Today, we went to the Forbidden City near Tienanmen Square. I knew nothing about it before going in and, despite buying an audio guide, knew nothing about it after coming out. The guide read information based on current location, only its location detection was rubbish so listening to it just got confusing.
I was shocked that Tienanmen Square contained no reference to the protests of 1989, despite (according to some reports) thousands of people losing their lives.
I couldn't possibly comment on the reason for Chris's visit but...
...for dinner this evening we met with a female friend of his, Addy. Her written English was perfect but spoken English was terrible, so Chris and her communicated for the most part by passing notes across the table. I seemed to get away with speaking really slowly, not using colloquialisms or slang, innit like, and sticking to basic subjects. Go me! Tomorrow we're eating with Karen or Kirsty or someone, they're already starting to roll into one.
The intention is to make an early start to see the body of Mao Zedong in the mausoleum in Tienanmen Square. It can take up to two hours to get through the queue, apparently, which we're not exactly looking forward to...
2 comments:
Why are you surprised that there is no mention of the protests? I would have thought it was the last thing the Chinese government would mention, given how they habitually restrict free speech.
Have seen Mao and it's not worth the wait. Hope you like him!
Does Chris know you're writing about him?!!!
I'm very naive, BD. I expected time to have an influence but that's not the case.
I haven't blogged about communism and possibly won't because I don't know anything about it. China seems pretty free except (what I know so far) - no porn, hot water can be controlled by the government (!) and lack of freedom of speech. Not sure which of those is most important...
It was 10 mins from joining the back of be queue to seeing Mao - not bad, considering. If I'd waited hours then I'd definitely be disappointed. The only thing it cost me really was 12 RMB for the bag storage!
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