visitors appeared to be migrant laborers or other economically disadvantaged people, a demographic not found at other Beijing sights. I was also surprised to see so many young people there to pay homage to the Chairman.
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With our remaining time we decided to tour the Gate of Heavenly Peace.
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It was from this spot that Mao declared the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
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Up on the gate...
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Military guys taking photos in front of the gate.
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Joe waits for the subway....
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Vegetables for sale back in the hutong.
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One last view of the courtyard of our hotel, so relaxing....
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We stopped for lunch at the airport. Joe got his favorite bottled water. When we lived in Lawrence he would always return from business trips to China with one of these bottles.
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Thai food!
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Beijing was a cosmopolitan and hip city, and we had a great five days there, visiting friends, seeing the sights, and enjoying fantastic food. After Joe's many trips to Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and our three week tour of Shanghai, Luoyang, Xi'an and Guilin back in 2006, it was great to finally see the capital to round out our understanding of China.

Beijing Day 4

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Tuesday was our last full day in Beijing, so we headed out to the countryside to check out the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. Here's a surreal experience- Mutianyu, the section of the wall that we visited, is serviced by a chairlift and toboggan. Above is the chairlift taking us up to the wall and below is us on the lift.
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A section of the wall.
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The wall was quite steep, as it runs atop the ridgeline of the mountains.
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As we hiked along the wall we came to small fortifications every quarter mile or so, sometimes less. The fortifications generally had a few rooms on the first floor, and an open area on the roof, which was a good place to take a break.
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Looking out at the wall from inside one of the fortifications.
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On the wall. The Chinese term for the Great Wall is long castle or long fortress, and while walking along the wall we came to understand how that is a better description than the English term Great Wall.
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Looking to the north, the Mongolians would have had to cross this mountain range and then overtake the wall. Eesh. You can see a distant section of the wall in the middle of the photo. As we hiked I came to feel that I was repeatedly viewing the same thing, yet I also had a contradictory feeling that I hadn't seen enough of the wall to grasp it. We probably hiked about 4 miles, so 2 miles of wall (out and back), about .04% of the total 5,000 miles of wall.
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Walking back. The first wall was constructed during the Qin Dynasty, about 221 B.C.E., but the wall as it exists today dates from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 C.E.).
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Joe at one of the fortifications.
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After walking out in the hot sun came the fun part, the toboggan ride down to the bottom! If taking a chairlift up was a little weird, tobogganing down was even stranger....
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We stopped for lunch at a roadside cafe.... and ate more of the fantastic chili garlic green beans that we had come to love.
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Next stop- Ming Tombs. We visited the Underground Palace of Dingling, tomb of the 13th Ming Emperor and his two Empresses dating from the 1580s. The tomb complex included a museum to house the excavated objects.
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The structure in front of the underground tomb.
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After descending about 5 or 6 floors underground we came to the tomb itself.
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The underground stone thrones and gateways.
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Emerging from the tomb, which was sealed after the Emperors burial, only to be excavated in the 20th century. Of the 13 Ming Tombs, this is the only one that has been excavated.
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Our next destination was the Sacred Way of the Ming Tombs. This willow lined road was the ceremonial entry to the Ming Tombs, which are spread over a 40 km square area, nestled into the surrounding mountains. The Sacred Way was probably a half mile long; our driver dropped us off at the north end and we met him at the south end, which is the reverse of the proper order. Along the way are huge stone sculptures, so of course the appropriate reaction was to take amusing photos of ourselves with said sculptures.
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No, I'm not trying to tip it over, I'm trying to get the sword out.
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Looking toward the Stele Pavillion at the south end of the road.
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Inside the Stele Pavillion is a huge 50 ton tortise with a stele resting on its back.
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Back in Beijing, some interesting architecture near the Olympic Grounds. We drove past the Birds Nest and the Bubble-like swimming stadium, but my photos of those are a little blurry.
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... and back at Cote Cour, our hotel, the front entrance.
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The hotel was a small 14 room rennovated hutong.
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The hotel lounge, where we had a fantastic breakfast each morning including yogurt and granola, fresh juice, dumplings, Chinese-style crepes, toast and eggs.
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Joe on the rooftop lounge. The hotel was a quiet retreat from the city, and a nice way to get to know one of the hutongs.
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Looking down at the courtyard from the rooftop lounge.
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We saved dinner at Pure Lotus for our last night, and were not dissapointed, the vegetarian meal was probably one of the top five of my life. The decor was ethereal- our table cloth was cloud-like and we ate from large, pearly shells while sitting in oversized high-backed chairs. Joe with course one, Barbeque "Chicken" Wings.
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Course two, Spicy Sichuan "Chicken".
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Greens with Goji Berries. We also had a Peking "Duck" Soup during this course that had a slight honey flavor to the savory broth, and included two types of wheat gluten veggie meat to immitate the two textures of dark and white meat.
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Savory Veggie Patties and Dumplings. All of the dishes had ostentatious names like Heavenly Love, but everything was so exquisite that I didn't care.
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Dessert- watermelon served in a hollow log with dry ice. We also had a slice of chocolate cake. Overall, Pure Lotus had fabulous service to accompany their relaxing decor and otherworldly food- a highly reccomended experience for any foodie.
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Beijing Day 3

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Monday in Beijing turned out to be the day that we truly came to grasp the immense scale of the city. After breakfast at our hotel we walked through the hutong to the main street to catch a taxi, checking out this barber along the way. From looking at the map it didn't seem like it would be too far to get to our first destination, the Temple of Heaven, but we were wrong- it was far. Luckily taxis in Beijing aren't too expensive, and the driver dropped us off at the entrance to the monument, saving alot of walking. We entered the park around the monument where we saw lots of people getting their morning exercise, everything from hip-hop and ballroom dancing to tai-chi, to the people in the photograph doing some sort of tai-chi with fans.
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We entered the monument from the north, so we first saw the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest.
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The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. The building was built in the 1400s, and amazingly was constructed without nails.
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Joe and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest.
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The building is loaded with symbolism, such as the number of pillars which represent the four seasons, twelve months and twelve hours and combine to represent the solar cycle. The complex was used for the Emperor to perform ritual sacrifices to Heaven, as the Emperor was considered the Son of Heaven, so each part of the strucure carries meaning.
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We continued to walk south through the complex and next arrived at the Imperial Vault of Heaven. The best part about this area of the complex was the Echo Wall surrounding the Vault. The yellow wall on either side of the Vault formed a circle that allowed one of us to stand behind the building at the right, and the other to stand behind the building at the left and have a conversation in a normal voice, despite being about 50 yards apart and having two buildings separating us.
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The interior ceiling of the Vault.
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The Altar of Heaven was the last part of the complex that we came to.
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Looking back to the north. For a different perspective on the scale of Tiantan click here for a google satellite image.
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Our next stop was for a quick lunch near the south gate of Tiantan.
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I'm not usually a fan of soda, but for some reason both times I visited China I found myself drinking Coke. Perhaps it is made with a different type of sugar?
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A tomato and egg dish that we really liked. Hopefully the large quantities of veggies that we ate balanced out the unhealthy soda. We also enjoyed a tofu dish, some soup, green beans and rice.
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Our next stop of the day was Tiananmen Square, so we walked to the nearest subway station. This photo of the road gives an idea of the scale of Beijing- huge.
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We came out of the subway at the south end of Tiananmen Square, near Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall. The hall isn't open on Mondays, so we headed north to the Forbidden City. Below is the Chairman's Hall.
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Who doesn't love some good socialist realism? Are we uplifted? Yes! Will the workers prevail? Yes!
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Decoration on the rail that surrounds Mao's masoleum.

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Looking north towards the Forbidden City with the Monument to the People's Heroes in the foreground. Click here for the google satellite image of Tiananmen Square.
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The Gate of Heavenly Peace!
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Passing through The Gate of Heavenly Peace, headed toward The Forbidden City. Again the scale is difficult to fathom, so here's another satellite image, the Gate is at the south end, and the Forbidden City is surrounded by the moat. The Forbidden City, which acted as the Imperial Palace during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (500 years from 1416 to 1911) has nearly 10,000 rooms in hundreds of buildings. In the nearly four hours we spent walking around the complex we saw a tiny fraction of it.
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I think this was the third gate that we came to, and is the proper entrance to the Forbidden City.
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The relief carvings on the Imperial Way, only the Emperor was allowed to walk on the path that forms the central axis of the Forbidden City.
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The Hall of Supreme Harmony.
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Walking and walking and walking..... Luckily there were vendors along the way, so we could re-stock our water supply and snack on some ice cream. This is maybe the half-way point from the south gate of the Forbidden City. The small structure in the far distance at the center of the photo sits atop Coal Hill, which is at the far north end of the Forbidden City, so from this point we had a good distance to go.
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The details on each building were quite amazing, it's hard to imagine such detailed workmanship on such a large scale.
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I think this is the Hall of Preserving Harmony. By this point we had seen the Hall of Central Harmony and Hall of Supreme Harmony, and a good deal of thrones and other buildings, so it became difficult to keep them all straight.
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Decoration on one of the buildings.
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Woof.
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One of the rock gardens near the north end of the Forbidden City.
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One of the side structures. We tried to make our way back south to see the Nine Dragon Screen and some of the other collections, but they began to close off some areas around 4 p.m., so we missed it.
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With tired feet we made our way back to the hotel to rest for a bit. This hot potato vendor was walking the main street near the hotel.
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Some of the cool modern architecture along the ring roads.
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We opted for dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. I have written before about my guilty love of their overpriced corporatized veggieburgers and nachos, but once again, the pull of collecting another pin lured me like a moth to a flame....
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Nachos......
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