Day Three in China

4/6/2013
Well we have made it through another full day of learning about the history and culture of China. Today we visited T. Square, the Forbidden City, and went on a Hutong tour. China has such a rich and old history, but filled with superstitions!

The Square is the largest public square in the world, and encompasses 4 million square meters. ...so, it's kind of big! Lol! Across the street from it is where the Forbidden City begins. It is a large rectangle that is....well, huge! I think Tom said it was something like 7-8 million square meters. It is called the Forbidden City because when it was built it was only for the Emperor, and no one else could enter (except his family, concubines, army, etc....about 500-600 people). We had to go through about 4 outer gates ( I kind of lost track). When I think of a gate I think fence - these were anything but fences. Instead they were more like buildings that stretched around the outside of the area. The buildings on all of the outer gates had been restored and were architecturally amazing, but the inner court, where the Emperor actually lived had not been restored. The artistic quality was still quite a site to see, but the natural structures made from stone and trees were simply amazing. Pictures just can't do them justice, but we tried. While there we saw Cloisonné pieces that were from the time of the Qing Dynasty. The Forbidden City is in the exact center of Beijing. Everything is symmetrical within because that was supposed to bring balance to the reign of the Emperor - it was supposed to bring good luck. It was also believed that China was the center of the Earth, so it was built in the center of China, in the center of the planet, making it the most important place on Earth. They also had huge iron or steel cauldrons all over that used to hold water. It was thought that if you have the water available, that fire would stay away. That didn't quite work out so well, because during the 19th century one of the outer gate building was hit by lightening and burned up during a storm! Oops!

Entrance to the Forbidden City

Inside waiting to go through one of the many inner walls.

One of the beautiful natural sculptures inside the Emperor's Garden.

Inside the Emperor's Garden

The Hutong tour was a ricksha tour of some of the older communities in Beijing. Everyone in Beijing used to live in these communities, but due to the size of the population the city can no longer allow new communities like these. They must build up, not out! These are really interesting because they are basically several rooms surrounding a center courtyard. According to our guide, "Potato", the main room on the north side always belonged to the oldest couple in the family, the grandparents or parents, because it is the best room. The south side was either for servants or storage. The east side was for the sons, and the west for the daughters. There are only around 100 of these left in the city. If someone was to sell them they would cost around $5 million US for only 500 square meters, however, you are considered a "loser" if you sell them instead of handing them down through the generations. Hutong used to mean water well. They were called this because that was where the people gathered and started the communities, around the water wells. Now, however, the word means narrow alleys, because they are just that.

Inside the home we visited - this is taken facing the "servants' quarters".

We had lunch together again, and we had a few more interesting things like fish balls and seaweed soup. Aaron was, of course, the only one brave enough to try it at our table! :-) Most of it was pretty good again, though. Christi got her first experience with a squatty potty and no toilet paper! Thank goodness for tissues in her pocket! Many of the public restrooms here have the toilet paper outside of the stalls and you tear some off and take it with you....this one was completely out...oh well, when in Rome! :-)

Tonight we go out to an acrobatic show not too far from our hotel, and then come back and sleep! We have to leave our hotel by 5:20 in the morning to go to the airport as our first couple leaves for their province at 7:30 that morning. Some of our couples get to receive their children on Sunday, and some of us have to wait until Monday. We will all be back in Guangzhou together on Friday. It will be a little strange, and maybe even a little scary, to be alone in Guangzhou until everyone gets there (Guangzhou is Leah's province, so we get to be there the remainder of our trip), but we will have a guide, so we won't be totally alone. Please pray we will feel as comfortable there as we do here.