beijing!
Beijing
We off to Beijing to visit China's capitol and famous landmarks like Tianenmen Square and the Forbidden City. We take our second domestic flight … this one by an airline that never advertised its name once! We have no idea what it was called …. Something like huian air? It’s only a short flight, but we still get 2 drinks and some snacks. The main difference between American airlines and Chinese ones is on Chinese ones you always get a meal no matter what … and multiple drinks … but you have to return your tray tables to their upright and locked position 30 minutes before landing. The in-flight entertainment is interesting, as we’ve seen biographies of both Shirley Temple and Yogi Bear.
Upon landing we meet our new tour guide “John” who takes us to the forbidden city. Yay! We make plans to find the starbucks inside, since it’s been a hotbed of controversy lately, but we cant’ find it. How can people complain about it, if it’s so hidden? Anyway, we walk from one end of the forbidden city (called ‘forbidden’ since back in the day it was only open to emperors and higher ups, not commoners) to the other … then we hit Tianemen Square. Last time we were here I asked our tour guide where the massacre happened and he was like ‘what massacre? There was no massacre. There was only a discussion!’ so I wanted to ask again. Unfortunately, I asked John right when were in front of the main government building (the equivalent of the US capital building) and he’s like ‘we will not talk about the massacre here … there are too many ears and cameras. We will only talk about massacre on bus.’ Yay! He didn’t deny it! He did get really paranoid and start looking around … and totally changed the subject and had us continue walking to the other end of the square.
It was a little surprising to me to hear how few students had heard of the massacre …. Which reminded me I’m the oldest person on the trip … but once we get on the bus John didn’t hesitate bringing it up. He’s like ‘let’s talk about the massacre from 1989. I can only talk about it in private, not public, since speaking of it is forbidden and we can get in trouble.’ But he doesn’t mind telling us about it, since he was actually one of the student protestors there that day. He said students had gathered to peacefully demonstrate not against the party itself, but the government didn’t quite see it that way. he said when bullets were firsw fired and blood was first shed, he thought they were part of the fireworks show ... but then it became clear something had gone terribly awry. he said about 300-400 students were likely killed that day, and the number could be as high as 1,000 ... but they will never know for sure, as the government immediately covered it up and denied it ever happened. to this day, it's illegal to speak about it publically, but john tells us he will talk about it privately ... although it makes him uncomfortable since he's afraid of being spied on and prosecuted. :(
We off to Beijing to visit China's capitol and famous landmarks like Tianenmen Square and the Forbidden City. We take our second domestic flight … this one by an airline that never advertised its name once! We have no idea what it was called …. Something like huian air? It’s only a short flight, but we still get 2 drinks and some snacks. The main difference between American airlines and Chinese ones is on Chinese ones you always get a meal no matter what … and multiple drinks … but you have to return your tray tables to their upright and locked position 30 minutes before landing. The in-flight entertainment is interesting, as we’ve seen biographies of both Shirley Temple and Yogi Bear.
Upon landing we meet our new tour guide “John” who takes us to the forbidden city. Yay! We make plans to find the starbucks inside, since it’s been a hotbed of controversy lately, but we cant’ find it. How can people complain about it, if it’s so hidden? Anyway, we walk from one end of the forbidden city (called ‘forbidden’ since back in the day it was only open to emperors and higher ups, not commoners) to the other … then we hit Tianemen Square. Last time we were here I asked our tour guide where the massacre happened and he was like ‘what massacre? There was no massacre. There was only a discussion!’ so I wanted to ask again. Unfortunately, I asked John right when were in front of the main government building (the equivalent of the US capital building) and he’s like ‘we will not talk about the massacre here … there are too many ears and cameras. We will only talk about massacre on bus.’ Yay! He didn’t deny it! He did get really paranoid and start looking around … and totally changed the subject and had us continue walking to the other end of the square.
It was a little surprising to me to hear how few students had heard of the massacre …. Which reminded me I’m the oldest person on the trip … but once we get on the bus John didn’t hesitate bringing it up. He’s like ‘let’s talk about the massacre from 1989. I can only talk about it in private, not public, since speaking of it is forbidden and we can get in trouble.’ But he doesn’t mind telling us about it, since he was actually one of the student protestors there that day. He said students had gathered to peacefully demonstrate not against the party itself, but the government didn’t quite see it that way. he said when bullets were firsw fired and blood was first shed, he thought they were part of the fireworks show ... but then it became clear something had gone terribly awry. he said about 300-400 students were likely killed that day, and the number could be as high as 1,000 ... but they will never know for sure, as the government immediately covered it up and denied it ever happened. to this day, it's illegal to speak about it publically, but john tells us he will talk about it privately ... although it makes him uncomfortable since he's afraid of being spied on and prosecuted. :(
posted by christine at 2:24 AM
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