Beijing Sites

In the old Beijing city center we toured a number of sites including Tiananmen Square where in June of 1989 an iconic showdown between an anti-government student protestor and a tank was captured on video for the world to see.  The square was complete in 1959 by Mao and intended to be the largest square in the world.  There is some irony in its containing the 'Monument to the People's Heros' and 'The Great Hall of the People' when through the reign of Mao he murder tens of millions of Chinas people.  Mao is still very much a hero in the hearts of the power brokers and government workers, but not as far we can tell with the average citizen.  His image hangs many places like here over the gate to the Forbidden City.

Our guide had some translation issues so there was always a bit of elaboration that was required.  I was trying to help him understand my question about where the video of the student protestor was taken and I resorted to holding my arms out and walking side to side like I was blocking a tank.  At that point he got a little excited and told me to put my arms down and be quiet as he glanced around to see if any security personnel had seen me.  We kept our conversation on the down low from then on.  The police state is alive an well in China.  They routine just pull people aside and ask them for there ID.  You will see this on last every street corner.  Our guide was questioned twice the other night as was another man from our group.  In his case the police were more interested in where he bought his T-shirt which read 'OBEY'.

Here is an entry gate into Tiananmen Square and of course Tara.

Our next stop was the Forbidden City, a nearly 8 million square foot complex with almost 1000 buildings built 600 years ago.  For most of its history is had served as the seat of Chinese power.  The Forbidden City shares the same sequential and reducing courtyard system as many of the temples we have visited.  The scale is impressive but its size has an impact on perceived details.  In the smaller complexes it is easier to see and appreciate the finer points of the architecture and layout.

In the Forbidden City I was stopped for a photo op by some South Koreans.  When they asked me where I was from and I replied U.S.A. their response was "we love America".  That has been the feedback from everyone that has inquired.

The next day we explored the Hutong.  This is where all of the people that work in the are live.  It costs about USD$170 a month for a room in the Hutong.  With your money your family gets a communal kitchen, usually in your building and and public bathroom and shower which is out in the street.  This is pretty tough living, not quite on the steets, but very close to it.

Next stop was the Temple of Heaven which is a large area that contains a number of religious worship sites.  When one visits Europe it is the grand old cathedrals and the even older pantheons that reflect something undeniable in man, we are made to worship.  We always seek something to provide us ultimate meaning.  Be it relationships or possessions or power or occupation or pleasure or gods or God, the list is endless as we search for that which ultimately will satisfy us.  Nothing created can ultimately satisfy as it will fail us in some way.  We will tire of it or it will leave us or it will break or it will die.  I appeal to you to find your ultimate meaning in the one true God as revealed to us in nature and the Bible and not in something that He has created.

In the Temple complex the girls were invited to try out this interesting version of a yo-yo.  Those that were really good had it humming loudly and flying around their heads.

Here are the girls standing in the center of heaven.

If you have been looking though the images you will notice that the girls are the subject of many a Chinese photo.  While we have hundreds of images of China, the Chinese have thousands of Huth girl images.  The bold ones get in the picture, while many snap from a distance and others pretend to take pictures of plain things and pan the girls into the shot where they pause and snap away.  Still others look and clutch their cameras longingly and we sometimes have mercy upon them and grant them a picture with the divine ones ;-).

The Temple of Heaven had an other worldly bathroom(not really, but relatively speaking).  While I was in the male section I heard Tara exclaim excitedly "Ohh, there's soap!".  Soap is extremely rare followed by something to dry your hands and of course little pieces of paper to wipe with.

Here is Riley doing a hip hop version of the harvet dance at the Temple of Harvest.

Images in 2013 Beijing.