beijing, home of the non-massacre
this is a starkly different city than shanghai ... and i like it. it's the political center of china ... their washington DC. it's also way more historical and there's great effort to preserve that. shanghai is a little more cosmopolitan, like it's trying to be NYC. anyway, in beijing, buildings aren't allowed to be over a certain height, so things like mao's mosoleum and the national art galleries appear more prominent.
the city layout is also interesting. the center of the city is considered the forbidden city and tienemman square (ajacent to each other), and the rest of the city surrounds this site in rings. i think there are six rings now, so addresses and locations are like 'we're in the fourth ring' or 'we're in the second ring.'
i am determined to get along with this tour guide and am pleased he greets me first and compliments my brazilian Kappa shirt -- yay! a sports fan! we'll get along. his name is 'vincent' and we immediately go over the itinerary to make sure we're hitting all of the spots we want in our short time frame (another plus!). our first stop is tienneman square, definitely a priorty on everyone's list. he drops us off and lets us wander around for a half hour. now, at this point of the trip you can probably tell i'm getting a little punchy .... but the square is so big and i wanted to know exactly where the massacre of 1989 happened. that footage of the kid getting run over by the tank still burns in my head.
'so this is where the massacre happened, right? which part'
'there was no massacre. that is all misunderstanding.'
'really?'
'yes. i was here that day and nothing happened. i was here in the morning and then came back in the evening. nothing happened.'
'oh, i thought we heard there was some trouble with student protesters and the military? maybe some deaths?'
'oh no, nothing like that. and i am not a Party member, but i was here that day and nothing like that happened.'
'so what did happen that day? what did you see?'
'well ... there were lots of people, but everyone was in control. there was nothing out of control.'
(i give skeptical look)
'well maybe there were a couple accidental deaths. but they were not massacres, just accidents.'
i decided to leave it at that and wander around on our own. the international students really didn't want to press the issue further and tried to explain to me that they thought the kid actually got out of the way of the tank and was never actually run over.
the city layout is also interesting. the center of the city is considered the forbidden city and tienemman square (ajacent to each other), and the rest of the city surrounds this site in rings. i think there are six rings now, so addresses and locations are like 'we're in the fourth ring' or 'we're in the second ring.'
i am determined to get along with this tour guide and am pleased he greets me first and compliments my brazilian Kappa shirt -- yay! a sports fan! we'll get along. his name is 'vincent' and we immediately go over the itinerary to make sure we're hitting all of the spots we want in our short time frame (another plus!). our first stop is tienneman square, definitely a priorty on everyone's list. he drops us off and lets us wander around for a half hour. now, at this point of the trip you can probably tell i'm getting a little punchy .... but the square is so big and i wanted to know exactly where the massacre of 1989 happened. that footage of the kid getting run over by the tank still burns in my head.
'so this is where the massacre happened, right? which part'
'there was no massacre. that is all misunderstanding.'
'really?'
'yes. i was here that day and nothing happened. i was here in the morning and then came back in the evening. nothing happened.'
'oh, i thought we heard there was some trouble with student protesters and the military? maybe some deaths?'
'oh no, nothing like that. and i am not a Party member, but i was here that day and nothing like that happened.'
'so what did happen that day? what did you see?'
'well ... there were lots of people, but everyone was in control. there was nothing out of control.'
(i give skeptical look)
'well maybe there were a couple accidental deaths. but they were not massacres, just accidents.'
i decided to leave it at that and wander around on our own. the international students really didn't want to press the issue further and tried to explain to me that they thought the kid actually got out of the way of the tank and was never actually run over.
posted by christine at 2:52 AM
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