Packed and off to left luggage so I can dump off stuff before heading to Forbidden City. I did Tiananmen Square yesterday, which felt austere, censored and brought back memories of seeing tanks roll into the square flattening protesting Pro-democracy university students. It's so odd to think that the majority of Chinese people will be unaware of this due to the censorship by the Chinese government.
Although the whole of this blog was written earlier in the form of journals I couldn't upload any of it until I was out of China due to The Great Fire Wall which is software installed on every computer in China. (I am uploading this in September now I am back.) When talking to people, you get the weird sense that politically they are just completely unaware. It's scary and just all wrong, wrong, wrong.
The Forbidden City that I am at today is packed. I've chosen a weekend so it's rammed with Chinese tourists. All clicking away. There was rumours they'd installed a Starbucks here which is not here thankfully. You can see from the pic above the beautiful architecture. What I've been unable to show is, again as it's in China, the magnitude of the place. Palace upon regal chambers upon meeting rooms - in fact 980 buildings - it just goes on and on around a 720,000 square metre site. The only thing that makes it less enjoyable is the heat and it's the smoggiest day since I've been here. Even this doesn't take away from the fact everything is mind blowing.
It leaves me feeling China and America are more similar than we think but more observations on that later...so to the train. I get cracking on my marvellous book on Chinese economics, Will Hutton's The Writing's on the Wall. It's a perfect read as it's giving me great insight as I travel about observing China. Meanwhile the other four people, all men, seem determined to stare at me for the whole journey. Luckily I've got the middle bunk so I can flake out. I'm not in the mood to strike up conversation and actually one looks like he'd run a mile if a did. A woman? Travelling on her own? Who is also a Westerner? I had a gut feeling I should just smile a lot and relax for the journey. Enjoyable all the same, just wish I wasn't stared at but hey, I'm starting to get used to it.
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