Beijing

Oh my goodness, where should I start? That I was almost denied boarding my plane because I didn't have a Chinese visa? (The *Air China* employee was clearly ignorant of the Beijing 72 hour visa, but thankfully her supervisor wasn't.) Taking an hour and a half to get out of the airport? (It didn't matter--we landed at 5am and the airport train didn't start until 630am.) That I was relying on my sat nav to find the hotel, only to find the sat nav was *lying* about my location and Google maps had the wrong location for the hotel!

The hotel was a 15-minute walk from the train station, and the hotel provided a free shuttle, although I didn't find that out until I finally got to the hotel after trudging around in the dark with my suitcases for 40 minutes. Of course I didn't expect them to have my room ready at 9am--I just planned to drop my bags and go sightseeing--but they told me my room would be ready in 10 minutes, and invited me to have breakfast. Free. I don't turn down free food.

The buffet had eggs and toast, but I bypassed those (and the Americans queuing) and went for the bao (steamed buns), fried noodles, stir-fried mushrooms and boiled cabbage.  It was delicious, although I suspect not a typical Chinese breakfast.

My room was on the 17th floor, and the view would have been great except for the dense smog obfuscating everything.  I'd heard it was bad--and I grew up in Los Angeles!--but it was worse than anything I could imagine.  The sky was also cloudy and just a feeble amount of sunlight made it through.  After I unpacked, I made the unwise decision to lie down for a few moments, and woke up 3 hours later. I hurriedly dressed and braved the smog and subway to see Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden Palace, Jingshan Park and the Lama Temple. Well, I saw Tienanmen Square, which was not what I expected.  Yes, it was a big square (the largest in the world) but there was a large monument in the middle, plus some big television screens showing adverts.  (I don't think they were actually adverts, but it was all in Chinese so I have no idea.)  There were no...tanks.  Or protesters.  There were a couple of guards looking bored.  I felt the same.

So I continued on to the Forbidden Palace.  Past the first gate there was a sign that said "ticket office" so I bought a ticket. I then went through the second gate, where there was a sign that said "Palace ticket office."  Needless to say, my ticket was not for the forbidden palace. Worse, I couldn't figure out what it was a ticket for!! However, having paid 15 yuan (about 2 US dollars) I was determined to use it. It turned out to be access to the upper level of the first gate, overlooking Tienanmen Square (which was still boring) plus an exhibit on Chairman Mao that was all in Chinese. Obviously not a lot of foreigners bother with this.

I should note that being winter, there weren't a lot of foreign tourists.  Most of the tourists were Chinese nationals, who were easy to spot because they carried small China flags and posed with them in every photograph. Which makes me think there's a business opportunity in selling small US flags at American tourist spots. (Brits don't give a toss about their flag, so it would never work in the UK.)  I also found it funny that I, in a sea of Asians, had the biggest camera.

So I went back to the Palace ticket office but by then it was 3pm and admission closed at 4.  This seemed hopelessly inadequate for the "world's largest royal complex" and I decided to go the next day instead.  However, there was a problem in that the Forbidden Palace operates a one-way system, with the entrance at Tienanmen Square and the exit at Jingshan Park, so I couldn't carry on there, either.  There were several museums around Tienanmen Square which are free, but I couldn't go there because, for some reason, they require you to show ID (!) and I'd left my passport locked in the hotel safe.

Instead, I decided to walk through Beihai Park, which is supposed to be lovely.  However, I obviously didn't look at the map very closely, because I ended up in Shanzan Park which is much smaller, and not at all interesting.  However, I paid 3 yuan (about 50 cents) to visit, so I stayed for an hour to get my money's worth. I also shelled out another 2 yuan to see an exhibit on Sun Yat-sen, which was also entirely in Chinese.

I'll pause here for a (ridiculously) brief history of China.  As one of the world's oldest cultures, they have found stone tools dating to 1.36 million years ago, and the earliest recorded use of fire 1.27 million years ago.  Agriculture began 9,000 years ago, and writing around 6,000 years ago.  In 221 BCE, Qin Shi Huang created the first Chinese empire (and incidentally started building the Great Wall and a terracotta army).  Much of this was centered around the Yellow River, almost 1400 miles from Beijing

In 1271 CE, the Mongols invaded China, and Kublai Khan--grandson of Genghis Khan--established the Yuan Dynasty and set its capital as Beijing.  (This is also when Marco Polo visited China.)  However, the Mongols lasted less than 100 years before the Han Chinese overthrew them and established the Ming dynasty, moving the capital to Nanjing.  When the emperor's 21-year-old son ascended the throne, his uncle Yongle attacked and killed him, moving the capital back to Beijing. He also began construction of the Imperial Palace and much of the Great Wall was rebuilt under the Ming dynasty.

In 1644 CE, as the Chinese were battling the Manchurians in the north, a peasant named Li Zicheng started an uprising, invaded Beijing, and overthrew the Ming dynasty. However, that  paved the way for the Manchurians to ride into Beijing and establish the Qing dynasty.  By 1800, China ruled more than one-third of the world's population, and had the largest economy in the world. By area of extent, it was one of the largest empires ever in history.  Unfortunately, it was downhill from there.  In 1840, the British defeated China in the First Opium War, taking Hong Kong island.  In 1851, the Taiping Rebellion (a quasi-Christian religious movement) left nearly 20 million dead.  In 1895 China suffered a serious defeat from Japan.  And in 1899 the Boxer Rebellion, violently revolted against foreign influence (in particular Christianity) in Northern China. The Empress Dowager sided with the Boxers, and foreign diplomats were beseiged in Beijing.  In response, the west sent a "relief expedition" of 20,000 troops from Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.  They defeated the Imperial army and then effectively sacked Beijing, carrying off anything that wasn't nailed down.

The Qing dynasty held on for another ten years, but there were numerous revolts and uprisings, until in 1911 the Qing dynasty fell, the last emperor -- Pu Yi -- abdicated, the Republic of China (ROC) was established, and Sun Yat-sen became the first President.  Unfortunately that didn't end China's troubles, and the second president, Yuan Shikai, declared himself emperor in 1915!  He abdicated in 1916, leaving local warlords to rule China.

In the 1920s, Sun Yat-sen set about to re-unify the country, and accepted assistance from the new Soviet Union.  When he died in 1925, however, the alliance with the Communists fell apart. Chiang Kai-shek took control of the Nationalist party and started a military campaign to re-unify the country. He also attacked the Communist Party, leading to a 22-year civil war interrupted only by World War II.  In 1949, the Communists were victorious, and Mao Zedong established the "People's Republic of China."  Chiang Kai-shek moved his government to Taiwan, which still refers to itself as the "Republic of China" and refuses to recognised the "People's Republic of China."

(I used to think that clothing labelled "Taiwan ROC" was China's way of asserting control over the island, but in fact it is the island asserting it is not controlled by China!!)

In 1956, Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalin, leading to a split between the Russian Communists and Chinese Communists.  In 1958, Mao announced his "Great Leap Forward" plan to increase agriculture by producing more steel.  Unfortunately, the uneducated farmers could only produce low quality steel which was largely useless, and production fell dramatically.  This lead to widespread famine, with millions of deaths.  Mao resigned in 1959 and other leaders, including Deng Xiaoping, initiated economic and cultural reform.  In 1966, Mao returned to power and implemented the Cultural Revolution to "enforce Communism and remove all capitalist, traditional and cultural elements from Chinese society."  This resulted in a lost decade as education, art, and development were effectively halted.

In 1972, Mao hosted Richard Nixon in Beijing to establish relations with the United States. As a result, the UN officially recognised the People's Republic of China, and rejected the Republic of China. China was also given a permanent seat on the Security Council, which can veto any bill.

After Mao's death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping returned to power and  loosened governmental control, gave peasants land leases, and opened market competition. The Communist Party refer to this as "Socialism with Chinese characteristics."  However, there is still only one political party, people do not have the right to vote, and freedom of speech and freedom of the press are strictly curtailed.  In 1989, a group of students occupied Tiananmen Square, and at its height an estimated one million people assembled in the square, as well as protests in 400 cities nationwide. Deng Xiaoping ordered martial law and called in the military to quell the
"counter-revolutionary riot." Over 200 people died, although mostly in the streets around the Square.  Only 3 people are known to have been killed in the square itself.

Of course I didn't know all of this at the time, and didn't care--I was cold and starting to get hungry, and I decided to head back to the hotel. I got on the subway and promptly got on the wrong train, heading in the opposite direction. Fortunately I figured this out and switched to the circle line (ironically, going past Jingshan Park and Lama Temple). Above ground, it was hard to recognise the street from the morning (it had still been dark) but I was pretty sure which direction the hotel was in. My sat nav said it was the other way. It was *lying.*

(As the GPS satellites are managed by the US, I wonder if they do this just to annoy the Chinese?)

By now I was even colder and hungrier, and I started poking my nose into every restaurant I passed (plus a food court in a shopping mall) and couldn't find a thing. A Thai restaurant looked promising, with an entire page of "vegetable" choices, until I looked closer to see "stir fried morning glories in prawn paste" and "Vegetables with seafood."  In the end--and to my eternal shame--I went to the only Mediterranean restaurant in Beijing, and had falafel.  It was delicious.