Beijing Trip

Several members of PILC and husbands set out in May for Beijing to see the sights, and for one to climb the Great Wall to celebrate her 60th birthday (she was the youngest of the group)!  A great time was had by all except for the compulsory factory visits.  Beijing is a large widespread city, with modern busy highways, very clean with lots of trees and many roses in bloom along the wide streets, and not the pollution that we expected.  As it was raining on the first day, the guide changed the plans and we visited Tiananmen Square and we had our health ‘read’ by Chinese Traditional Doctors.  Only one of us came away without a bag of something!  Every cultural site we visited (Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Ming Tombs and Temple of Heaven) were like the Russian Kachena Dolls – a wall within a wall, with only one way in, so the actual temple or tomb was the last building to get to.  Wonderful colours - red on the walls, green, blue and gold on the ceilings and roof overhangs. 
   

The guide pointed out the position of the building maker by the number of animals on the roof outlines (9 was for the Supreme Emperor).   As for the Great Wall it didn’t disappoint - it was a warm day with an ethereal mist hanging over the surrounding hills, but to imagine building the 6,000 kilometers of roads, steps and buildings from rock is an incomprehensible feat.  Lots of things to remember, including the wonderful and abundant variety of foods, the courtesy of the people, but the Beijing we saw was a modern city (very few interesting buildings), but this is not the real China perhaps, so visits to other Chinese cities are definitely likely.

Lindsay Topham