History like non other

First I must give a shout out to Mr. Brower's classes. Isn't he the BEST!

As a tall person in W. MI you can only imagine the looks I get here. Long stares, people pointing and nudging friends and a group of men laughing and pointing and smiling I can't even imagine what they were saying... I am at least a head taller than the tallest people here. Most people heads are lower than my shoulders.

Today was a day of Chinese History. Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and finished of with a Hutong Tour. I will share a few highlights of what we learned. I also must say that I am a true celebrity here.

Tiananmen Square was so interesting. There was a line of hundreds of people hoping to tour the building with Mao's tomb. They are probably still waiting in line now! Tour groups everywhere, mostly Chinese people with tour guides hold flags high in the air to follow them. The absence of large families is very interesting. There were a few families with young children, but of course only one child. It is very weird to not see children. But of course children everywhere all want to swing on between the arms of their parents : ) It is very surreal to stand in front of Tiananmen Square with the picture of Mao staring down. We kept saying are we really here? Is this for real? On either side of the picture it reads: "Long Life of the People's Republic of China" and "Long Life of the Great Unity of the People of the World".

The Forbidden City is beautiful. It was opened to the pubic in 1924. Very crowded so many people interested in their history, I guess I expected more foreign tourist, but there really are mostly Chinese. Our guide Joy said to us "You are lucky to live in America, not as much history as we have to learn" I had to laugh.

There is so much superstition here (for all you "Office" fans, not a little "stitious" SUPERstitious). Lots of Ying and Yang. Here is a little Ying/Yang lesson for you faithful readers: Yang is better than Ying. Yang is South, entrances to homes, palaces etc all face south. Odd numbers are Yang, 9 is a royal number as is 25 (adding 1,3,5,7,9 together). There are animals carved on all the buildings in the Forbidden City, only the emperors buildings had 9, others could only have 4 or 5. Another interesting superstition is thresholds. High thresholds mean more money or status. They also keep out Evil Spirits. You can NOT step on the threshold, only over it. Also, back in the day, only royalty could wear gold/yellow. Anyone else who wore this color would be punished by death.

All of the palaces are surround by Lions, cranes, turtles and dragons. Dragons are a sign of Royalty. Cranes and Turtles mean long life and I forgot about the lions (sorry there are a lot of things to remember here!) All of the building are named things like "Unity, Peace, Success, Longevity, Harmony". These are all great sentiments, but then we would hear stories about what really happened and it did not seem to uphold these values.

Our final tour was a Rickshaw ride through the Hutong part of the city. This is the old part of the city and impossible to describe in words. I hope the pictures will do some justice. We were taken to someone's home which is a "yard" (read dirt with some plants and a lot of clutter" surrounded by non connected rooms that various family members live in and some common rooms for cooking, eating and sitting. This family had 3 dogs as many families do. Laundry was hanging on lines all over and there were out door furnaces that used coal. Bikes everywhere. Men sitting on little stools playing games with tiles (dominos?) Many little (tiny, skinny) "stores" selling fruit, cigarettes, pastries, drinks... Women doing laundry outside their doorsteps in a basin with a washboard.

Coal in the entry way of the "home" we visited
Mr. Yung, the "host" who open his Hutong home for us to view. This was in his fathers "bedroom" which had a couch, t.v. (large flat screen) lots of clutter and a big half full bottle of alcohol. No art, coordinating furniture, painted walls. No doorway to other rooms, only through the yard can family members go to various rooms of the home.
Laundry hanging in the "yard"
"Kitchen" sink