Our official tour started today and we are delighted with our tour guide Iowa (not his real name of course but his Chinese name sounds similar). He will travel with us all the way to Shanghai and thankfully he is warm and funny in a very sweet way.
Iowa escorted us through Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and The Summer Palace with ease. Chairman Mao's presence is palpable in the square with his permanent portrait looking on from Tiananmen Gate and his even more permanent body on display in the crystal tomb. The patient crowds waiting daily to view the late Chairman in his preserved state hint at the massive population in China.
Iowa escorted us through Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and The Summer Palace with ease. Chairman Mao's presence is palpable in the square with his permanent portrait looking on from Tiananmen Gate and his even more permanent body on display in the crystal tomb. The patient crowds waiting daily to view the late Chairman in his preserved state hint at the massive population in China.
As the crowds inevitable drifted North to enter The Forbidden City I wondered what Chinese "commoners" feel as they step over these once forbidden thresholds. Do they view this fabled palace with reverent awe or do they wonder, as I did, how such opulent excess could be lavished upon one man (or Dragon Lady) while the majority subsisted on noodles or rice? 9,999 rooms -many filled with precious jades, tapestries and Chinese screen paintings - have remained virtually untouched and we commoners are now permitted to peer into unlit rooms to view a moment in history. It would take weeks to wander all the labyrinthian passages. To view the thrones in the Hall of Central Harmony and Hall of Supreme Harmony we employed the delicate art of pushing to obtain our views. It seems that is basically how it is done here. Other than at security checkpoints, the 80,000 visitors per day are not herded into tidy lines. Nor is every ledge and missing paving stone marked with yellow tape or handrail; and I'm finding this "here it is, have at it" approach surprisingly liberating and refreshing.
At The Summer Palace we boarded dragon boats destined for the base of the hills created by the dirt excavated from the manmade lake. With the beauty of the Western Mountains in the background I imagine the sublimity of having this as my private playground. I wonder if I, like the Dragon Lady, would be content sitting at the shore in my marble boat. Would I find the expanse of my private temples and pavilions, protected by walls snaking up the hills, to be a palace or a prison? Today, I am simply grateful for the opportunity to be here and to experience the majestic splendor.
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