(Tiananmen Square)
Last night, I arrived back in Kaifeng after a lovely weekend in Beijing! Whenever I move somewhere new, it never really feels like home until I leave it for a short amount of time and then come back. This is how I felt last night as we were heading back into little Kaifeng (well, 4.8 million people - little for China). We sure packed a lot into one weekend and I’ve got lots to share, so I’m going to break up this week’s blogs into sections about Beijing. I will include photos and random facts from Wikipedia in order to spice up the little knowledge that I have of these places. Today’s blog: the train ride and Tiananmen Square.
The train ride to Beijing was more or less insignificant. Because I bought my train tickets later than the other ladies, I was in a different carriage. We took a high-speed train so it only took 5 hours to get there. I had a window seat, everyone was pretty calm, no smelly food was eaten and the man beside did not spit once: jackpot! At about 11:30pm a girl started chatting very loudly on her cell phone. In China, they don’t have the same idea of “noise pollution” (or personal space) as we have in the west. A lot of the time, someone will be very ignorant of their surroundings (I.e., start playing loud random music on their cell phone for a whole 2 hour bus ride) and no one will say anything to them. After about half an hour of the noisy chit-chat, I decided it was enough. Even with my earplugs I could hear every word she was saying (though obviously I couldn‘t understand it). I glared at her until I got her attention, put my finger over my mouth and then let out a very aggressive “shush.” She stopped short, amazed that someone actually called her on her rudeness and then she was quiet for the rest of the journey. To my surprise, the passengers around me all passed on a nod of approval; one old man even started clapping!
We arrived at the hotel at about 12:30am. After checking in, each of us fell into our respective beds, hoping to get the most of the precious few hours we had before meeting again at 7am. They had run out of rooms and so I lucked out and got an executive suite for the same price as the windowless hole-in-the-wall that I was paying for (only $25 CDN/night)!
Bright and early Saturday morning, four of us (there were six women in all on the trip) headed to Tiananmen Square to take a look around. Our hotel was literally 5 minutes down the road so we got there before the masses. I had read somewhere that Tiananmen is one of the largest squares in the world and let me tell you, it is massive! It is named after the Tian’anmen Gate which sits to its north. When literally translated, Tian’anmen means “Gate of Heavenly Peace” (I can’t help but cringe at the tragic irony of this). When we arrived, there were dozens of kites flying in the air as elderly citizens had their morning exercise. The street vendors were already out, and as we marveled and took photos we were being heckled to buy kites, postcards and maps. There were also hundreds of people lining up to see Chairman Mao’s body on display in the mausoleum constructed in his honor in Tiananmen Square. I guess, that’s about as close as they get to having a god in China… His photo is also prominently displayed in the center of the Tian’anmen Gate.
The square and its surrounds are all heavily guarded with security checkpoints, CCTV and hundreds of guards walking around. It’s very intimidating for someone who isn’t used to being watched so closely - it almost gave me the feeling that I was in fact doing something wrong. When we were on our way out of the square we thought that we had been locked in because they had closed the gates and weren’t letting us out to the street. It turns out they were only keeping us in for five minutes, due to traffic control - what a relief! I won’t get into detail about the 1989 massacre that took place here, but I will say that 20 years later, it is a very emotionally draining place to visit. Living in China in general is quite eye-opening and has given me a new-found appreciation for the rights and freedoms that we automatically feel entitled to in the west. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for!
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