from Pillar to Post: a traveller's guide to stuff: the Imperials

Our mammoth day of walking the greatest wall on Earth was suitably finished off with a pleasant dinner out with Brook and Alana, and drinks at a cool backpacker-friendly place called Sakura cafe. Because of this, the following day started a little late and we continued this relaxed theme by both getting foot massages in what looked remarkably like a brothel - we were lead downstairs where it is dimly lit with red lights, the rooms have locking doors with quite comfy beds, and your masseuse wears a short skirt and high heels... I'll let you connect the dots...
In the afternoon we headed out of the city centre to visit the Summer Palace, which is where the emporer and his imperial family would hang out if they got sick of sitting in isolation in the Forbidden City. On the bus ride out there, we got to speaking with a 40-something gentleman who was explaining how a lot of Chinese were converting to Christianity and that China is poor because they worship the "false God," Buddha. Hmm. Anyways, back to my story.. The palace was quite nice with its vast lakes and colourful temples, and many people we met said they enjoyed it more than the Forbidden City, but we spent only a little time here.
In the evening, we went for a night at the Opera. Beijing Opera is world-famous, but we're not sure if we actually experienced it.. Confusing, no? Basically, there were about 8 or so small acts, one of opera, one of kung-fu, one of the brilliant face-changing art known as Bianlian (the performer is able to change their mask many times, each time virtually instantaneously and seemingly magically - in fact, the way they do this is actually a highly esoteric secret under protection by the Chinese government), and so on, performed in the Lao She teahouse. However, there was one less act performed than was on the programme and none of them stood out to us as an opera performance.. The most interesting acts were 2 gentlemen that could make all sorts of crazy sounds with their voices, such as steam trains and birds, and a stand-up comedy skit that we couldn't understand as it was all in Chinese :)
Finally, the next day, it was Forbidden City time (or Forbids in Aussie-speak). We had hoped to get in to see Mao's mausoleum on this morning, but my lack of suitable footwear (flip-flops) managed to get us turned away at the last minute after lining up for half an hour, so we headed here instead. Beijing's Forbidden City, the world's largest surviving palace complex at 720,000 sq-metres, was the Chinese emporer's fortress throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties and 980 of its buildings still stand today.
Our experience of this amazing place was somewhat weakened by the fact that a bunch of the main buildings are currently undergoing renovation and so have huge scafolding structures encasing them - which I suspect may be removed in time for the Olympic games in August. The other buildings, which have already been completed, look brand new with new paint jobs, etc, which also takes away from the authenticity of the place. Oh well.. That's China for you.
<< Aside: Even the city's hutongs, or small alleyways in which locals live and have street stalls, etc. - basically the last taste of "old" China left in Beijing - are unable to escape this 'modernisation' and are being ripped down and rebuilt by the Chinese government because they believe tourists don't want to see these old, historic streets. The entire strip of Meishi Jie, the street our hostel was on, and the hutongs branching from it were being torn down while we were there and rebuilt in uniform grey brick. Don't get me wrong, it is going to look very nice when it is completed, but do we really want to see reconstructions? >>
An intriguing display within the Forbidden City was an entire building filled with hundreds of huge, incredibly intricate clocks donated to the Chinese imperial family over the last few centuries by many different countries - Britain and France being the largest contributors. One includes a working model of the solar system, and another has a small model of a poet who actually moves his arm as if writing! Wow!
<< Another useless fact: There was some controversy recently when a Starbucks opened its doors within the palace walls in 2000. So much so, in fact, that they were forced to close again in July of 2007. The nerve! >>
Lunch was from a popular food street nearby, where we also bought some cool little souvenirs. Following this we ventured south to the beautiful Temple of Heaven, a complex of Taoist temples used by the Emporers of China to make sacrifices to the heavens - in ancient times the Emporer was considered as the Son of Heaven. We crossed the city again that evening to see the Olympic sites lit up at night.

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