On Wednesday the more than 180 travelers along with Astronomy magazine and MWT Associates, all aiming at July 22’s total solar eclipse, spent their first day seeing the wonders of China. In Beijing, they began at Tiananmen Square, the center of the city and of the political and symbolic culture of the entire People’s Republic of China.
See all the images from Dave's tour in our solar eclipse 2009 trip gallery.
Under sweltering heat that exceeded 100° Fahrenheit, the tourists marched faithfully around the square to see such famous structures as the Monument to the People’s Heroes, the mausoleum that holds the remains of Chairman Mao Zedong, and the Ming Dynasty Gate (pictured above) that gave the square its name. This last structure, Tiananmen, marks the spot where Chairman Mao announced the People’s Republic to the world in 1949.
Because of its size, the group separated into six buses, each with a tour representative and a Chinese expert who led us through the country’s amazing history, culture, and language. My bus, along with Melita and our guide Yoko Yang, was termed the “Mars bus,” and soon had its 36 inhabitants playfully proclaiming martians as somehow better than those mercurians or sun-worshippers from the other buses.
We continued on to explore the Forbidden City, viewing a huge complex of palaces dating back more than 500 years and opened to the public only in the past 60 years. We then sped off to a fantastic Chinese lunch at an air-conditioned restaurant (thankfully), and resumed our touring in the afternoon at the Summer Palace, the more private imperial complex of residences that once stood way out in the countryside.
Everywhere you go in Beijing, the place strikes you as a vast network of highways, apartment towers, and sparkling new offices, hotels, and shopping complexes. It’s simply stunning in scale. Over the past 20 years, it has sped outward in all directions, the city proper now containing 18 million residents.
Following the Summer Palace, dinner at an upscale restaurant featured the specialty of Beijing, Peking Duck. And it was monstrously good.
We then capped off the day by cooling our heels at the world-famous Beijing Opera, seeing two performances before limping back to the hotel, having been subjected to really hot temperatures and still attempting to get our heads on Beijing time. More tomorrow.
Previous blog: We arrive in Beijing
Photos by David J. Eicher