Idle Minds...

I FINALLY passed my first JLPT 2 mock test and it's only the 2nd sem, progress at last...


Now where was I? Ah yeah, after Qian Men, it's down the road to Tiananmen Square. One of the bloodiest massacre in history took place here. Maybe the younger generation were not aware but before I explain I wanna clarified I also belong in the younger generation. The reason I know is because of Cousin Rain. The gist of the story is the government under Teng Siew Ping (the guys who had a fetish for black and white cat) ordered the army to disburse a peaceful protest of some thousands of China citizens. The army went overboard and brought out the big guns like tanks and as a result you get bloody human pancake.

A monument to remember the bloody massacre of Tiananmen Square

I might make light of it to maintain the "U" status of this blog, but it is indeed a serious matter. Thousand's of lives lost just like that and it include innocent bystanders too. It is no joke. Until now the activities of this square is closely monitor by some 100s of CCTVs. Think they will even know if you farted at the Square.

The Tianamen Square is the biggest Square in the world, and I totally agree with it. It took forever to walk across it to get to the Forbidden City at the other side. I think I walk almost 45 mins, photo taking time, and time standing in front of the monument to pay respects to the fallen heroes included.

Memorial to represent China spirit.

Now it's just a harmless tourist spot because of it's a bloody past. After we crossed the wide expense of the Square, we were greeted by Chairman Mao's portrait. We had fun playing with his portrait from a far distance. Cousin Rain wanna take a picture of her holding the portrait in her hands, so we spend like 10-15 minutes, adjusting angles. During that time, around 5 freelance photographers offered their help with a price of course. This kind of business is obviously a lucrative one. You just need a camera, a canon photo printer and a helpful attitude. Small capital, big profits. They will charge you some RMB50 for a photo shot. Of course we declined all these helpful people. Over my dead body to let them take picture of Cousin Rain holding Chairman Mao's portrait.


We reached the Forbidden City almost noon, 1 hour behind schedule. Underestimate the Tiananmen obviously... grr...lucky the queue was not that long, we manage to procure tickets, then another kind of Opportunist zoom in and offered their helpful services. They can give you free audio tour and they even tell you they will only ask for payment if you are happy with their explanation. Bull... Anyway we declined immediately though that woman keep pestering us until I flash her my guidebook. Of course Cousin Rain scolded me for being kind.

Once we entered the forbidden City we bumped into this Hong Kong tour. The timing can't be better, we quickly join in the tour unobtrusively, discreetly following from behind while listening to the tour. I can almost hear Kangaroo Boy saying, " It's dodgy..." Wa ka ka ka... but leh, doing this kind of thing needs practise. Soon after, we detached ourselves and join another passing by tour to another place. It takes years of practise to do this smoothly and both of us has had tons of practise doing that.

The back scene of many TVB Court dramas

The palace is magnificent but not well maintained which might be a good thing given the building is like a few hundred years old. What we see now is not the original as many buildings were burnt down during war and rebuild again. I think you loose yourself here easily for a day or two. There are just tooooo many things to see. Unfortunately I can only spend 4 hours here max. So we only concentrate on the main attractions. Most are recoloured and netting added to preserve them except for Empress Ci Xi's bedroom. Maybe the Maintainence crew haven't reach there yet. While the building is still in tact, a feat considering there are no nails used, the colour has faded to reveal the underlying woodwork which is kinda ugly but very reflective of how old buildings should look after ravages of time. But it can be also be because not many people like her but that's just my opinion.

The entrance to the forbidden city

The buildings are all built very very far apart from one another. There is even a room in between the King's study and bedroom, a halfway rest for the King when he walks from his bedroom to the study. We could probably introduce 6 sigma here. How on earth can you get things done if you need to spend like half hour walking from Department A to Department B, and I don't even wanna think where is the toilet when you need to do it urgently. It also explains why the concubines can get dressed in time when the King announces his visit, probably took him one hour to walk to any concubine's room. Now I know why there are no fat people in China, with all the walking, how can you be fat right.

After satisfying my curiosity, we got lost and took a few mins to figure out how to get out of the Forbidden palace. Once we are out of the Forbidden City, the expanse of Tiananmen Square starred mockingly at us. OH BOY... why must the MRT be at the other side of the square. Needless to say, the trip back took even longer with out tired legs. Think we took an hour to cross the square. At times like this I miss what a tour can provide - the tour bus.

Next The great wall.