day 98 Beijing 30 Sept Fri

David is feeling better and after a late start to the day we decide to venture into the city to explore further afield. We head to the very "tourist" food street and manage to avoid the temptation for the steaming bowls of spaghetti like shredded tripe which smells as bad as it looks! 

Also a snack of scorpion, centipede or starfish on a stick - equally snake, bee larvae and water beetle were not on the menu (or the nether regions of the male sheep!)   

 

  

It is late afternoon when we find ourselves near the Forbidden City and so make our first attempt to visit. The exterior streets are filled with the same hawkers and food vendors which populate every street and we are offered comedy hats, t shirts etc and a variety of snacks including sweetcorn and mysterious looking mini toffee covered fruits on a stick which we later find out are chinese dates. Snacking on the go is very common here but following the rule that unless we see it cooked we decline every offer. It is only when we go through the Meridian Gate (not the main entrance)  that we realise our mistake. 

Within the outer city walls ...The ensuing scrum and crowds. The noise.  The rubbish. The tour groups with a guide and the uniform of megaphone and stick/umbrella/flag. The men in uniform also shouting through megaphones. Horrible, horrible, horrible. The queue for tickets is monumental and we decide to leave. We are swept along on another tide of people and spill out (slowly) through an archway complete with enormous Chairman Mao painting and onto the street.

Actually we were at one end of Tiannenmen Square. However busy we thought the Forbidden City was, the largest public  square in the world was a hundred times, no - a thousand times busier. Stupidly we found ourselves here just before sunset. That will be the time the Chinese flag is lowered every day, complete with stopped traffic, goosestepping soldiers and ceremony. This would be a busy place normally - but add to this the fact that this is the day before National Day - the start of Golden Week - the gathered masses of visiting Chinese from every region we are trapped in and have no option but to stay where we are until the ceremony is over.

We are moved along by men in uniform with megaphones, at very close quarters, and coralled into designated areas. There is a strange atmosphere, oppressive and quietly threatening. Out of the crowd we are suddenly aware that there are also plain clothes personnel also in charge of people moving . A stark reminder of the place we are in and all that it stands for.  CCTV cameras by the dozen - this is one of the most watched places on earth - no chance of unfurling a "Free Tibet" flag here unnoticed!

 

 For the girls sake we try and make the best of it. Forget the myth that the Chinese nation are short - they are not, especially not 20 deep! We hoist the girls onto our shoulders (much to the amusement and bemusement of the gathered Chinese) so that they can get a better look and they do their best to commentate on proceedings and take photographs. The jostling ebb and flow of the crowd and the hurly burly means that we only have very blurry images and a very uncomfortable hour. 

We do not venture back here.