Bejing, Day Two

So today was eventful. After breakfast we walked the 3 blocks from the hotel to Tiananmen Square. Tons of tour groups, lots of school groups. And this angelic portrait of Chairman Mao:

(Hint: he's the one on the wall). Despite the growing acknowledgement of his excesses and failures, he is still revered as the father of the revolution, moving China out of feudal poverty and into the modern world. 

The square is massive in size, and it's mind boggling to consider it full of demonstrators or celebratory crowds or any enormous simultaneous gathering of people. 

The teenagers were dressed exactly like their American counterparts, with leggings, Ugg knockoffs, puffy jackets and hats with earflaps:

We then went through the Heavenly Gate to the Forbidden City. The seat of Imperial power during the last 2 dynasties, it is an austere, formal, rigid kind of place, also on an enormous scale. Walls within walls, courtyards within courtyards. Lots of the embellishements have been recently spruced up, lots haven't. Again lots of tour groups. 

 

The detail and quality of the embellishments and statuary was remarkable (the first photo, I now realize, is actually from the Drum Tower from the first day, but it illustrates my point):

    

Then, unfortunately I had to peel off from the group and take a taxi back to the hotel. Intestinal distress let's call it. It afforded me the opportunity to tour a variety of Beijing's public toilets, and then to spend a truely shocking amount of money using the hotel's laundry service. Ugh. Luckily my medical degree meant I had sufficient supplies of appropriate drugs to remedy my condition, and by nighttime I was able to join the others having dinner at the hotel restuaurant. A pho-like dish of chicken, rice, broth and condiments was perfect. And all my fellow travellers were kind, concerned and solicitous about the spectacle I'd nearly made of my self earlier in the day. Let's hope that's it for the bodily funciton drama for this trip. 

I missed the aftenoon's visit to the Summer Palace, but judging by the nearly frozen, exhausted state of some of the other members of the group upon their return, I'm probably better off to have spent the afternnon dozing under a down comforter. Walking outdoors all day in the November weather of Northern China is not for the weak of spirit.