May 20th: Bejing Mall

Sunday we went to visit some pretty amazing places. First, the 24 of us students and about a dozen, no… make it a baker’s, loaded onto a bus to go be tourists. First, we went to the Temple of Heaven. It’s this place 4 times the acreage of the Forbidden City, which is 160 acres big. So, 4 times 160: 4 times 0 is 0; 4 times 6 is 24, drop the 4, carry the 2; 4 times 1 is 4, plus the 2 that was carried over from the previous operation (just a reminder in case you forgot) making that 6; quick recap- 6 hundreds 4 tens 0 ones equals 640. So this place is 640 acres. It’s just massive. We saw only a small part of it. And of course the small part we saw was the exact same small part that all the other thousands of visitors also saw. So it was pretty crowded. From what I got of the Temple of Heaven, it was built during the same century as the Forbidden City. They said the year 1420, but I doubt that it only took a year to build both. Heaven’s Temple’s purpose was for ceremonies the emperor held. It wasn’t so much for religiosity. It was amazing to walk inside history. But the whole time I was inside, I kept thinking about how fantastic the grass lawns looked and how someone really needed to pull the weeds from the rocks. Thanks to Dad for 10 years of Saturday lawn mowings.

Afterward, we mosied on over to Tianenmen Square and the Forbidden City. Here we were walking around the Square and it hits me that I’m in the Washington DC of China, only on a much larger and more significant scale. I don’t even know very much of the history of the place, and I’m still walking around reverenced, really, by just being there. It’s going to be interesting to learn more about it. The party building was almost as big as the Congressional Hall, or whatever they call it. It was neat to imagine what it would have been like to be present at the student’s revolt where they were killed. I felt almost like my purpose for being there wasn’t noble enough, or not far-reaching enough. I suppose telling others about it will only help my purpose reach beyond my own self. Not that I have a grand desire to spread the word of demoncracy or that everyone needs to know this stuff in order to be a legititmate human being. I’m just sayin’…

The Forbidden City is across the street to the north of the Square. I’m so glad someone decided to give it such a cool name. All my life I haven’t been able to enjoy those things that are forbidden: rated R movies, beer, illicit drugs, Dad’s binoculars, Christmas presents before December 25, the Simpsons. But here I am walking into a city where a mere 500 years earlier would’ve earned my neck an intimate meeting with the exocutioner’s blade. Before they opened it to visitors, they only allowed unichs in, besides the royal family. I’ll tell you that it was a pretty cool place, but definitely not worth becoming a unich over. I’ll keep my un-unich status, thanks. They have some major renovating going on right now, I guess in preparation for the Olympics. Notwithstanding the unsightly scaffolding and dust covers, exploring the inside was quite remarkable. There were thousands of visitors, but the place is so huge that it wasn’t much of a problem. I tried to take pictures from spots that most people wouldn’t go to, like corners and nooks; even a few crannies were taken advantage of by my presence. I picked up a piece of chipped flooring for Uncle Rick. Did you already have a piece of the City? My Uncle Rick has tons of little pieces of things from all over the world. Now, the city is mostly used as a huge museum. There was an art gallery where I spent a chunk of time. That was all really neat to see. I think it would be really awesome to live there for a semester, studying Chinese history and government, or something like that.

All in all, Beijing certainly has a different type of history than we have in the US. I am certainly learning tons.