1074. China - # 7 - The Forbidden City, Rickshaw ride in the Hutong district, and more! Final entry about China!

 I want to say how much love I felt for those dear people!  I was happily surprised to see what a high standard of living they now have, and also education!  My first photo is one of the last I took, but it culminates the total delightful experience of learning about this ancient civilization, their accomplishments many years ago, and also today, and the many hard times they have lived through!  I'll tell the story behind this photo further down in this entry!

We went to a Chinese tea factory, and had samples of herb teas in these small cups and bowls!  Tea is quite a tradition in China!

One night we were able to order a full-body massage by a Chinese massage therapist!  I did that during the dinner hour, and then went up late at night to the restaurant on the 38th floor -- and met this lovely lady!

This large beautiful display was in Tiananmen Square, and below was the area in which there was a terrible massacre of people.  Chinese troops storm through Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing, killing and arresting thousands of pro-democracy protesters. The brutal Chinese government assault on the protesters shocked the West and brought denunciations and sanctions from the United States.

In May 1989, nearly a million Chinese, mostly young students, crowded into central Beijing to protest for greater democracy and call for the resignations of Chinese Communist Party leaders deemed too repressive.

 For nearly three weeks, the protesters kept up daily vigils, and marched and chanted. Western reporters captured much of the drama for television and newspaper audiences in the United States and Europe. On June 4, 1989, however, Chinese troops and security police stormed through Tiananmen Square, firing indiscriminately into the crowds of protesters. Turmoil ensued, as tens of thousands of the young students tried to escape the rampaging Chinese forces. Other protesters fought back, stoning the attacking troops and overturning and setting fire to military vehicles. Reporters and Western diplomats on the scene estimated that at least 300, and perhaps thousands, of the protesters had been killed and as many as 10,000 were arrested.

It is the largest city square in the world, occupying an area of 440,000 square meters (about 109 acres), and able to accommodate 1,000,000 people at one time.  It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history. Outside China, the square is best known for the Tiananmen Square Massacre, an armed suppression of a pro-democracy movement in June 1989.  It is right outside the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City is a palace complex in central Beijing, China. The former Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty (the years 1420 to 1912), it now houses the Palace Museum. The Forbidden City served as the home of emperors and their households as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government for almost 500 years.

Constructed from 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings and covers 72 hectares (over 180 acres). The palace exemplifies traditional Chinese palatial architecture, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments in East Asia and elsewhere. The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987,^[5] and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.  Since 2012, the Forbidden City has seen an average of 15 million visitors annually, and received more than 16 million visitors in 2016 and 2017.

Chairman Mao's picture is on the outside of the first building going into the Forbidden City.

When Hongwu Emperor's son Zhu Di became the Yongle Emperor, he moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, and construction began in 1406 on what would become the Forbidden City.

Construction lasted 14 years and required more than a million workers. Material used include whole logs of precious Phoebe zhennan wood (Chinese: 楠木; pinyin: nánmù) found in the jungles of south-western China, and large blocks of marble from quarries near Beijing.The floors of major halls were paved with "golden bricks" (Chinese: 金砖; pinyin: jīnzhuān), specially baked paving bricks from Suzhou.

From 1420 to 1644, the Forbidden City was the seat of the Ming dynasty.

After being the home of 24 emperors – 14 of the Ming dynasty and 10 of the Qing dynasty – the Forbidden City ceased being the political center of China in 1912 with the abdication of Puyi, the last Emperor of China.

The Forbidden City is surrounded by a 7.9 meters (26 ft) high city wall and a 6 meters (20 ft) deep by 52 meters (171 ft) wide moat.

 You had to go through 5 of this type of halls, going from one courtyard to another.  Below it shows the large areas (now with disintegrating bricks in most places) before you got to the inner part of the palace!  That was done to protect the Emperor -- as there were no trees, etc., that people could hide in. 

 Yellow was the color reserved for the Emperor, and no one else could use that color in their homes, etc.  And it is represented by all the roofs of these buildings being covered with tiles made of gold!  (Yellow gold)! 

 The crane is reverenced as a symbol of long life!

   

This gives a view of some highly decorated tops of some buildings, with a gold thing at the top.  This is part of the reason it took 14 years with a million artisans to build the many buildings, and decorate them!

This was in the center, and basically the entrance to the inner court, and a special garden inside.  There was nothing green in the outer courtyards, but inside there was a beautiful private garden, for the Emperor, and Empress, and guests he invited!

Some of this information comes from Wikipedia:

The Forbidden City is a rectangle, with 961 metres (3,153 ft) from north to south and 753 metres (2,470 ft) from east to west. It consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,886 bays of rooms.  Many of those rooms were the home to about 3,000 concubines of the Emperor.  Beautiful women were brought to join them, and often they really resented their lives, even though it was considered a great honor!  Many of them never saw the Emperor, and lived a lonely life.  Jack told us that they had eunuchs who they would try and bribe to get them an audience with the Emperor, and hopefully they could sing or dance for him.  If they ended up having a son for him, they were really well treated!

The deer was considered a sacred animal, that brought good luck.

The 3 pictures above and the one below were part of the quarters of the Empress.

In 1900 Empress Dowager Cixi (pronounced Sissy) fled from the Forbidden City during the Boxer Rebellion, leaving it to be occupied by forces of the treaty powers until the following year.  She had been a concubine of the Emperor, and had a son by him, which moved her up in status!  Her son became the Emperor at age 6, and she basically ruled the country from behind.  Our guide said she was ruthless, -- had people killed often, and demanded 126 different dishes to be served to her each evening for dinner!  Many other ways she demanded her own way, and Jack, (our guide) said she was "high maintenance!"

This was the special bedroom of Cixi -- with silk comforters! 
 The pictures below were in the very ornate and beautiful gardens in the inner part of the Forbidden City.

I loved this strange and interesting tree in the Emperor's garden!  Like a life-sized bonzai tree!   
 Even the sidewalk was designed stepping stones!

    

All the above scenes were in the inner garden!  The internet tells of many other beautiful parts of the Forbidden City, which I assume are not open to the public.  Below are some of them:

I believe this was a throne of the Emperor, also not open to the public.

 We then went to a factory in which they have many oysters, and get pearls from them.  They had beautiful jewelry and other artifacts!

 We then went to a public park, where the older retired people love to go each morning.  They exercise, and do many social things.  I took a few videos of activities there.  There were 2 groups singing, and others just socializing.  I went up to this interesting gentleman, and wanted a picture with him.  He held up his hand and wrote the number 75 with his finger, and then nodded to me, as asking how old I was.  I put up fingers to show 84  (which I will be this Saturday) and he seemed so excited and surprised!  I left and walked away, and then an interesting thing happened! 

 At that moment my son McKay, (whose birthday happens to be today) called me from Oceanside, California!  He had been on a mission in Taiwan for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and spoke fluent Mandarin!  He married a beautiful girl from Taiwan he met at BYU Hawaii, in the 1980's while going to the university there, and they converse in Mandarin often.  

    Anyway, I asked him to talk to this gentleman in Mandarin, and I took the phone over to him, and put it to his ear.  He was delighted when McKay began talking in his language!  They talked about 5 minutes, and he was laughing and seemed so pleased!   

 Then in a few minutes he came over to our group who were about to leave, and several ladies in our group wanted to have their picture taken with him!  He looked like he really enjoyed it.  He told our native Chinese guide, Jack, that I was his American older sister!  How I would have loved to be able to talk to him and find out about his life!  He did tell Jack that he had a son who was a doctor, and he was in America at a convention right at that time!

We went to so many different places, I can't remember them all.  But I believe this was at a place they called the Temple of Heaven, a Buddhist shrine, with several buildings and great significance to the Chinese people.  Statues below are in the Temple of Heaven.  I was tired of walking so I stayed in the bus, and Maude Atkins sent me the pictures below.  I'm not sure of their significance, but they are interesting!

We saw this Chinese grandmother with her sweet little grandson!  In today's China, the parents both work, and usually the grandparents will help take care of and raise their one and only grandchild!  That is in the city -- I'm not sure of traditions in the country.  They now are allowed to have 2 children -- only recently, and we saw only one family that had 2 girls -- a girl about 3, and a newborn baby girl.  I really wanted to take pictures of more of the people, but didn't know how to approach them, and ask.  Some that have had only 1 child aren't really wanting more children, as it takes a lot to raise their child and give them a good education. 

 They have become used to small families, and it may take awhile for some to have more children.  They are having a problem now with not many younger people to take care of the elderly, and many men -- I don't know the number but it is in the millions -- who can't find a wife.  Most people wanted to have sons to help take care of them.  For a few years many people who found they were going to have a daughter -- had an abortion, to try for a son.  Then the government stopped that, and there are more girls allowed to live.

    But the "social experiment" in which they limited families to one child is proving to be a great problem.  We were told that in the farming areas, away from the big cities, that people usually had more than one child, and that the government either didn't know about them, or allowed them to have more children to help on the farms.   Jack said now China has to import a lot of grain, and rice, from other nations, to have enough food.

 It was here that a young Chinese girl with purple hair asked to have her picture taken with me!  I think it was my white hair that prompted several to ask me to have a picture taken with them!

 Jack told us that behind that place with the colored fence used to be a place where marriage match makers would meet with parents of both men and women.  They would bring pictures of their children, and with the help of the match maker, they would arrange marriages!  It isn't done now, as young people find their own matches mostly at a university.  Jack told us there were 90 to 100 universities in Beijing, the city of 32 million people, and that most all young people do go to a university for higher education.  They live in quite a modern society!

We then went to a silk factory.  These cucoons are silk worms.  The lady below explained how silk worms work, and the process of getting the silk. 

There was a large show room, with many beautiful things made of silk for sale.

 The city of Beijing is truly beautiful, and so well managed and kept.  We didn't see any trash on the streets at all, and many beautiful gardens, with walk ways, etc., all over the city.  Even though people live in high rises, there is so much green, and beautiful gardens between them for people to enjoy.
 
   They do have strict laws.  If you are caught driving under the influence of alcohol, you lose your license for the rest of your life, plus 15 days in jail.  If you are caught using or selling drugs it carries a death penalty.  Strict laws have helped curb a lot of crime, but they still do have people who use drugs, etc.

We then went on what was called a Hutong tour.  That was a now protected part of the city, with the type of homes which people lived in basically before the 1930's, and when the high rise apartments were built.  They were single family homes, and Jack said the people really look after, and help and know the people in their neighborhoods.  The land is very valuable now.

 He had lived in one when a child -- he is now 50 years old, and grew up in a family with 4 children -- before they 1 child rule started.  These homes have running water and electricity, but not private bathrooms.  There are community bathrooms, and bathing places, that accomodate around 40 people each!  He liked the closeness with the neighbors, and told of an elderly lady his family had taken care of when she didn't have any family left to care for her.

This rickshaw driver was playing on his phone between customers!

    A Beautiful garden outside the Hutong district.  
          Homes in the Hutong district.

         

 We ate in a small restaurant in the Hutong district, and the chef is below.  Many years ago he was a chef in a fancy hotel.  We ate in small dishes above, about 4 inches in diameter.  But he served many dishes of food, family style, and we were full when done!

While there they had invited this fascinating Chinese man to tell of the sport of cricket fighting!  He was a trainer for crickets, and his telling of the sport was very animated!  I have some entertaining videos of him!  Apparently a really feisty cricket was quite valuable, and they would gamble on whose cricket would win.  I'm not sure if they still do that!

From Wikipedia:  Cricket fighting is a blood sport involving the fighting of male crickets. Unlike most blood sports such as bullfighting and cockfighting, cricket fighting rarely causes injuries to the animals. It is a popular pastime in China and dates back more than 1,000 years to the Tang Dynasty. However, the sport has been losing its popularity in China.

Cricket fighting was nurtured by Tang Dynasty emperors more than 1,000 years ago, and later popularized by commoners. In the thirteenth century, the Southern Song Dynasty prime minister Jia Sidao wrote a how-to guide for the blood sport. Jia's obsession with cricket fighting is believed to have contributed to the fall of the empire. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) China's Communist government banned cricket fighting as a bourgeois predilection, but it is now undergoing a revival among a younger generation eager to embrace genuinely Chinese pastimes.

There is quite a bit of information on the internet if you're

 interested in learning more about Cricket Fighting!

 He had a couple of large grasshoppers also which were considered quite valuable to them.  I didn't get the whole significance of it, and I don't have time to research it.  This is my hand -- they asked if anyone would let one on their hand, and I volunteered!

 This was a 75 year old pomegranate tree in the yard where we ate.  The chef and his wife are below.  It was a quaint and clean little place, with lots of local color!

 On the way back to the bus we all rode in rickshaws powered by men on bicycles.  Riding with me was Maude Atkins, the wife of Cordell Atkins, and together they were our "shepherds" from the Alan Mckay Tour group.  They were very careful to count 21 people each time we were on the bus, and in various places.  I didn't get pictures of all the people with us on the tour, but they were all great people!

You could see children lived in the little house below!   Some people had little gardens in the Hutong district.  Our rickshaw tour went for quite a few minutes down many interesting small streets in that district.  I took many photos, but will include only these.

 Our last afternoon, we went to a mall, where there were a lot of shops with various types of things to buy.  You could bargain with the salespeople and get the price down!   There were many beautiful paintings there, and I took pictures of several of them.

 We did see many beautiful women there in China, and some good looking men also.  It is the same in every culture I guess!

In China they have only paper money.  The 100 $ bill is worth $14.70.    They all have "Chairman Mao's" picture on one side.  When exchanging US dollars, they are very particular, and if it has any small tear, or even been folded a lot they will not take it!  The yuan comes in 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1 paper notes.

I figured it out so I used the last of my Chinese money on our final meals, and tips to our guides, bus driver, and maid that cleaned our rooms.  I didn't bring any home.

 

My last picture of the foyer of our hotel, and on the way to the airplane I took several pictures of the beautiful scenery along their public highways!

 Jack, our guide in Beijing, was very fluent in English.  He had majored in college in English, wanting to be an English speaking guide to tourists.  He has a 14 year old daughter, and was very polite, and knowledgeable. 

My last picture is of "Emily", a Chinese lady who now lives in Seattle.  I sat beside her on the 9 hour flight from Beijing to Seattle!  She and her husband were both from China, and then moved to Cambodia when young.  Her father was a successful businessman in Cambodia, but during the war they didn't have enough food, and they went to Vietnam, I think, and eventually to the United States.  I loved getting acquainted with all the good people on our tour, and others I met!  I really would have loved to be able to talk to them.

  I was really impressed with how modern their whole country is, and wished they had more freedoms, that we enjoy.  They seem mostly to be quite satisfied with the life they have, as it is so much better now than in some of the recent years.  Many of them travel to other countries, and many more tourists go to China now.  I hope they will allow more freedoms to those dear people, and eventually missionaries!