We started the day in Tiananmen Square, the largest public square in the world. Everything in China seems to be super-sized; I guess when you have a billion people, you need lots of room. The square was filled with tourists, predominantly Chinese. In fact, I’ve been amazed at how many Chinese tourists there are. Then I asked myself why I was so amazed. After all, when you travel in the US, you meet lots of other American tourists. I realized that it seems amazing because it is a true sign of a growing middle class that so many Chinese have the ability to travel in their own country. Many of the tourists we see are “country people”, some in regional dress. From the south, they’re very short. From the north, they’re much taller. Our guide says that this is the difference between growing up eating rice in the south vs. wheat in the north.

Surrounding the square are many public buildings, including Mao’s mausoleum. You see no signs of the student protests of 1989, of course, and we are instructed not to mention this subject when in the square. There were lots of police around – the first time we have seen this in China.

I was amused by our guide referring to Mao has having “liberated” China. I pointed out that usually liberation means from foreign powers, such as being liberated from the Japanese occupation. In Mao’s case, he prevailed in the civil war with the Kuomintang, who were exiled to Taiwan. This seems like “unified” China rather than “liberated” China to me. However, the guide explained that the country was liberated from the bad guys, so that’s that.

It’s been fun to travel with Lev and Galina, who grew up in Soviet Russia. Over and over again, they see similarities to their experiences. Much of Chinese communism was copied from Soviet Communism, so this makes sense. I particularly like Lev’s Soviet jokes!

After Tiananmen Square, we toured the Forbidden City. This walled city was the place where the Chinese emperors lived for 500 years before being overthrown (“liberated’) by Dr. Sun Yat Sen (remember him from your history lessons? I actually studied this stuff in college, so am struggling to remember!). The Forbidden City is unbelievable. It is huge, with building after building, all of which are exquisite. There are magnificent marble terraces, meant to look like clouds, with the emperor sitting on top.

Everything is recently restored. Our guide refers to this as the “Olympic effect”. We had thought this would be a good time to visit China, and we were right. It seems like everything is in top notch shape having been fixed up for the games.

I also should mention that the weather is beautiful. In addition, the air pollution here in Beijing is much less oppressive than in the other cities, which have been grey and smoggy. The guide points out that many factories were closed to make the air better for the Olympics. It is a noticeable difference. The guide also confessed that they are told to tell tourists that it is fog, not pollution!

Lunch was Peking Duck - one of the best meals we have had, which is saying something because the food has been terrific. The ducks are slow roasted and carved at your table into very thin slices. They have perfected roasting the duck without it being oily and fatty, and the effect is delicious. The guide showed us the three ways to eat Peking Duck, each one with different condiments.

We then went to the Hongqiao Market. We figured this would be a quick stop, but we ended up having trouble leaving. This is a four story, indoor market. The top floor is very nice jewelry, particularly pearls, at reasonable prices (Joan, you would LOVE this place). The third floor is fake jewelry. The second floor is designer knock-offs, very cheap (Ann, you would LOVE this place). The first floor is electronics knock-offs, including loads of copies of brand name cameras, iPods, binoculars, etc. I’m sure you all think Lenny went wild here, but all he bought was a pair of clip-on sunglasses.

Our last stop was the Temple of Heaven. These wooden buildings in a lovely park were a religious spot for the emperors. Today, it is full of senior citizens doing lots of activities. They are dancing, playing cards, playing music, etc. It was very active and a lot of fun. We had a short Tai Chi class with a “private Tai Chi master”. The master was young, called himself Howard, and had an Adidas sweatshirt and backpack slung over his yellow Tai Chi outfit. I did okay learning the hand movements. And I did okay learning the foot movements. But I will admit that I found it pretty difficult to do the both at once!

After dinner (we’ve been having dinner at “happy hour” in our lovely hotel, the Peninsula, where the munchies are perfectly sufficient for a meal!), we went to the famous Peking Opera. Pretty much everybody there also was a western tourist. Subtitles were provided in Chinese and in English. The first part was classic Chinese opera. Even though the music is strange to our ears, I enjoyed it very much. The second part had no singing, but was mainly Kung Fu and acrobatics. The costumes were spectacular. We also got to see the actors applying make-up beforehand, which was great.

Does this sound like a lot of stuff for one day? Do you think we are exhausted at the end of a day? Yes, we are. We will need a vacation when we return.

By the way, I saw a piece of trash today – a candy wrapper on the path in the garden. I swear this is the first piece of trash I’ve seen!

-- Donna