Our first day in Beijing! We travel in a group to Tiannamen Square and the Forbidden City. Our bus is air conditioned, but the air outside is light and surprisingly clear. The Square is huge, as we are learning everything about China seems to be oversize. The surrounding walls were meant as a protective firewall. There is a checkpoint to let us into the square with a very long line. The square is open and not terribly crowded. Everyone takes photos, and later, the photos only show an open plaza with tiny roofs in the background. Closer to the Forbidden City the photos show the enormous high walls and the color red. Umbrellas to protect against the bright sunlight are shades of pastels and decorated with sequins and designs. We follow our guide, Mr.Zhou who carries a pole with a yellow flag that says China Focus in turquoise. As we get closer and closer the crowd gets tighter, more flags appear, more yellow flags appear, we move like ducklings in a line. On the other side of our ticketed entrance we realize we have lost Paul. There are thousands in the Forbidden City. Paul’s phone does not have internet, which seems to be a problem for many of us. We all stand, worried and wondering. An hour passes as people go off to look for him and return. Then, suddenly he appears. Smiling. How did he find us? Where did he lose us? All our experiences are processed through this group, like a multi legged single organism.
Without a doubt the highlight so far has been our trip to the Great Wall. Driving more than an hour out of the city, and then further up into the mountains surrounding Beijing. We transfer to a different bus that takes us to the pop up village selling souvenirs before you hike the 500 ft up to the cable car that will take you to the base of the Great Wall. The cable car silently moves us up the steep mountainside, through trees, to our right the wall comes in to view. We too are silent, and breathless, awed by the immensity.
Later in the afternoon I draw from a high perch and the sun shines on me and the Wall. The mountains in the distance are shades of blue and gauzy. It is very hot on the shadeless barrier between civilization and the barbarians. I try so hard to be present. Absorb, breathe, look closely, record the stones, the watchtowers, the breadth of the Wall. A worker passes carrying a bamboo pole holding a bag of trash. Knowing this construction can be seen from space, that it is thousands of miles long, it overwhelms the imagination.
