Beijing

Beijing was superb. First stop was lunch in a clean, warm restaurant with doors and windows closed! Then to put our stuff in the nice clean Marriot hotel, then to the Temple of Heaven, (no, I don't mean Starbucks) completed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) where the emperor celebrated winter soltice by making prayers to his ancestors and making sacrifices. I did not ask what kind of sacrifices. The most amazing thing about this place was all the happy, joyful, dancing, singing Chinese people enjoying the large surrounding park. It is a meeting place for the people who are forced to retire at 50-55 years to give jobs to the young people. No wonder they are so happy! Then rides in bicycle rickshaws, a caravan of 50 of us, winding through the narrow streets of the hutong district, the small courtyard homes where families have lived for generations (which means I don't know how old they are). The government usually tears them down to build high rises, but has recently agreed to preserve a few areas. Probably because they saw the tourism $$$. Not unlike US. Anyway, we had a meal with a local family. Our meal "family" was a woman and her neighbor who live in the same courtyard and share a very rustic kitchen. The men were conveniently out for the evening. There would not have been enough room for them anyway. Sorry to prattle on so, but I relished this up close look at how they live, not to mention another delicious meal. Next day: Tian'an Men Square, yes, it's very big, awesome, crowded, and historic. Mao's mausoleum is there, only open a few days a year. It is bordered by 1950s Communist style buildings. Just beyond that is the Forbidden City, which is even bigger, more awesome and more crowded. (I've never seen such hoards or throngs of people. Someone said it's like leaving a UT football game, many times over. Of course, they were still celebrating new years.) The Forbidden City, completed in 1420, is supposedly a monument to dynastic China. I think it's a monument to the hard labor of the Chinese PEOPLE. Am glad they now seem to enjoy visiting it so much.