Beijing Day 3: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, and Opera

Day 3 brought sunshine back to Beijing as we started our morning at Tiananmen Square in the center of the city. It's the largest public square in the world, covering 100 acres and named for the Tiananmen (means 'gate of heavenly peace') that separates it from the Forbidden City. The Mao Zedong Memorial Hall is also here, but our guide Chandler told us that the wait is always several hours, as seeing the tomb of Chairman Mao is on the "bucket list" of many Chinese. Even at the early hour we arrived the line ran around the building.

So, Tiananmen Square. I mean, we've all heard about it, so I wondered what it would be like to actually be there, to see Mao's fabled "giant" portrait on the gate...to see this huge open space. Would it sound silly and ridiculous if I said I thought it would be bigger? Well, silly or not, I did. Even Mao's portrait seemed much smaller than I imagined it. (In my mind, his portrait was the size of...oh, I dunno...3 or 4 football fields?) What I found most fascinating about the square were the masses of people flooding it. Young people bringing their elders, babies in split pants toddling about, and kids capturing cell phone photos of each other with Mao's portrait in the background all while watchful soldiers in dark green dress uniforms canvassed about. We asked our guide Chandler about the history of events that happened here, but he just smiled and said that likely we would know more about that than him...

We crossed under the street that separates the square from the Tiananmen (the gate on which Mao's portrait hangs) and followed the masses into the Forbidden City. From the 1400s until the early 1900s, the Forbidden City served as the imperial palace. And let me tell you, for however much I thought Tiananmen Square seemed smaller than I expected, the opposite was true here! It's the largest palace complex in the world with 980 buildings and nearly 9000 rooms. More than a million workers were involved in its 15-year construction during the Ming Dynasty. It is ENORMOUS. We saw but a fraction of it in the couple hours we spent there. Amazing. Oh, and for those who knew of the fact that a Starbucks opened within the Forbidden City in 2000 (yeh, unbelievable--and that's coming out of my mouth), you'll be happy to know that the Chinese government gave them the boot in summer of 2007 and opened a Chinese coffee shop in that same location. (And guess what? We found Qoo there. Remember my adoration of Qoo in Japan? Well, I'm drinking a bottle as I type. Mmmmm...Qoo.)

In the afternoon, our guide took Dan and Thomas to the Bank of China to exchange some money. Dan came back an hour and a half later laughing as he retold of the number system used to see a teller that reminded him of the DMV at home. But he said the long wait was rather fun, given the entire waiting lobby was intently focused on Chinese-dubbed Tom and Jerry cartoons. Ahhhh, Tom and Jerry...there's no language barrier when it comes to Tom and Jerry.

In the late afternoon, we headed down the street with Thomas and Jill to find them a suitcase. Well, it would be more accurate to say that we headed down the street after charading a rolling suitcase multiple times to hotel staff in an attempt to figure out where to get said suitcase...they sent us to the "supermarket" down the street. Well, we found the supermarket behind these Naugahyde swinging door panels and found lots of interesting stuff, but alas, no suitcases to speak of. So, a few pairs of small person socks and a thoughtful selection of candy boxes later we continued our suitcase quest down the street. Eventually we came to a luggage store about as wide as my wingspan and Jill found a bright red suitcase embellished with a couple strange cartoon characters and more than the average number of wheels...perfect!

We headed back to the hotel and prepared for our evening plans of dinner and the opera. We've been getting around by cab a lot--very cheap, and just the right amount of scary as hell. (Something like 3 million people take cabs here everyday, so they're everywhere. And the ride is often really, really fast and weaves all around just barely avoiding other cars, pedestrians and bike riders. And the honking! You wouldn't think a horn could take that kind of abuse.)

We arrived at the Liyuan Theatre and decided to have dinner there. We ordered a gazillion dishes off the menu and sat at a very large lazy susan-centered table. Plum pork, beef with chilis, sweet and sour pork, corn cakes, pan fried leek dumplings, scallion pancakes, fried noodles...the dishes we ordered just kept coming and coming. It was delicious. And the price for food and drink for all 7 of us? The equivalent of $50 USD. Amazing.

The opera was very cool. We arrived early, and went to the make-up room to watch the artists prepare themselves for the show. (I even took Dan's picture with the scary dude.) The seats we bought sat at a table that was set with jasmine tea and snacks. The show was a set of three stories and was visually stunning--I love how expressive opera is, that even when you have no clue of the language, the body language and expressions tell the story. And it's funny as all get-out. The middle story featured what comes to my mind when I think of Chinese opera--that crazy-sounding, LOUD, warbly singing--and frankly, it's just really freakin' funny. So I had this moment of starting to laugh beyond control, but regained composure quickly by way of the side of mouth bite. (I am really glad for the effectiveness of the side of mouth bite...I would laugh at a lot of inappropriate times without it.)

Today we're heading to a jade factory, the Great Wall, and the Bird's Nest Stadium. And tomorrow is THE DAY! HOORAY! Below are some photos from day 3: