On Tuesday, June 11, Tony and I awoke early for what would be a long and productive day seeing the sights in China’s capital city of Beijing. I should note that from the previous weekend through Wednesday (June 8-12) was the Dragon Boat Festival in China. This meant the Chinese people were on holiday and many were also traveling the country seeing the sights.
Our original itinerary for the day had us going to the Forbidden City, but because of the holiday we decided to avoid the crowds there and save it for later in the week. However, before we decided that, we had gone to Jing Shan Park (just north of the Forbidden City). It was nearly a mile walk from our hotel. So we hiked it. The park was pretty big and filled with a mix of tourists and locals. The highlight of the park was a large temple at the top of a hill in the park that towers over the Forbidden City.
After we climbed to the top, it was another “wow” moment. The first wow was getting to see the Forbidden City from above. It was HUGE!! We had no idea it was this big and expansive. The other wow was seeing the surrounding skyline of Beijing, in all directions. And part of that wow was finally being able to really get a glimpse of all the smog. We saw a bit of it from the airplane the day before, but people in Beijing told us that the days we were here were actually pretty good to moderate. I can’t imagine what bad looks like. With a city of 21 million people, 550,000 taxis, a growing number of cars, and many factories and buildings generating power, this is one of the most polluted industrialized cities in the world, especially in terms of smog.
From the park, we had to actually walk around the Forbidden City to Tiananmen Square, which is the sight of the famous student protests and massacre in 1989. Today, it was filled with thousands of tourists, mostly Chinese and then foreigners like us. We took lots of photos. To the north of the square is the Forbidden City with a giant mural of Chairman Mao. To the south is a mausoleum which houses the Chairman’s body (it was closed and as we were told is not open every day). To the east is the Chinese National Musem, which we would visit in the afternoon. To the west, was the Great Hall of the People – which is where the Chinese legislature convenes. We decided to visit that first.
As we toured the Great Hall of the People, we went into many rooms which were well decorated and different small meeting rooms. We also went into the Great Hall. Another “wow” moment, as it is absolutely huge – thousands of seats. I guess in a nation of 1.3 billion people…you need a big room. Later, we would see photographs of how this room looks when the legislature is in session and when the President and other Chinese leades are giving speeches.
After the Great Hall, we walked a couple blocks over and found a Chinese restaurant. Good food, for very cheap. Tony and I each ordered a meal with a coke for the equivalent of five US dollars. After lunch, we ventured just south of the Square to view the large and historic Chinese gates called Qian Men. In front of one of the two gates, there was a marker on the ground signifying that this was the point from which all of China’s roads led out from. After seeing this, we then continued across the square to visit the Chinese National Museum. We picked a good time too, as shortly after we entered it, it rained pretty hard, a passing afternoon storm.
The Chinese National Museum was interesting on many levels. First, it was huge and we didn’t do all of it, or even half. But we did do the area on “Ancient China” which included artifacts going back to about 6,000 BC. China is one of the oldest civilizations on earth, and probably the oldest continuous one still around today. There was much to see here.
The other major area of the museum we visited was a section titled “The Road to Rejuvenation.” This documents, from the Chinese government’s perspective, how China has rebuilt itself over the last century. It chronicles the invading European forces of the mid-19th century and how China had to go through four different periods since to move past the period of being subjugated by European domination. There were many rationalizations here of how and why China fell behind the Europeans during this time in history.
While much of this was clearly propaganda, it also made me realize how nationalistic the Chinese people are – and in that sense, how skeptical they are of foreigners. I’ll have more to say on this later, but we noticed that the censoring of Facebook is done in a way as to describe it as a “foreign” website. Perhaps using the foreigner as a corrupting influence is part of the Chinese national psyche.
We also viewed the rise of communism – first explained as an import from Russia (instead of looking to the West, China now looked to the East). Later, when that failed, there was the cultural revolution under the direction of Chairman Mao. And then later, extending to the current period, China merged communism with “Chinese characteristics,” a term used frequently in the exhibits.
And then the exhibits demonstrate that these political structures led China where it is now: one of the world’s largest economies with a seat as one of the most important countries at the United Nations. That’s a tough argument to beat. But of course we chuckled a few times along the way. I reminded Tony of a phrase one of my history professors once told me: “history is not about the past – it’s about present day arguments about the past.” Did I mention this museum was free?
From there we walked back towards our hotel, only dipping into one of the malls on the way back as a sudden and very violent thunderstorm came out of nowhere. It’s almost like you can’t see them coming with all the smog here. Lightning just seemed to strike out of nowhere. Very odd. As I waited to head off the storm, it started hailing. Within an hour the entire storm had passed and it was a beaitiful day; it seemed like even much of the smog cleared and we could see the blue sky. What a strange turn of events.
We checked our email at the Apple store, our daily routine taking advantage of the free WiFi, and then got back to our hotel where we showered up and got ready to go meet my friend Sam for dinner.
I had also met Sam at the same time I met Gianni a couple years ago through a former JMI intern, Alex. They run in a fun and interesting crowd. When we were leaving for this trip, I had no idea Sam would even be in China at the same time. He was working for a financial firm in Miami and then got a job in the past six months with Jack Nicklaus – yes, the former golf great. As Tony and I were waiting to board our flight to Shanghai while in San Francisco, I noticed via Facebook that Sam had also posted that be was about to head to China on the same day. What?
Well we got in touch and learned he was moving here – to Beijing! He is helping expand the Jack Nicklaus brand in China! Sam had studied in Beijing in 2008 while at Yale. After graduation, he and Gianni traveled to China in the summer of 2010, sparking Gianni’s interest to stay and find a job. Funny how this comes full circle because meeting Gianni and interviewing him more than two years ago had sparked my own interest to visit China during this interesting time in history.
So while I thought I was here because of Gianni, it really all started with Sam! Ah, who are we kidding: none of us would be here had it not been for Richard Nixon reopening China to the West.
Well Sam was excited we were here during his first week that he was moving to Beijing. He had us meet him for dinner at a sports bar type restaurant near the various universities. He also invited his friend Danny, who was his language tutor five years ago. It was definitely a much more local student atmosphere, but also a lot of students from Western countries.
After dinner and a drink, Sam suggested we go get a traditional Chinese massage. A lot of people told us we needed to do this, and after a long day on our feet we took full advantage of the opportunity.
We got in a taxi and went to a trusted brand name place. We didn’t just get a basic massage – we went for an 80 minute full body massage with some Chinese oils. I should mention this took place around 10:30 PM at night just as another storm hit the area. With the rain outside and having our own private rooms for a massage, it was the most relaxing part of this trip.
After it was over, I felt like I had gone on the road to rejuvenation. We dropped Sam off at his hotel (by taxi) and headed to ours. I think we slept like babies. And I can tell you the next few days my body felt great. I told the guys that massage was the best idea yet after a week and a half on the road. Now, we had a few more days ahead of us and still some pretty big sights to see and more adventures to be had.