Fwd: Doing the tourist stuff...

Is the weekend for resting or what? Jeez - I'm knackered!!!

 

On Saturday, the lady who is looking after us (this helps to perfect her English!!) said she's take us to Tiananman Square & The Forbidden City, which is next to it. It was boiling hot like the surface of the sun, and even I had a bath in suncream i the vain hope it would help. In reality, it was like clutching a rabbit's foot for luck before jumping into a pool full of starving sharks & crocdiles.

 

Tiananman Square was like a bigger version of Albert Square in Manchester, but with some strangely powerful statues and monuments to brave soldiers & struggles of the past. Of course, there was no reference to the 'protests' of 1989 which for the west was crystalised by the famous footage of a young man standing in front of a tank (note : I'm choosing my words carefully here). I asked our guide where this area was....and she knew absolutely nothing about those photo's or film. Let's leave it at that.

 

The Forbidden City was an even more humbling site - in effect, three huge areas built within each other, surrounded by 3 walls, making one massive palace. It was the residence of the emperors, and the symbolic centre of government. Standing there, knowing it had changed little in 600 years was, I confess, a little humbling. It could do with a oat of paint, and I wondered why they hadn't got some criminals to tart it up a bit rather than chuck them in a cell. There are 9,999.5 rooms in the palace. I assume the half room is a toilet or cleaning cupboard. The contrast between the place and the modern Beijing that surrounds it was quite alarming. Talk about old & new...

 

Today (Sunday) we went to the 'fake market' - another massive place - next to the posh (& expensive) shopping malls, but selling copy stuff at a fraction of the price. Most teenage kids from the UK would explode with excitement, but - like me - not know where to start. You get pestered to death as you pass each 'stall' - "I give you good price, you look at tshirts?" and it becomes wearing because you can't actually look at anything. All the 'top brands' are there, and if you consider the same people make clothes for the likes of M&S and Next, the quality is as good as the stuff you buy there. Seems there are no copyright laws here that are enforceable, so anything can be copied - even cars!!!

 

On the way out, I couldn't resist buying acouple of DVD's - the very latest Spiderman & Avengers films. I knew it was risky, bt after I battered the poor bloke down to £1 each, it would hardly screw up my budget. The packaging was superb - really outstanding - and I've convinced myself all of the £1 will go to the designer of the covers...because the films are shite. Both are shot in the cinema (private showings - no audience) but Spiderman was filmed with a milk bottle and although The Avengers is good quality, the dialog has been dubbed into bloody Chinese. Lesson learned.

 

So we were back by mid afternoon, baking hot. I went to the gym, so I could get all the sweaty stuff done with, but couldn't manage more than 10 minutes. I left by a different door so reception wouldn't see me and say "Has he only been in there for 10 minutes?".

 

I'd planned to watch a couple of films this evening, but looks like ironing and typing blogs & the column instead....

 

Kettle is on!!!