By day three our feet were hurting from the consistent hussle and bussle of the guided tour... we didn't really have any time to just explore or relax except for at night and by that time we were basically out of gas...
Started the day off with a tour of Tiananmen Square... I'd say it's most famous for the photo of "Tank Man" below...
This guy was brave enough to step in front of a convoy of tanks who were sent in by the Chinese government to break up the protests at Tiananmen square during 1989. These protests protests were sparked by the death of a pro-market, pro-democracy, and anti-corruption official, Hu Yaobang, whom protesters wanted to mourn. By the eve of Hu's funeral, 1,000,000 people had gathered on the Tiananmen square... so that should give you a sense of scale for how huge this "square" is.. It's the largest in the world... and is located directly in front of the Forbidden city which was built for the Ming family dynasty and constructed for Mr Zhu Di.. the same stud who ate with gold chopsticks from my previous post... Many rallies and famous speaches have gone down in front of the forbidden city..
Here's a picture of the lineup of people waiting to catch a glimpse of where Mao was burried in the middle of Tiananmen square.. It literally stretched for miles and there was no way I was waiting in it... NO.. WAY.. It was also really hot out as you can tell by all of the umbrellas in both of these shots... Yeah.. not raining... in Asia... SUNNY + HOT = UMBRELLA.... I'm used to it... They're scared of good ol' vitamin D...
And next.. we walked across the street to the forbidden city... This is the most ridiculous, over built, exhuberant (i don't have spell correct at school.. sorry), and pompous pad I've ever seen... It was enormous... I actually got sick of taking pictures.. now that's a sense of scale for ya! Here's the entrance way... Notice Mao hanging proudly over the entrance... like I earlier said.. this was built for the Ming dynasties emperor Zhu Di originally...
Mao's big ol' head...
For anyone not familiar with Mao... He was the leader of the communist party back in the day.. i don't know if it was 30's 40's 50's... but all I knew is he started the commie trend... and led the peoples republic of china until he died in the seventies... he is a pretty controversial person...
i'm no political science major.. but what i can speak from is a small bit of experience... people in China have to work hard.. there are so many of them... that in order to be successful (better than the other million people trying for the same job) they have to study 16 hours a day... eat a few meals.. and maybe sleep 4 hours a night if they're lucky... this type of competition would make me a commie as well.. wouldn't it be nice if we could all just do a job and get paid for it and live just as well as the next guy? yes.. in theory it's good.. in practice... good luck... after all .. who's going to want to go to school for 8 years to be a doctor and get paid the same as the next guy? ............ exactly! that's a pretty simple viewpoint... but.. i'm a simple man... onto more of the trip....
Here's an image of a totem pole made of cement inside the gates of the Forbidden City... quite a bit of detail on this one... done by hand i presume as well...
Here's a heavily cropped photo of a few Chinese guards... we weren't allowed to take pictures... so I took one really far away and this is how it turned out :(... oh well...
Here's an image of one of the Lions who guard the gates to one of the temples...
Next we went inside and trekked around a bit... as in an hour and a half... of temple after huge temple... I won't bore you with ALL of the photos... but here are a few...
The tour guide was sooo confused on how to work my camera... here's one of Laura and I... not so forbidden anymore.. is it?
And another temple..
The detail under these temples was much more intricate than the one's in South Korea... and fresh paint as well...
one more...
Here's another detail shot of the cement posts that were engraved every couple of feet....
Tourist!
Last one for the forbidden city... some rocks leading up to the temple ... I thought it looked cool...
Next.. we were off to lunch right?? WRONG.. we stopped at another tourist center to see how silk bedsheets were made and to be pushed into buying a new comforter... it was interesting.. but by this point... we had caught on to their ways and weren't impressed.... we got out of their pretty quick... here's a few snaps of the silk making process...
These are the worms they use...
Here's the area where they pull the silk and feed it into a machine to make single strands into nice thick bundles of goodness...
Next these bundles of silk are stretched over a stretcher/dryer?? .. haha.. i can't think of the proper word.. sorry...
Then after these dry out a bit they are taken and stretched further into the size of the comforter or blanket... you'll have to see Laura's blog for that shot.. But they basically stretched about a thousand of these sheets for each comforter... and they're apparently allergen free ... good for them.. we're still not buying one...
So we got out of there alive ... and grabbed some lunch... then went to the Summer Palace to see Emperor Zhu Di's Summer house... the forbidden city wasn't big enough for him I guess... WOW...
Here's the Marco Polo bridge... which was reconstructed about a hundred years ago....
It was surrounded by water as per his majesties request.... too bad he never swam... he just liked the serenity of it all... good for him...
A cement boat made purely for it's looks... and obviously not for it's functionality...
Laura on our water taxi boat... (not cement)
Another gorgeous entrance way....
Artsy shot through the trees of a temple here....
Another dragon head on the front of a boat... the dragon symbol represents the man in China... and the phoenix symbol represents the woman.. traditionally the dragon head is placed in front of the phoenix in order to represent his power... at the Summer Palace we heard a story of a woman who came into power and she placed her phoenix in front of the dragon to show her empowerment and was soon known as Dragon Lady.... I now call Laura "dragon lady" every time she asks me to do something :-)
Here's a picture of Lolo and our tour guide Cici right before we finished the tour...
and here's where Laura got locked up for stealing out of the wishing pot.... she's still there.... jk.. it's actually a jail cell for eunich's who had disobeyed someone of a higher power...
Good bye Summer Palace
Hello black market....
Yeah.. she was THAT happy... there are miles of shoe/coat/shirt/purse vendors just dying to give away their products for dirt cheap prices... (think like 10$ for a coach purse that was most likely made in the actual factory and snuck out the back door to this place to sell... some of them were brutal fakes as well though)... Here's some shoes...
Another shot of Laura with a new Chinese salesperson friend... still beaming with delight...
Again.. hahah...
Here's a clerk... but I mainly took it to show Laura haggling with the calculator in the background... they start at about a hundred dollars equivalent.. Laura pays about 15$ ... good girl...
After talking them down.. Laura smiles and says "really?"...
Jackets upon jackets...
How's this one look??
Rows and rows of vendors again...
After a few hours of this and a birthday present of a bunch of things from me to Laura... we were spent (literally) and ready to leave... we settled for a Subway dinner that was delicious and went back to the hotel to clean up...
After this.. I was so tired of taking pictures... I decided I wasn't taking my camera with me while we went exploring on our last night in China.... BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER...
We found the food markets... that sold as I mentioned previously... scorpions on a stick... fried chicken heart.... sheep penis... snake... and fried ice cream... yeah... SHEEP PENIS??!??!... It was amazing.. there were tons of people and crazy stuff getting chopped up and hacked everywhere... and as much as I am upset that I forgot my camera... I still got to experience it and see it all happen before my own eyes.. which barely happens without a viewfinder in between me and the subject these days... so I am great full after all..
We got up and left the land of the rising sun (wait.. that's Japan.. isn't it? oh well) at about 5 am !
My next post will be about my "men's meeting" I had with all of the male teachers from my elementary school last month... we stayed the night at a teachers cottage in the mountains outside of Busan... it was beautiful, and extremely interesting as an insider to their culture... that one will be within the next two weeks... then after that... it's time for a new blogsite :)... still in the works...
Take care for now!