Day 4 - Monday, Sept 16 - Great Wall and Tiananmen Square
When we came down for breakfast a little before 6:30 (the restaurant
doesn’t even open until 6;30), it was almost completely full
already. Apparently there were a number of groups that were leaving
early for the Great Wall. Our group didn’t leave until about 8:30.
It took us a little
under 2 hours by bus to get to the Wall which is about 65 miles
northwest of our hotel. Our local guide said that our driver was very
good at avoiding the traffic. When we got to the wall, he said that
we were lucky that it wasn’t nearly as crowded as it usually would
be.
The wall was
initially constructed from about 700 BCE and was largely completed by
the first emperor of China who conquered and united the prior warring
kingdoms. It was initially made of layers of dirt or dirt and sod but
the wall we now visit was constructed of brick and stone in the 1500s
to keep out the Mongols. There was a total of about 11000 miles
although much of it is in disrepair. As we drove closer, we could see
parts of the wall that were crumbling and covered with vegetation but
the sections visited by tourists are well maintained and we could see
these sections snaking along the mountain tops.
There are stone
observation towers every few hundred feet along the wall which is
20-30 feet high and 20-30 feet wide with ramparts along the side to
fire arrows or guns against attackers. Much of the wall is quite
steep and could be quite slippery if wet or snowy. It was quite
crowded on the wall and while there were a number of Western
visitors, probably 95% of the people were Asian.
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Adlers at the Wall |
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Crowd at the Wall |
We had a scrumptious
Chinese lunch at a restaurant near the wall. Chinese meals are
typically served on large round tables that seat 7-8 people and have
a large “lazy Susan” in the middle. It was completely filled with
plates of food including duck, chicken, pork, beef and vegetarian
dishes. We were uncomfortable that we only ate about half of the food
and left the rest – this was typical of the dinners that we had as
well. All of the food was delicious.
After lunch we took
the bus back to the city center, passing the Olympic “birds nest”
stadium and the Olympic village. In many areas, flowers were being
planted and intensive cleaning done in preparation for the 70th
anniversary of the People’s Republic on October 1.
The bus let us off
and we walked to Tiananmen Square, going in through heavy security.
The security in preparation of the anniversary is causing roads and
subway stations to be closed with a heavy military and police
presence everywhere. The government doesn’t want any possibility of
terrorist attack or a repeat of demonstrations that in the past
resulted in large massacres or bad public relations when people
immolated themselves. Viewing stands were being setup for the
thousands of invitation-only guests.
Tiananmen Square is
the largest public square in the world with Mao Tse Tung’s
mausoleum at one end and the large Heavenly Peace Gate with the image
of Mao at the other end. Workers were busy scrubbing all of the
surfaces in preparation for the anniversary. There was an incredible
array of surveillance cameras and other devices. There are cameras
everywhere in Beijing. Our bus driver had to be careful not to stop
where he shouldn’t as he could get “social points” taken away
that could make it harder for him to travel or to obtain government
services.
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Tiananmen Square |
We came back to the
hotel and rested for a couple hours before another sumptuous dinner.
After dinner, there
was a performance of Peking Opera in a theater in the hotel. Before
the performance, one of the actors was on the stage putting on the
very thick traditional makeup and getting dressed in an ornate
outfit. We thought we would see him later in the performance but
didn’t which seemed a bit strange. During the main performance,
there were screens along both sides that described in both English
and Chinese what was going on. The opera is difficult to describe,
having many dramatic stylized dancing gestures and high-pitched
singing. Our local guide said that Chinese people can not understand
the language that is being sung.
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Actor putting on makeup |
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