Day 2 - Dragons and 9's

I woke up with a stiff back this morning, so I decided to go for a run to loosen up the bones after the air travel and the stiff firm bed. I thought I'd better have a map of the local area, in case I get lost. So after tearing off a piece of a local tourist map I headed off down the street. It was 5.30am local time with hardly anyone around, they are a sensible city. The only people I had to share the foot path with were the oldies walking their dogs and a few vendors getting the business rush hour food ready. Other than that nothing to strange to report.

The English quote of the day was on the breakfast place mat - 'Have a nice time with you'. I think they meant to say 'enjoy yourself', but I like it their way. It describes our western preoccupation with 'ourselves' really nicely.

Well we certainly got a taste of China today, well, maybe a tourist taste. Ocean, our guide (in pronunciation not spelling) is brilliant. He is 30 and stands about 5 foot 5. He seems to have a grasp of the spirituality of the place, which is interesting. First stop was the forbidden city, or the Emperors Palace. There is a lot of symbolism around the number 9 and the power of the dragon in the historic buildings we saw. Turns out the Emperor was greatly revered (or revered themselves greatly) and used the number 9 as a symbol of perfection and the dragon as the symbol of power. 9 stairs leading up or down. 9 dots on all the gates & doors. 9 dragon heads carved into marble, you get the drift. Effigies of dragons in huge and minute detail covered most surfaces. The Emperors dragon was never out of sight.

The dualism of the culture is present too, with lots of references to the separation of heaven and earth. There seems to be no concept of hell as the dualism of ying and yang, exists between heaven and earth. Humanity stands in-between the two. The earthly realm is represented by straight edges & corners, while the heaven realm is represented by perfect circles and arches built into the architecture.The colour blue is used on the uppermost roof of the temples to represent the sky, and subsequent lower roofs are green to represent the earth. Every feature on the temples and palace is there for a purpose. Nothing is devoid of symbolic meaning. I got a real sense of the history of the culture today, none more breath taking than a display of photos one containing Gough Whitlam in front of the Temple of Heaven. Ah the serenity.

When we got to Tiananmen Square the conversation immediately turned to the politics. Ocean, our guide, was 8 years old at the time, so he has no real knowledge of the student protest. He 'knows' about it, but the media never published the incidents of 1989, so he doesn't know about it. Ocean calls all politicians Blah Blah. His grandfather calls them bullshit blah blah. His grandfather has obviously met Tony Abbot. I asked Ocean if he ever feels like he can't speak his mind politically, and he said yes. Not because he will be reported, more because it's just bullshit blah blah as nothing changes. He still thinks the communist party is good for the country, especially as everyone is getting 'more rich'.
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Food for lunch and dinner was Chinese 'as we know it'. I am strangely suspicious we got served Chinese food Aussie style, as our guide and driver did not eat with us. I remember asking a Cantonese speaking cook in a take away in England if he could recommend a dish from his menu. I thought he would have a favourite dish he liked, and that I could experience as authentic. He said he does not eat the food from his menu, calling it English Cantonese. Mind you the Peking duck was carved in front of us so it's not all Aussie Chinese.

We were extremely well looked after today, lots of great memories. The sights were not overly crowed, though they was busy. The hawkers of $3 Rolex watches were not overly obnoxious. We are almost used to the lack of perceivable traffic rules and the people we met were friendly and helpful. Next stop tomorrow, the Great wall.

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Location:Beijing