The Land of Roast Ducks

I was excited to venture out in Beijing, eventhough neither of my colleagues were keen and I knew language was going to be a problem.

With the map of Beijing in hand, I took the sketchy directions the hotel concierge gave me and headed down the street towards what my intuition told me was the right direction to the nearest subway station, Liufang.

Relief. I found it after a five-minute walk. Beijing Subway network is made out of five existing lines and one in the making. It costs only two yuan per adult per entrance, no matter the distance. Two line changes and seven stops later, I was at Tiananmendong station, where Tian'anmen Square and the entrance to The Forbidden City (Imperial Palace) are.



As rightly pointed out by a Chinese colleague, the square today is really nothing much but a square. Its history (the 1989 Tian'anmen Square Massacre) is a lot more interesting than the place itself. Nothing visually attractive except for the many PRC flags flown high. I've been told that at dawn and dusk, the flag-raising ceremony is something worth seeing.



One thing to note, all the lamp posts surrounding the area are equipped with speakers for mass addresses.

Now for the highlight of my trip, a World Heritage Site. The entrance to the Forbidden City is through the Meridien Gate, just across the road from Tian'anmen Square.



Military personnel are stationed every few metres at the entrance area for security and crowd control (there were lots of local tourists).




I was fascinated by the behaviour of quite a number of local tourists. They seemed to be intrigued by the fact that they could actually touch the doors (with gold-plated knobs) of the gate. I wondered whether it meant a great deal that they could finally enter what was once forbidden.





Entry tickets and audio guides cost 40 yuan each. A deposit of 100 yuan needs to be placed for the audio guide rental. It comes as an A6-sized eletronic map of the Imperial Palace mounted on plastic, and an earpiece. Voice naration will automatically begin when it senses that you have stepped into a specific area of interest. A flickering diod will indicate where you are on the map.

I highly recommend renting this because it offers are lot more information than the information boards.




The Imperial family enjoyed such luxury and refinement as reflected in the palatial architecture. Each hall and courtyard in the City was carefully designed and handcrafted to relfect the glory of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The Forbidden City consists of several attractions - Meridien Gate, Gate of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Central Harmony, Hall of Preserving Harmony, Palace of Heavenly Purity, Palace of Earthly Tranquility, Hall of Military Glory, Hall of Literary Brilliance, Nine-dragon Wall, Hall of Mental Cultivation, Hall of Imperial Supremacy, Imperial Garden, Gate of Divine Prowess.









About ten minutes walk from Tiananmendong is Wangfujing, a shopping area with high-end brands and the regular Giordano, Nike and the like. Below is a souvenir shop specially set up for the Beijing Olympics. The five cartoon characters above the shop front are the games' mascots.




Here, I noticed guards, in oversized jackets, stationed every 20 steps along the paedestrian mall. I felt very safe.

A realisation: I have never felt more non-Chinese than in China. The snorting, the spitting, the rough tone of voice, the knocking-into-people-without-apologies. Ancient China seemed beautiful and I'm intrigued by the attention the world is giving this booming nation, but I'm glad my great great grandparents migrated to Malaysia.