CB-Come With Me

Wednesday in Bangkok.

I have to first apologize for not being able to report on my journey in China. As I discovered the Chinese government does not allow any social media in that country including facebook and, apparently, blogging. so all sited are blocked.

so here is a recap of my 4 days in Beijing:

Oct 25th I arrived in Beijing. Flying in the sky above the clouds was a bright sunny blue. I was eager to see Beijing spread out below as we descended. I could not envision what a city of 21,000,000 would look like. However, I soon discovered it was not really clouds below it was a blanket of smog hanging low over the entire city. My first impression of the city, unfortunately, was not that favorable and I could understand why so many wear the masks over their nose and mouth.

And traffic is horrendous! After 1 1/2 hours to clear immigration and another hour in traffic to the hotel I was sipping a glass of pretty good white wine and enjoying sweet and sour pork with rice. I also discovered a really good jasmine tea.

And the adventure begins. Come with me........

Smog over Beijing airport

Above the smog

Sunday October 26th. Beijing.

Sunday morning and the smog lifted to a beautiful sunny day with blue skies.

I met up with the day tour group at 7:00 for a full day tour of Beijing and the most notable or historic sites.

First we went to Tiananmen Square and the monument to Chairman Mao. Then on the Forbidden City which was the Imperial Palace if the Emperor, built in early 1400's. It covers 72 hectares and contains 9999 1/2 rooms, enough for his Empress, a couple of Imperial Consorts, and 3000 concubines. Plus 10,000 eunuchs who waited on everyone.

No one was allowed inside the complex until 1925, hence the name Forbidden City.

The architecture is quite stunning, all wood and at has stood virtually unchanged for 600 years because of the protective coatings, resins and coats of paint. The roofs are clay tile. The colours are mostly blue for sky or heaven, green for earth or nature, yellow which was the color of royalty, and red which is luck.

From there we went to a factory where they manufacture silk, one of China's protected industries. Very interesting. The silk thread from one silkworm cocoon is 1300 metres long but so fine they have to spin 10 threads together to make one thread they would use in making fabric.

Then onto the Temple of Heaven, my favorite. This temple was built in 1420, round which symbolized Heaven, and built to pray for a good harvest. It is surrounded by a brick wall and a beautiful park. Absolutely beautiful. Very tranquil and peaceful.

Lunch at a Chinese buffet place, nothing special but the beer was excellent!

Next stop was a Pearl place where they explained the difference between ocean pearls and freshwater pearls, which they harvest. Did you know that ocean pearls have one pearl in an oyster shell but freshwater pearls have many. The one we opened had about 30 pearls in it.

Of course they wanted us to buy jewellery but one of the ladies on the tour told us of a market where you van get them for a fraction of the price so maybe I'll check that out today.

Finally, the Summer Palace, a little ways further out, which was the summer residence of the Emperor, just in case he got tired of the 9999 1/2 rooms of his Palace. It is a beautiful place on a man made lake following the same architectural style of the Palace but with a lot more trees and nature around.

When the Rebublic of China took over the country, all of the lands and properties of the Imperial Family became the property of the government and the family were basically stripped of everything and became commoners. A bit of a fall I would say.

Anyway, a full day. But an interesting one.

Tiananmen Gate.