Bonus Blog - Inspiration From A Nest!

This is The Birds Nest. It is totally amazing and awe inspiring.

This is the first bonus blog for the week.  I guess I could have just called this week's blog Beijing Part 1, 2 and 3.  Naw, that is just too boring.  But this blog is a follow up to the blog I wrote for Father's Day and the Dragon Boat Festival this week.  This blog is going to focus on what we did the first day in Beijing, which encompassed Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and the 2008 Olympic Facility.
  One final note.  My editor told me to try and keep to the point.  She felt like I rambled a bit in regards to creating my analogy of Dads and Dragons.  So, I will do my best but I won't promise anything.  I mentioned to her that I didn't want to be confined by the rules of good writing, so I will just keep on writing poorly.

SCHOOL:  Once again no school due to The Dragon Boat Festival.

ADVENTURE:  So to sum up from the previous blog, we arrived early in the morning and slept until about 8:30.  The delay the day before was caused by rain and thunderstorms.  So even though it was a hassle getting to Beijing, at least the notorious air was relatively clean.  We headed out after a quick breakfast at, you guessed it, Starbucks.  Man I just can't get the kids away from the place anymore.

Monolith dedicated to the People

  One note before I describe our day.  Wednesday is the one day in which the country takes the day off for the Dragon Festival.  So I want you to visualize in your head 1.8 billion people all having the same day off.  We actually chose this day to do the things in the city because when we went to the Great Wall we didn't want to deal with the crowds there.  Living in China you just have to pick your poison sometimes.
  We rode the metro to our first destination, which was Tiananmen Square.  By the way, we have become quite the subway navigators, so if you need some help wherever you go let us know.  Anyway, we arrived at Tiananmen Square and it definitely did not disappoint.  When exiting the subway tunnel, we arrived on the corner closest to the Forbidden City.  From this vantage point the square sprawls out for what seems like miles and miles.  It reminded us very much of the mall in Washington DC, except without grass and fountains.  Even without those things that help to make the mall so beautiful, the square has magnificent sculptures, monoliths and buildings that create a vastness that is overwhelming.  Cecelia and I were trying to compare the two and we came to the determination that they are just different.  They are as different as our governments.  Where our White House is at the middle of the mall, The Forbidden City, which was home to the Emperor was at the end.  We found both to be magnificent.
  As we stood in the Square, I was thinking back to the images I saw as a young man in 1989.  The image that has been burned into many of our memories is of a lone man standing in front of a column of tanks to protest the killing of college students and their parents the day before.  What was sad about my thinking, was that it is the only knowledge that I had about Tiananmen Square.  As I stood there looking at the beautiful buildings and admiring the size of The Chinese National Art Museum, I thought about how little we in the west really know about these people.  All we hear or see about in the west are negative images, when there are so many more positive things that we can learn.  Even so, those images only add to the mystique of where we were.  Even though there is no official documentation about what happened on that day, there are many Chinese that believe that the incident that we all witnessed on TV has changed this country forever.  Maybe someday the truth will be told and those brave students and parents will be immortalized with a monument in their memory.

This is the famous view of the entrance to Forbidden City from Tiananmen Square

  One thing I do have to mention is that if you are a blonde person, be prepared to be a celebrity for a day.  In the Square alone, before we entered The Forbidden City, the girls were asked at least eight times in twenty minutes to have their picture taken with new Chinese friends.  Also, of all the places that tourists tend to gather this was the most touristy.  What I mean by that is that there were guides that were approaching me regularly hawking their services, as well as the cheesy souvenir vendors.  The guides were actually very aggressive and are not typical for Chinese people, that tend to be rather shy and mild mannered.  They kept telling us that the ticket line to get in was going to take an hour and that they could get them faster.  So, just a pointer for you.  Don't believe them.  Cecelia got in line with the girls and it maybe took 15 minutes at the most.
  Now don't get me wrong, if you want to see special parts of The Forbidden City or have a need to hear about all 4000 square meters of the place then by all means hire a guide.  Their services are not expensive and I am sure you can learn a lot of history from them, but if you haven't learned by now Cecelia and I tend to go our own way.  We only had one day and already had a plan and were not going to be deterred by a guide.

 The First Square of The Forbidden City is so large Cecelia had to use her panoramic feature on her camera to get it all in the picture

  After meandering around the square a bit we headed for The Forbidden City.  With the crowds growing by the second we didn't want to get caught in a big crush trying to get in the gate.  When you are in Tiananmen Square you don't realize how big the picture is of Chairman Mao until you are entering the gate of The Forbidden City.  It is actually huge;  probably the largest picture of an individual person I have ever seen.
  How to describe The Forbidden City?  I would venture to guess that from all that has been written about The Forbidden City, that there are no more words left that haven't been used to describe it.  Being a moderately descriptive scribe, I am going to offer a stream of descriptors for a place that really needs to be experienced.  The Forbidden City, with its vast open courtyards and palaces is Superb, Extraordinary, Glorious and a place in which you expect a King or Emperor to come strolling along at any moment.  I know that as Americans we don't ever consider ourselves to be the common people, but I will tell you that I had a feeling that if the Emperor came strolling out, every knee would be bent in respect to him and I would have been one of them kneeling.  It is the kind of place that makes you feel like you should walk quietly and with reverence.  On top of that, you feel like you would be happy with your status, whatever it may be.  You would be grateful, just for the experience of being here.

The view from the other side

 Also, despite the crowds the courtyards are so big that people are dispersed and it seems like there is plenty of room.  You have to remember that the Chinese armies used to fill the courtyards at certain times in history.  So, tens of thousands of people can fit in the place comfortably.  We spent about three hours in The Forbidden City and then began to get hungry so we headed out to get some lunch.
  Again, we hopped on the metro and headed to the Olympic village.  After arriving, we stopped for a quick bite of lunch.  The one thing that struck us about the Olympic village is that it was actually being used.  I have been to a couple of venues and I would say this one is unique in that it was designed to be available for the people after all the athletes and the world went home.  The others just seemed like they were used and then almost forgotten about.  Granted, places like LA and Atlanta utilize already existing facilities, rather than creating something from scratch.

Part of the Olympic River Walk.  This runs to a lake in the shape of a Dragon

 We began by walking along the lake that held the rowing and outdoor aquatic events.  It was a very festive environment and people were picnicking, napping and playing games.  We then made our way back to the center walkway and started toward the much anticipated Birds Nest Stadium.  Along the way, we saw some new construction for a building that looks like something out of a Jody Foster or Star Trek Movie.  The building is absolutely massive and looks like something that you would use to slip from one dimension to another.  There is also quite a variety of sculptures that we caught glimpses of down hidden paths.  There is something for every art lovers taste.  My favorite sculpture was one that reminded me of MC Escher.  One of the things that is very striking about walking down the Olympic center court is that as you get closer and closer the Birds Nest becomes more and more prominent.  The other thing is that as you are walking through all of the art, the Birds Nest fits in with all of it and punctuates the end of the enjoyable walk.  I know this is a stretch to say this, but it is like walking on a trail in Yosemite, seeing the typical rock formations and then turning a corner and the Valley Floor is spread out before you.

  The Birds Nest was very inspiring to us in many ways.  First of all, the architecture is amazing.  Taylor and Claire both mentioned that it would be cool to become Architects and make something like it.  I am not quite sure why when, we entered the stadium we just sat down quietly and admired the view without saying anything.  I will tell you that during the Olympics there probably wasn't a bad seat in the house.  The stadium is quite large, but the way that it is built makes it feel rather intimate.

Enjoying some of the cool fountains in the Olympic Village

  Cecelia and I will be honest with you.  For some reason it just seems a little disrespectful getting teary eyed watching highlights of the 2008 Olympic and Para-Olympic games, but not getting misty at any temples or ancient sites. Maybe it is because we have been athletes all of our lives, or maybe we have just seen so many temples and old Chinese history, but we actually were in awe of the Birds Nest and the aura of the Olympic memories that still lingered in the building.  We also thought that maybe our reaction was because we value the Olympic spirit and the hard work that goes along with becoming an Olympian.  We realized how much we value this spirit over government workings and old history. 
  I am adding in this last item, because it is part of the city and The Great Wall needs a blog just for itself.  So, I am jumping a little ahead to Thursday.  On Thursday before we left we wanted to see one more piece of history.  This last site is called the Heavenly Paradise.  It was the spiritual home to the Emperor and his staff.  It was used for storing food from the harvest and also the place where the Emperor would go to pray and give burnt offerings to ensure a bountiful harvest.  The place was massive and had an incredible park that surrounded it.  Much of the architecture is identical to The Forbidden City.
 

Heavenly Paradise

We spent a few hours here and then it was time for us to go get on the metro to head to the airport for our flight home.  On the way to the metro we had our first bad experience with a Rickshaw driver.  The first two that we rode with to The Heavenly Paradise were great, but the two that took us back to the metro were trying to rip us off.  I can proudly say that I know enough Chinese to tell a guy that I am not paying him more than what I was quoted.  After haggling for about 10 minutes we came to a compromise and we settled up.  So, a quick note to those of you that want to take a cute Rickshaw ride.  Make sure the guy is clear on what he is going to charge you, or just take a metered cab.
  Anyway, despite our encounter with the Rickshaw drivers we had a great time.  Have a great week and look for THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA, coming later in the week.  Video for the week.  The Magnificence of Beijing