Chris Simpson:
Today we spent out final day in Beijing on the outward
part of our trip. We spent the morning exploring Tiananmen
Gate and Square and then it was off to airport for a trip
Yunnan Province. Yunnan Province is located in the Southern
area of China and we’re staying in the capital,
Kunming, and taking a trip to Dali and Lijiang.
Reflecting on our activities today will be Silvana,
from Brattleboro.
Today we went to Tiananmen
Square and Tiananmen Gate, the entrance to the Forbidden
City. This is where emperors of China and more recently,
Chairman Mao, have spoken to the people of China. This
was a breathtaking place to see, rich in the history of
China and of Beijing.
Tiananmen Square is around 44 hectors and can hold 1 million
people. In 1418 it was named after Tian-men, and it was
the entrance to the city. Tiananmen Gate is where Mao
declared the People’s Republic on October 1st 1949.
Tiananmen Square is now the symbol for the new China.
Tiananmen Square wasn’t really what I expected,
although it is amazing that it can hold that many people,
up to 1,000,000, and it is the largest public square in
the world.
On Tiananmen Gate, which is the entrance to the Forbidden
City, is a huge picture of Mao. The picture was amazing.
In Tiananmen Gate the main feature is the rostrum that
overlooks the entire Square. Within there are separate
rooms with a couple chairs where Mao and the emperors
would rest before going out to give a speech. Walking
into that one room was stunning, especially if you look
at the ceiling. The ceiling features massive chandeliers
and intricate scrollwork with unique paintings on each
beam. There was so much detail that I began to wonder
how much time just the corner of the ceiling took to create.
Even though we could only go inside one of the buildings
I suspected that each one just might be a little bit different
and with as much detail as the first one had.
Now we are in Kunming and I can definitely tell the difference
between Beijing and Kunming. In my mind I thought that
Kunming would be smaller then Beijing and I thought that
it would have the same amount of cars and people. Boy,
was I wrong! Kunming seems a lot larger then Beijing and
there are fewer cars on the street compared to Beijing.
When we got here we were greeted by Chinese students and
they were so nice that some of us didn’t even have
to carry our luggage. As we were traveling to our hotel
I noticed that the city was lit up by many lights. Mostly
we were looking at bright colorful signs that then reflected
off of one another making the city very beautiful. I was
told by one of the students that Kunming is the largest
city in the Yuan nan Province. The city is breathtaking
and very hard to take in, in one night.
Mr. Perrin and a new friend.
