October 4th, 2005 Yesterday I went to the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden city. The Summer Palace was the palace of the emperor during what we would call vacation, especially during the holidays. It had a lot of neat, traditional architecture including a wooden walkway that was 780 meters (nearly ½ mile) long, with many traditional art works along the whole length. We also got a trip in a dragon boat (and old style boat with a dragon carved on it, like a Viking long boat). Overall it was pretty fascinating, though very crowded. This apparently was the main abode of one of the more famous Empresses, Shuxi. Right now, I don’t know much about her, other than she is quite famous (this wasn’t the first time I had heard of her) but she was one of the last Empresses before a revolution overturned the feudal system in 1911. Apparently, the whole summer palace was burned nearly to the ground when 8 allied European nations invaded and sacked Beijing around 1904 during the Opium Wars (it’s a sad fact that many of the modern rich families in Britain and even some in America, are based on the fortunes made selling opium- I.e. drug running- in China during the late 19th century). Afterwards, Shuxi spent nearly 30 tones of silver rebuilding her Summer Palace…. Which left 30 fewer tones of silver to spend on their navy (I.e. they had no money to spend on their navy), leading to a major naval defeat by the Japanese a few years later. Good to see that Empresses have their priorities straight. This brings up a major point. Many Chinese call the 150 years from about 1800- when Europeans starting forcing China to open its ports so they could sell opium- until around 19545s,- when the Japanese finally withdrew from the Chinese mainland- the period of “National Humiliation”. Many Chinese are still very bitter about what happened to their country during this period, and many view China’s current rise in power and prestige and a return to its rightful place as a world power, and one day maybe THE world power once again. Its part of a rising trend towards nationalism, a trend that the government is encouraging now that Communist ideology ( which is how they used to justify their power) is all but gone, except in name. Although, this is not entirely driven by the government, and is rising independently in many Chinese youth. This is a theme I’ll be exploring throughout my time here. Next, was the temple of Heaven. This temple is where the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasty (1400A.D.-1900A.D.) made their prayers for a good harvest and offerings for sacrifice. The sacrifices included animals, and a whole area was dedicated just to the slaughter of animals for sacrifice. Humans were also sacrificed at some point by China’s feudal dynasties, but I’m not sure if it took place here. It too was very crowded, but I guess that’s what I get for taking my vacation at the same time that 1.3 billion people take theirs…. But it was still enjoyable. Finally, we went to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City gets its name from the fact that during the feudal dynasties that ruled from it (again, the Ming and Qing dynasties) only the people allowed in the city were the emperors, high ranking government officials and the imperial guard. Any commoners found inside its walls would be immediately killed. Again, it had been burned to the ground by the European invaders during the Opium Wars an was later rebuilt. It was also undergoing major renovation, as Beijing prepares for the 2008 Olympics. The city was quite stunning , and the architecture was very grand. I also had to smile inside of myself to hear about all the pomp and circumstance of the old dynasties, then see their fabulous “Forbidden City” crawling with millions and millions of tourists. All of them (gasp!) commoners. What struck me again and again, were all the symbols of eternity that the Ming and Qing emperors lavished around themselves. Both at the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City, every where you looked, there were symbols of eternity, all the prayers were their rule to be eternal and the portraits of the Qing emperors show them holding a ring of beads to symbolize the eternity of their reign. And well, it wasn’t very eternal now was it? Their glorious palace- that was once forbidden to the common man- now crawls with millions of tourists, their eternal reign is now nothing more than a historical footnote, their old feudal rituals they were once so proud of, are now discredited, looked down upon and abandoned. Power is cyclic, it comes and goes. The mighty, unstoppable super power of day, is the tourist attraction of tomorrow. I feel this is a sobering revelation to power, past or present. Perhaps China in its rise, and the US in its plateau would be wise to remember this. Finally, outside the gates of the Forbidden City, I entered Tiananmen Square. I got to see all the tributes to old “People’s Revolution” that brought the Communist Part to power exactly 56 years ago this October 1st. There were statues of the people’s revolution, the memorial to those who died making the revolution possible (though not the 80 million who died afterwards) and the building and museums that house much of China’s history. Chairmen Mao Zedong’s portrait hangs from the main gate of the Forbidden City, which overlooks the square, and a lone soldier stand, unflinching, at attention in front of it (perhaps they haven’t learned the lessons of history). It really was about as impressive as its made out to be (though with the modern commercialization, maybe they should get a portrait of Mickey Mao, Mao Zedong with Mickey mouse ears, and display that!). One thing I noticed, throughout all my tours, was that they used PLA (People’s Liberation Army) soldiers to pull security. They were everywhere at all the tourist sites pulling security (some of them were armed) and occasionally directing human traffic. There were also regular police, so they may have just been there to augment security for the holidays. But, it was still a little odd, as an American, to see the Army pulling civilian security duties when there wasn’t something like a natural disaster or something extreme like that (though I guess 1.3 billion people simultaneously on holiday is quite extreme). I thought about trying to explain to one of them that I’m a former US soldier, and ask to get my picture with them, but I wasn’t sure if I’d get a smile or a punch in the gut, so I never got up the courage to ask. At Tiananmen Square however, they weren’t just temps, they were all over the place, marching around and doing ceremonial activities and such. In the foyer of the Forbidden City they even had a demonstration booth going, though I was too late see what they were doing earlier. And they were certainly ready to rock n’ roll if anything disruptive happened (like people asking for more say in the government or something dangerous like that). There were several detachments of soldiers, and about 5 bus loads of Police making sure nothing happened. Just a little reminder that although you are generally free to move around and do as you please, this is still essentially a dictatorship, and if you cross the government the wrong way, they will handle you.