The Forbidden City

The past few days in Beijing have been incredibly beautiful. It has felt like summer and the flowers are starting to bloom. I thought campus looked beautiful in the wintertime and now I am even more in awe of Beida’s beauty.

The past week has also been incredibly busy with schoolwork. Believe it or not, I have already finished half of my semester in China, which of course implies midterm papers and exams. Last Tuesday, I turned in a term paper proposal for China in the Global Economy. Last Friday, I turned in a 15-page literature review for my independent study on Chinese Media and Society. Today, I had a Chinese midterm in the morning and then had to turn in a 20-page paper for my independent study on Chinese Women’s Studies. Whoever said that classes abroad were supposed to be extremely lax has apparently never studied at Beida.

Despite the schoolwork that was piled on this week, I have still been able to enjoy a lot of Beijing. This past Saturday, we visited the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City, called Gu Gong in Chinese, was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties and was built back in the 1400s. The Forbidden City is located along the northern boundary of Tiananmen Square and is surrounded by a huge moat.

Before touring the Forbidden City, we got to visit Tiananmen Square, which is were the major protests at the end of the Cultural Revolution occurred. In China, most of the time, the Tiananmen Square protests, which consisted mostly of Beida students, is frequently referred to as “the incident.” From Tiananmen Square we also saw Mao’s mausoleum, where you can view Mao’s body, the Great Hall of the people, the equivalent of our Capitol Hill, and the Tiananmen Gate to the Forbidden City.

Walking around the Forbidden City was very interesting. There are several gates within the city, several temples, and other recreational facilities for the emperors. We also got to see the Imperial Garden, which was absolutely beautiful. I definitely plan on visiting the Forbidden City again before I leave Beijing!

While we were at the Forbidden City, I definitely had a cultural experience. I don’t know if I mentioned it before in previous blog entries, but it is pretty typical in China for babies and toddlers to go to the bathroom on the street. As a matter of fact, most of the young children here wear outfits with a hole cut out in the butt area to make peeing and pooping on the street fairly convenient. Seeing a baby pop a squat on the steps of the Forbidden City was completely bizarre to me. I guess, in my mind, it’s kind of the equivalent of a baby pooping on the steps of the White House. I guess it’s just a huge cultural difference. Apparently, nothing is sacred in China.

Last night, I spent the whole night studying for Chinese. It was really cool because at one point, we took a study break and went up on the roof of our building and hung out while checking out the Beijing skyline. It was so warm out and the view was so beautiful. This is definitely something I will never be able to do in Washington, DC and something I am really going to miss about China.

So, we are leaving for Spring Break in about a half hour. We are all so excited! We are taking the overnight train to Nanjing tonight. We will arrive in Nanjing around noon tomorrow and spend a few days sightseeing there. On Saturday morning, we will head to Shanghai. We will take the overnight train back to Beijing on Sunday night and arrive back in Beijing on Monday morning. Fortunately, my class on Monday is cancelled so I will have all day to take a break from Spring Break! I will update more then!