Thinking about Scale: Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Olympic Complex

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Zao from Beijing! It's a rainy morning here, and we are going back to “work” after our sightseeing weekend. Today's presentations are about automobile consumption, aeronautics, and economics. After that we will visit another middle school. It has been a great mix of touring and attending lectures so far, and changing up the pace keeps us from getting too worn down with doing too much of either.

Yesterday we visited the Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. The day was intense because of the heat and the density of people there. I learned that they let about 100,000 people through each day. I'm not sure about the population of Vermont, but I'm going to go with, it's more than the population of Vermont. A recurring theme here in China is scale. They don't do anything small here in China.

I learned that the Forbidden City is so named because everyone except for the Emperor's family was forbidden from entering the gates. “City” is also apt because the entire complex is 5 square miles. It's huge! As you approach the Forbidden City, you are greeted by the huge, iconic portrait of Chairman Mao, and then you press bodies together to get through the gate. You might think you've arrived in the forbidden city, but you'd be wrong because you would have only made it to the outer courtyard! (You do this about 3 more times before you're actually, “there.”) You actually have to go through two more gates just to get to the administrative offices of the Forbidden City. The next set of gates gets you into the living area of the complex. Within the Forbidden City, there are 9,999.5 rooms. The reason for that ½ room is because the belief was that in heaven God had 10,000 rooms, so the Emperor was being modest by not having as many rooms as his “father.” Again, the scale here is beyond anything we have in the States.

One of the many buildings in the Forbidden City

Interactive art in the art district

We spent the afternoon in a really funky art district. The area had a bit of a European feel to it because there were many cafe's with outdoor seating. The area used to be large industrial warehouses that are now galleries and shops. We found shops selling fans, parasols, shadow puppets, tea sets, ceramics, and other crafts. It was good fun to poke around, although it was so hot and humid that we were all a bit tired and wilted.

Our sightseeing ended with a quick trip to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Complex. We took the obligatory Bird's Nest and Water Cube Photos and hopped back on the bus. The structures are gigantic (I hope you're seeing the pattern) and just as stunning as you'd imagine them to be, but unfortunately, they're almost useless these days. In fact, there is a discussion about tearing down the Bird's Nest. I think officially that is because it is such a big stadium that no one wants to play in it for fear of playing in an empty, cavernous space. Unofficially, I wonder if it is because the structure was designed by the dissenting artist Ai Wei Wei. I wish we could have gone inside the buildings, but that isn't something people really do.

I've saved the best for last. Two days ago our scholar-escort, Nevan, asked who of us would like to have a foot massage in our hotel rooms. A massage in my hotel room?? Like my manicure of a few days ago, I promptly said yes. Nevan assured us it was all above board and not sketchy at all, so my roommate, Melanie, and I signed ourselves right up. We arrived back from the hot and sticky day, showered, and two women knocked on our door. As it turns out, “foot massage,” in China really means “full body massage including feet.” It was blissful. A 90 minute massage for about $20! I'm not sure what Xi'an will bring in terms of spa treatments, but I'm hoping for a facial next...

It was an exhausting weekend full of visiting some iconic sights. Again, I feel so lucky and honored to experience these places first hand.