After Montana made some enquiries about more activities this morning, we set off for a day in the Forbidden City. After two transfers on the subway, we were at Tian'anmen West. We stopped there first because of the controversial National Centre for the Performing Arts, located immediately to the west of Tian'anmen Square. It is known as The Giant Egg, or as an egg floating on water. We both agreed that it was mildly interesting, but not worth going to much trouble for.
National Centre for the Performing Arts
A bigger shock was that the Tian'anmen Square of old no longer exists. There is a major high-traffic street going through the middle of it. We had to go back down to the subway station and take another exit to get to the other side of the street for entrance into the Forbidden City.
We walked toward the entrance...the iconic Gate of Heavenly Peace with Chairman Mao's picture...and found the sidewalk completely filled, with no way to get around all the people. We could see some sort of structure a couple of hundred feet ahead, with a ticker tape-like message in Chinese scrolling across. We finally decided that it was probably the line for tickets to get into the Palace Museum. Trouble was...the line didn't move. And didn't move. And didn't move. We considered what we should do, but by then the crowd had filled in behind us, so we decided to wait awhile longer. After a half hour, suddenly the crowd began to move forward, so we shuffled along to keep up. Even more suddenly, the crowd surged forward like a tidal wave hitting shore with arms & elbows everywhere. Fortunately we were on the edge of the crowd so could see daylight on our right sides. Then there was slight chaos before calm returned and we could figure out what had just happened. We found ourselves about the third "row" back from a police barricade, with a tape across sidewalk & two policemen pushing a few "eager" (mostly) young men back into the crowd. The people they had let through were now about 100 feet in front of us, clustered around the building with the scrolling message. We stood there another half hour wondering if we'd have time to go through the Forbidden City!
Crowds of people trying to get in.
Then the policemen began making motions that they were going to let more people through. LuRue was in front of Montana & grabbed her jacket sleeve. The Chinese gentleman behind smiled ever-so-slightly & nodded, letting Montana get her shoulder in front of him. Then suddenly the race was on! Montana & LuRue had ahold of each other & walked quickly, but others ran in front. LuRue refused to run & held out her right hand to guard her personal space. Like that stopped anyone!! But we finally reached the group by the building (about 50 to 75 at a time) & realized that we were all smooshing through four security gates. People were getting out their IDs, so Montana and LuRue frantically looked for their passport copies. When it was almost their turn, a man went through the portal & they could see that his son (about 7 years old) & wife were behind, so we made way for them. Imagine what the whole time must have been like for the kid! As we passed through the portal, we had to put our packs on the x-ray scanner, just like at the airport, but the guard didn't even look at our passport copies.
Then just like that...we were onto Tian'anmen Square--what's left of it. From then on it was the normal strolling around, passing through more security gates (but normally) and buying tickets (no long lines). We thought about how much you would have loved the whole thing, Eric!!!
Inside the Forbidden City
The first time LuRue went through the Forbidden City was in 1997 & a guide had her group walking out the back gate within 45 minutes. This time Montana and LuRue spent about 2 and a half hours wandering through the areas, reading whatever signs looked interesting, and Montana taking more than 250 pictures, which were eventually cut down to about 90. It is still an awe-inspiring place! We had watched "The Last Emperor" just before starting on our trip, so had fun recalling parts of the movie while we were standing in certain areas.
The day was beautiful, with blue sky above, so after exiting out the north side, we took the underground tunnel to the opposite side of the street & went to the viewpoint from Jingshan Park where we had last viewed The Forbidden City. Montana re-took her photos from that vantage point without the smog.
The Forbidden City: With and without smog
We left Jingshan Park by the east entrance with the thought of finding a restaurant, then walking back to our hotel. Lots of shops along the street, but no restaurants...until we spotted a sign Jingshan Garden Hotel, with arrows pointed into one of the hutongs. We kept following the signs into the narrow alleyways until we saw a door at the very end that looked like it might be a hotel. No one was around when we entered, but soon a young woman came, though she couldn't speak much English. We motioned eating & saying Restaurant? Cafe? She went to get someone else & a young guy appeared with a menu. Then they motioned us up some stairs & it turned out to be a delightful restaurant & below us was a courtyard much like the one where we're staying. Looking it up later, it is one the "boutique" hotels in the hutong districts that is popping up all over. There was one other table of customers (Chinese) drinking coffee or tea. But even though it was only about 4:00pm, the chef prepared us three delicious dishes. We thanked them a lot and went on our way.
One of the strange things we found
We had planned to walk through the hutongs as a shortcut to get to our "alley"...our "walking street". A white-haired lady saw us looking at our map & came over to try to help. It was clear that she didn't know how to read maps any more than she could speak English, but she kept nodding & smiling as we indicated that we were going to leave the main street. We kept following the map until we got quite close to the subway station, then took a left turn into yet another paved alleyway that wasn't on the map, but looked more used that the dirt path to the right, which was on the map. Soon another woman was behind us, calling out "Excuse me! Excuse me!" When we stopped, she introduced herself, saying that we were heading into a dead-end & pointed out the correct way, which was the dirt path after all. She walked with us a ways, saying that she is a social worker with American friends. We said that we were heading to the subway station & would know our way from there. She told us to walk to the blue tarp, take a left, then look for the church & we'd be almost there. She kept calling out until we reached the blue tarp, then we waved a final goodbye.
We crossed the busy street by way of a crosswalk (which drivers here respect...unlike India) and were at the subway station, then we were back on home territory into our "alley". After a stop at a bakery shop, we were very glad to get back to our cozy room.
Better you than me in the crowd you were in! Guess I'd better think twice about going to Beijing....never liked being in crowds anywhere. But glad you were finally able to get in!
ReplyDeleteJanice
Love the title of this blog!
ReplyDeleteWant to comment on your do-it-yourself touring—after many tours in the distant past, I, too, agree the only way to go is to figure it out yourself—half of the fun is just doing that—like that crazy line you all waited in and waited in until finally you actually got to enter the Forbidden City —I was with you, LuRue, when we had that 45 min version and I dare say the experience you two just had was a lot more meaningful and enjoyable. Again great photos.