Shoulda been called "Forbidding"

Scams

Scams are everywhere. So far we've been scammed twice--that's an average of once per day, but third day's a charm! We've been working on building up our resistance to the hard sells that pop up just about everywhere around the city where an entrance fee isn't required (and sometimes where it is). At some points we were very nearly surrounded by people trying to sell us stuff. Post cards to the right of us, pedicab tours to the left of us, trinket sellers in front of us, insisted and blustered. The worst so far involved a young girl running alongside Kate pestering her for money in Mandarin and English. A vile, mercenary beast, she was, and yet really quite cute.

Some people also tried to take away our empty drink bottles. Actually, that wasn't a scam at all. Thanks, guys!

Pollution

Let me put it this way: around about noon, I looked up and caught sight of the sun peeking out from behind the smog. "So that's where it's been hiding", I thought to myself.

Maintenance

Half of the city seems to be in the process of either construction, destruction, or repair. It's really quite remarkable.

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square and the monolithic communist buildings (Mao's Memorial, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum) that surround it are really quite large. Apparently this was done to make the individual feel small, and I would call that particular plan a success.

The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City was one of our main reasons for coming to Beijing, and I have to say that it was worth it. You could look into the large main buildings (but not physically enter) to see the ancient artifacts (thrones, statues, giant brass balls for crushing with) housed within, but really it was more or less the same sort of stuff that you would encouter in a place like Kyoto in Japan. What really makes the Forbidden City special is the fact that it's a city which is in its entirety a work of art. At one point we made our way around one of the main buildings, and gazed down upon a sea of yellow rooftops, with the towers of Jingshan Park in the background, and I think I may have actually gasped.

The entire complex is arranged more or less symmetrically, bisected by the Imperial Way, a central marble-paved line decorated with carvings along the stairways. Naturally, this was reserved for the Emperor, who probably never actually set foot on the thing since he got carried everywhere he went. (This line of symmetry extends north and south of the Forbidden City as far as the eye can see. I'm not sure how far it actually goes, but we explored about 5 kilometers of it, from Facing the Sun Gate to the Drum Tower. Wow.)

Of course, off of the Imperial Way, the Forbidden City becomes a bit less logical and a bit more difficult to navigate. Labyrinthine is the word. We were about 50 feet from the northern exit, when we got distracted by one interesting building off to the side, and then another one further off to the side, after which we became well and truly lost. We got to see some sights off the main tourist track while tracing out a rather largish loop around the northwestern corner of the complex. At least, I think that's where we were.

Also, there's a Starbucks in the Forbidden City.

Hutong

Like the Forbidden City, the hutong districts are very old, but I don't think the Emperor spent much time here. These places are narrow, cramped, and now very decrepit. We took a pedicab tour around the area, got some nice candid pictures, went into a huge tent-covered market frequented by the locals, got to look inside the home of some dude who made enough money off of tourists to send his son to university in Halifax, saw a former residence of Deng Xiao Ping (I think--my Mandarin could be better than it is, by which I mean to say it could actually exist), and the former residence of Sun Yat Sen's wife. We also got to participate in a simply mind-boggling Beijing traffic jam involving 2 cars, a dozen bikes, 2 pedicabs, 3 street vendor stalls, innumerable pedestrians, and 4 capillary-sized lanes, one of which was non-functional. An elderly couple selling meat off of the top of a cart acted as the de facto traffic cops.

The Hutong tour was very relaxing, our guide was really nice, and we ended up paying about twice of what we should have. In the end we didn't mind too much, in part because this portion of the day didn't involve us walking.

Walking

Our hotel is in walking distance of the main attractions, which is quite nice. Unfortunately, while walking is free, it can be very tiring. Tiananmen Square is large. The Forbidden City is large. There are also some nice parks around, featuring scenic lakes, which are really rather large.

Taxis

Not only do taxis allow you to get places without walking, they also have automated numerical displays which tell you how much to pay without scamming you. An ideal combination.

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I may or may not think of stuff to add to the above later--we took in a lot today, and it's only our first day of tourism in China.

Incidentally, sometime between this post and my last, we took a trip to Hiroshima and Nara with Naomi, and I quit my job. I guess I'm not the world's most reliable blogger.