Day 248 - Tiananmen Square, Beijing

Welcome to the biggest public square in the world...



So, after sorting a couple of formailties (i.e. getting visas to enter vietnam in 2 weeks - something we should have done months ago), its time to check out what Beijing has to offer. We don ourselves in as many layers as can fit under our hoodies, scarves, hats and gloves and two pairs of socks to brave the winter extremes and walk the hour long journey into the very centre of Beijing where the so-called 'largest public square in the world' stands.

And its huge. And pretty boring. Right - I'm always impressed by cities that devote huge areas to public space - Lima, Buenos Aires, Sydney to name a few. But this is mental. The square goes on for miles, and whilst its known to be an almost perfect expression of feng shui (a concept that baffles me somewhat) severely lacks any character or charm. And the city smog hanging low over the museum and war statue make it feel opressive. Guards stand at every entrance, bums search through bins for food and people stare longingly at the image of Chairman Mao hanging over the entrance to the Forbidden City.



Now, I never really knew what went on at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Except that tanks entered the square to deal with a bunch of rowdy revolutionary students. And there's no point looking on the internet here - still gripped by its communist roots the internet here is (a) horrendously slow and (b) filtered by a goverment firewall which prevents any anti-chinese propaganda or information about china's abusive past. No BBC news, No wikipedia. In fact, most american sites are banned and ANY historical or factual information containing the word 'Tiananmen' seems to be blocked.

But what little info I do know is this. Since the 70s the chinese people have been hassling the (albeit watered-down) communist government to move towards more democratic political reforms and greater press freedom (I second that). And demostrations started kicking off, peacefully that is, around the mid 80s. But it was in 1989 when some dude in the goverment (who supported some of the more democratic ideologies) died after being ignored by the goverment for a number of years. Everyone was gutted, so took to the streets and thousands of workers and students filled Tiananmen Square to further press the government into a more democractic approach.



But despite being a peaceful protest, the premier at the time ordered his army to forcibly remove the protesters, and the tanks rolled in. Hundreds were killed. You're not allowed to ride a bike through the square, but it seems tanks are totally acceptable. Standing on the square, site of not just one scene of bloodshed but many over china's checkered history, its hard to imagine life for these people, who now live under a continued communist totalitarian regime, but now dogged by capitalism (which is making the poor even poorer). I dunno what its like for the people here. I imagine the youth have plenty to look forward to - this country has a lot of promise if it can sort its problems out. But for everyone else, its not looking good. I'll try and get some insight while I'm here though.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson. Tiananmen square is actually pretty boring. But its big and impressive and steeped in a history of people who just wanted something a bit better out of life. Anyway, we had a wander around then headed towards the Forbidden City - the Buckingham Palace of Beijing.





First you have to go through the 'gate of heavenly peace' with a massive portrait of Chairman Mao hanging over the top. Its funny. There's more chinese here taking photos of themselves with Mao in the background than were at the Big Jesus in Rio. But we wander through and soon we've paid 2 quid to get into the complex which is loaded with old chinese temples and frozen rivers everywhere. Its a bit grey and rubbish here - and to top it off the bggest and most impressive temples are covered in scaffolding. But we have a wander round - mostly keeping moving to stop ourselves from freezing to death - and wander back to the hostel a bit 'templed-out'.





Tomorrow I'm booked on a 9km hike of the Great Wall of China. I'm literally pissing myself with excitement. Sam (who doesn't hike) is doing a bus tour, so maybe we'll cross paths on the wall, but until then its sweet and sour pork balls for me and a game of chinese checkers.