July 8: Tienanmen Square

Today we visited Tienanmen Square, a little over twenty years after the massacre. The intermittent rain has cooled off Beijing to a tolerable level. The atmosphere is jovial. School has just let out in China and the numerous American tourists are overwhelmed by the more numerous Chinese tourists, especially young people on holiday. As we find out later in the trip, this generation seem to have no interest in politics. Uniformly the young dress in T-shirts with American pop references and love "our" music and the NBA.

I am there to take pictures of "them" and they want to take pictures of me. One young woman grabs me by the hand and puts her arm around me while her boyfriend or husband snaps a picture of us together. I may wind up framed on some family's living room wall. The young people in this picture are taking my photo as I take theirs.









It's not a totally happy picture. It may be that this generation of young Chinese people has traded its freedom to think for its freedom to consume -- at least among the growing affluent minority. But as an outside observer I don't know enough to judge how deep are the roots of this mindless consumerism. Some would claim, it could well be a necessary step in the direction of greater political awakening.


July 8 (cont.): The Forbidden City

From Tienanmen Square we move on to the Forbidden City. This is not a wonderful viewing or photographic opportunity!

The rain has picked up...and so have the crowds. Now it's a sea of colorful umbrellas all around us. Except that the light is so drained by the pollution that the colors are desaturated and the sky has a drab yellow cast. In Beijing, this time of year, there is no visible sun. There is no sky. There are no clouds. And there are no signs of birds. Beijing is a truly desolate city. In 1958 Chairman Mao decreed that all the birds in China should be killed because they consumed scarce grain resources. To this day the birds have not returned to Beijing.








Fortunately Jen and I had seen "The Last Emperor" as part of our preparation for this trip. In spite of the crowds and the drabness we could imagine the grandeur and loneliness of the Forbidden City.

It seems like everything in China is driven by population pressure. How could it be otherwise? A population that is approximately four times as large as that of the US is squeezed into a land mass that is only slightly larger than ours. In the hierarchy of needs, a concern for the environment is way down the scale. At the present time it consists mostly of lip service.

Forbidden Sky

And, moving along with our guide, somewhere along the way we stepped into a courtyard where people were making offerings of burning incense sticks to Buddha.