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Beijing, China, Tianamen Square, Forbidden City
Beijing, China, Tianamen Square, Forbidden City The world has turned its attention to China because of the upcoming summer olympics. We have always been interested in its people and culture. After reading Pearl S. Bucks' books as a child; and seeing the movie the Good Earth, visiting this mysterious land was at the top of our list of adventures. However, we had reservations because we didn't know the language and our safety while traveling in this country concerned us. We decided to take an escorted tour. This was a 15-day tour from September 9 to September 23, 2002, at a cost of $6,784 for the two of us. This included flights, premier or deluxe hotels, tips, visas, entrance fees, food, and custom and airport fees. We feel we had a chance to see a traditional China before they made many changes for the Olympics. At the time of our visit, they were beginning to build the infrastructure. A guide told us if the government needed a piece of land, people would be moved for the project-- sometimes thousands of them. The weather this time of the year was excellent, and it was a wonderful experience. It is important to make sure you have the proper travel documents. We had a current passport. The company, Bestours, Inc., handled the applications for our visas. We mailed current pictures of us, a processing fee, and completed information forms to the tour company. They submitted the visa application to the appropriate Chinese Embassy for approval. When the process was completed, the visas were sent to us by FedEx. There is a time limit on the use of the visas so keep this in mind. The next step is to check the government web site (http://www.cdc.gov/travel/) to see if there are any travel or health issues. There were 12 of us in the tour group accompanied most of the time by our tour guides and a communist party member who helped us to get through all the security screening areas quickly. There was ample time for us to shop or explore on our own. We flew into Shanghai after a very long flight. It is one of the largest cities in China located on the Yangtze River and is called the Pearl of the Orient. At the time, its population was 16 million. We took a Li River cruise in Guilin. Then we went on to Suzhou, Beijing, Xian, and Hong Kong. We flew out of Hong Kong at the end of the trip. We had excellent guides, accommodations, food, and sightseeing. For now we will concentrate on the popular things to do in Beijing and its surrounding area. The tour group was bused from our hotel to Tian'anmwn which is known as the Gate of Heavenly Peace. The ride was an unnerving experience. Our bus was sharing the road with cars and many many bicyclists. I don't know how some one wasn't killed because the traffic was heavy. Its amazing how much was being balanced and carried on the bicycles. Tian'anmwn is located at the center of the city of Beijing. When we entered Tian' anmen Square which is approximately 109 acres, we were confronted by some men who didn't seem too happy we were there. Our guides diplomatically took care of the situation. There were lines of people who were waiting to visit Chairman Mao Zedong's tomb which is located at the south side of the square. We decided not to visit the tomb as it would take too long to enter. Thousands of people visit the square every day. You can see people flying kites and generally enjoying the square. To the north of the square, you can see red stonewalls with a wooden roof. It has five entrances, and the largest one in the middle goes to the Forbidden City. There are five marble bridges that are magnificent. The Forbidden City is amazing. It is called Gu Gong in Chinese. This was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is the worlds largest palace complex, and it is rectangular. They began building it in 1407 and it was completed in 1420. The Forbidden City is now known as the Palace Museum. You can see yellow as the main color because it is the symbol of the royal family. According to the guide, roofs were built with yellow glazed tiles; decorations were painted yellow; bricks on the ground were yellow. Only the royal library has a black roof. Black represents water and could extinguish fire. We couldn't actually go into the imperial rooms, they were roped off. But you could view them from behind the ropes. The furnishings were beautiful. The history of this country is long and interesting. It's hard to believe that for 500 years the public was not allowed to see the Forbidden City. This is an historic landmark that represents imperial China but is valued by the Chinese as part of their heritage. Share with me at: The MUSEUM at Zazzle
http://www.zazzle.com/the_museum*/ The MUSEUM at Qassia
http://themuseum.qondio.com/*
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Contributor's Note
This is the first of several articles relating our experiences and impressions of a 15-day escorted tour of China we took in September of 2002.
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This intel was contributed by The MUSEUM
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