2025 Donna & Dana's China Trip : 05/01/25

Tour 1; Day 1

Today's tour schedule was:

Tiananmen Square (TS)
Forbidden City (FC)

Imperial Garden (IG)

Hutong visit (HV)

Rickshaw ride

Roast duck dinner

We were up early as getting our body clocks on China time was not going as well as we'd hoped (which shouldn't have been a surprise, but it was...). We were awake about 3:30 AM and at the breakfast buffet at 6:30, when it opened, along with several other members of our tour group. The buffet was very good with an extensive selection of Asian and western selections. We sat with some folks we recognized as being with our tour group and learned they were a group of 8 (4 couples) 3 of whom were brothers - Fong's from Sacramento! Donna's father was a Fong from Sacramento. Donna took about 10 minutes to figure out that there was no direct relation that she or they could discern, still, ironic. (They ultimately "adopted" us into their family group as we got along well and none of us thought that any of us were "that person" - see description of "that person" in yesterday's edition...). She figured it out because Dan Fong (one of the 3 brothers) had done his DNA on Ancestry and since they were not a Shared Match they were not "cousins." Also, his grandfather or maybe father had been born in China and Donna's grandfather and his siblings had been born in Sacramento.

We boarded the 50 passenger tour bus just before 8 headed to Tiananmen Square (TS). Since there were only 29 of us there was plenty of room to spread out on the bus. We pulled out from the hotel and got about 10 minutes down the road when the tour guide said have your passports handy. Two people replied "passports?". The tour guide must have reminded us that we'd need our passports a dozen times between the night before and even getting on the bus that morning... So, the bus driver made his way back to the hotel, which was no easy feat, so that those folks could get their passports. Just to be perfectly clear, the two who forgot their passports were not Donna or me... Nine AM rolls around (40 min to get back to the hotel, 10 min to get passports and other folks making a "while we're here I might as well get something..." stop) and we depart the hotel again.

It took about an hour to get to TS then a half-hour walk from where we parked to the entrance gate. Security at the entrance was a mix of normal and the not-so-normal. Not allowed were the normal items, those not allowed on airplane - weapons, etc. The not-so-normal items that were not allowed included no reading material, cards (playing cards), signs, and clothes with large words or symbols. Our passports were examined and our bags were searched, thoroughly. There was a prolonged interest in the first aid kit I was carrying but it was ultimately allowed. Fortunately my journal, with 3 day's of entries in it, didn't rise to the level of "reading material" - hard to argue with that, although the guard did take a long look at it... Donna was immediately struck by the difference in accessing TS between when she was in China in 1979 and now, yes 45 years ago - no security lines to access the area. The police security presence was very evident now.

TS was very crowded. Lots of tour groups, school children groups and others. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of security cameras and a very obvious military presence. The military people were interesting. There was a mix of uniforms amongst them - Class As (formal), BDUs (battle dress uniforms or "fatigues" back in the day), and "civilians" who were clearly not there to visit TS (black pants, shirts, shoes, radios). I didn't see one military female. I also don't recall seeing any weapons - they all had radios though and I (can only) imagine that weapons could be brought to bare within minutes on any "problem" that might arise. TS is big, 50+ acres. Bordered by the Mao Zedong Mausoleum on the South, the National Center for the Performing Arts on the West, the National Museum on the East, and the Tiananmen Pass and Review building (PRB) that has the balcony we've all seen on TV with the Chinese leader reviewing the Chinese troops and arsenal march by every 10 years on Oct 1st - the National Day of the People's Republic of China. There is a huge picture of Mao on the PRB. TS is impressive. But, what I didn't see was any mention of the Tiananmen Square protests or as it is referred to in China, the June Fourth Incident. There could have been something, maybe something subtle like the Memorial at Kent State (as we, as a country, are not without some major mistakes embedded in our history), that acknowledged the "incident", maybe I just didn't see it...

We walked north through a tunnel that passes under the road (the road the troops and arsenal parade down every 10 years) that separates TS from the PRB towards the Forbidden City (FC). The security for the FC is more thorough that that for TS - another passport review, a walk-through scanner, bag scanner, and "special" attention should the scanners indicate anything of interest.

The Forbidden City was much more interesting and impressive than TS. It was the imperial palace for 24 Ming and Qing dynasty emperors for 492 years from 1420 to 1924 and encompasses over 7.75 million square feet (this last factoid from Wikipedia - I'm sure the tour guide told us this but I didn't have it in my journal...). There were 3 layers of controlled access, one being a moat. It has ~9000 "rooms" - a room being defined as an area bordered by 4 columns. Thousands of people lived in support of the emperor and the imperial family. All the men, other than the emperor, were eunuchs (a touch insecure these emperors I guess...). The movie"The Last Emperor" was last (only?) movie filmed there.

We essentially made our way down the middle of the FC starting at the Meridian Gate (A) and exiting (like 2 hours later) through the Gate of Divine Might (B). It's hard to convey all we saw there - the trappings of 24 emperors over two dynasties would take years to actually inspect - we looked closely at maybe 1% of what was there... That said, of all we saw I'd vote for the Imperial Garden as being the most impressive. According to our tour guide the IG was the only place within the FC that trees were allowed - the emperor(s) were afraid that assassins would hide in them and the IG trees were outside one layer of access to the Imperial Palace. I hope the pictures below convey at least a glimpse of insight as to how impressive the Forbidden City and Imperial Garden were. Donna note: I was disappointed that we were not allowed to enter any of the buildings here this visit. I seem to recall going in last time and information given about the construction of these buildings using wood without nails. When we (my mother, sister Joanne, and brother David) were there in 1979 we also went into the Mausoleum to view Mao's body, lying in a clear box. I thought since this was such a unique memorable experience I was disappointed Dana and the others could not see this.

After the FC we boarded a double deck public bus (think London) which took us a short way to a restaurant for a Chinese banquet lunch (Chinese banquet lunch >>and<< dinner would become the norm for both tours - the next 19 days).

After lunch we boarded the tour bus which took us to a "typical" hutong. First, hutongs are essentially neighborhoods of courtyard residences. They are prevalent in northern China (e.g. Beijing) and have been around since 1279. Secondly, I say "typical" because this was the first clear indication (to me) that we, a group of tourists being led by a Chinese national, were being shown what the Chinese government wanted us to see. We all got to ride rickshaws (modern rickshaws in that they were bicycle mounted) around and through the hutong. This hutong was nothing like the hutongs we could see from our first hotel window. This hutong had Porsches and Range Rovers in the driveways of very nice residences. The fact that this hutong even had driveways was atypical! I mean, it was nice and I get it that China has rich and poor people, just like all countries. But I think this tour was akin to taking one of those buses through some high end neighborhood in the states (e.g. Beverly Hills) and calling it "typical". Anyway, it was fun.

We capped off the day by walking from our hotel for dinner at a restaurant the specializes in roast duck. We split into two groups of about 15 and each sat at a huge round table that had an equally huge lazy susan that rotated automatically (you could stop it, or you could get your food, but it was tricky stopping it and getting your food...). The food was very good, the duck was excellent, and if memory serves the restaurant was hundreds of years old (although it had recently - last 20 yrs or something like that - moved into the location we visited).

Back to the hotel and in bed ~ 9, maybe we'll get on China time (it could happen... it didn't). Fun fact - The country of China spans 4 time zones but the entire country goes by the time in Beijing...

Here are some pix in a vague semblance of chronological order...

Our tour guide, Stony, saying "Follow this flag". Most folks did... he was very good and had the patience of Job...

The group marching towards the entry gate. See the flag?

We're in (didn't dare take a photo going through security). This, the first of the many obligatory group shots...

... and the obligatory "We were there" photo...

One of the several student groups we saw...

Almost every lamp post had several cameras mounted on it. Big brother really is watching you...

Tiananmen Square is big, but only 30% the size of the Forbidden City

The Pass and Review Building (I'm sure it has a different official name). Mao is omnipresent all over Beijing if not the country (he's the face on every denomination of currency, btw...)

OK, the "Pass and Review Building" turns out to be the Meridian Gate to the Forbidden City

We saw several young women traditionally dressed, here, in the city, almost anywhere. At first we thought they were actors headed to perform someplace. Eventually it dawned on us that dressing like this is a "thing". They have shops all over town where these women go to get made up and dressed like this for the day.

Occasionally, men in traditional dress as well.

Over the moat and past the first of 3 gates

I thought this was "very crowded" per my journal (We had yet to go to the 'Terracotta Warriors exhibit in Xi'An).

Servants quarters. If you weren't the emperor you were a servant of some sort. Period.

On the terrace of the 2nd gate

There are several of these large "pots" located throughout. They were originally there to hold water in the event of a fire. They were also originally gold plated. The story goes that when the Japanese invaded China during WWII they scraped the gold off. Also, I think our guide said the palaces burned down more than once, the water pot method of fire suppression was insufficient I guess.

This is the actual Imperial Palace (I think), residence of the Emperor. They were doing some restoration, or something, this was as close as we could get.

Most, maybe all, of the older buildings, including temples and such, had these features on each corner of the roof. More animals denoted more importance. This is the roof of the Imperial Palace, 10 animals - no other building had 10...

Our pictures of the Imperial Garden don't begin to do it justice, so I'm not going to try. In our defense, we (at least I) were beat and hadn't even made it to lunch yet!