<<Older    Main    Newer>>

Travel

Beijing

I’ve just come back from a work-related flying visit to Beijing.  My overall impression of the city is of underwhelment and uninspiring - and that’s being charitable.  I had expected to find more heart and soul - instead it was drab and grey, incessant modernisation at work.  There was nothing to really distinguish it from a myriad of other dull metropolises around the globe.  Perhaps the pollution and smog is its greatest claim to civic fame - and yes it was bad, visibility down to about 150 metres.  I pity the endurance athletes at next year’s Olympics - perhaps if they start simulation training by connecting a hose to the end of the exhaust pipe of a car and breathing from the hose they’ll be a chance of medalling.

The only chance for some sightseeing was to take a long walk around the nearby landmarks from where I staying - Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  Tiananmen was about 2 kilometres away and they say the way to do it is to start at the two massive gates (Qianmen) at the southern end of the Square.  These are impressive and large structures, which you walk through to get to the Square proper.  Unfortunately the smog was so bad that it was next to useless to take any decent panoramic photos.  Nonetheless, the doors to Qianmen were of sufficient interest to warrant a photo, pass through these doors and through the arch and proceed through the next gate and then we get to the Square itself.

The first thing one encounters in the Square is Mao’s mausoleum.  It wasn’t open when I arrived as I’d started my walk fairly early and I didn’t really feel like waiting and going in an paying homage to a body still lying in state. A few snaps of the sculptures glorifying the great revolutionary was enough for me. 

Flanking each side of the Square are a couple of socialist design icons in the Great Hall of the People and the National Museum of China - one has to seriously love the aesthetics of socialist livery with its chic militaristic symbols. 

There would’ve been several thousand people in the Square at any point when I was there at about 8:30am, still it looked empty given that a million people can quite easily congregate there.  Leaving the Square behind, I walked through the underpass to the Gate of Heavenly Peace, where imperial and communist leaders alike viewed the troops under their command.  Mao’s portrait still hangs there, above the central gate.

Pass through those gates and you end up in the Forbidden City - the impenetrable line between the imperial household and the general population.  The palace complexes are a maze of 9999.5 rooms spread across 720,000 sq metres.  Naturally a rolling restoration program is in place to preserve the various buildings.  I was particularly interested in some of the textural/architectural intricacies of the buildings as that shitty smog was still thick as thieves.

Seriously, after walking around for close to 5 hours I was starting to fade badly, and decided to get back to the hotel and refresh.......and get some decent air to breathe.  Refreshed, I braved the outside world again, and walked through the commercial retail area, which was pretty generic to what comes to expect in shopping malls.  Apart from a small alleyway where there was a collection of market stalls/food outlets catering to tourists and locals alike.  Here you could buy food and kitschy souvenirs.  Temptation got the better of me and I bought some souvenirs (read shit - such as a couple of Mao caps, kites and Christmas baubles).......I did draw the line at being tempted by the scorpion or seahorse on skewers as an afternoon snack (yes call me gutless).

Well that’s a wrap from me from Beijing - your foreign correspondent will get back to what he does best (drawing) very shortly.