When we left the hostel this morning we found that Beijing had been transformed overnight. A clear blue sky was above with only a hint of haze at the horizon and, for the first time since we had left Canada, there was no humidity. Perfect weather for strolling. Our first stroll took us to the bank to change money and play with the electric money counting machines. Next we needed to purchase flights back to Tokyo from Shanghai which we managed to do at the hostels' in-house travel agency for several hundred dollars less than we were expecting. This meant we could splurge on ice-creams. With the laundry marathon now also completed we were finally free to explore. Tian'anmen Square is apparently the largest public square in the world, the size of 90 football pitches - but to me it seemed smaller than the Zocalo in Mexico City. This may be because Chairman Mao's mausoleum sits right in the middle of it, and it has huge roads all the way around. It is certainly an impressive sight with Soviet inspired buildings flanking each side and ancient Chinese gates at either end. The Northern-most gate sports the famous portrait of Mao which had paint-filled eggs thrown at it during the pro-democracy demonstrations here in 1989. It's very hard to know how many died in the subsequent crackdown - but it seems likely that more than 2000 perished, most of them in the streets immediately surrounding the square. However, this tragedy somewhat pales into insignificance when compared to Mao's excesses during The Great Leap Forward and The Cultural Revolution.
It seems a curious phenomenon that Mao as a figure still seems to garner much respect and admiration. All the Chinese tourists wanted to have their picture taken with him (some even wanted beautiful Rachel in the shot too!)and the queue to file past his body snakes around the block each morning. The official line from today's leaders is that Mao was "70% right, 30% wrong". Jung Chang, the author of 'Wild Swans' (which we've both been reading on the trip) compares him to Hitler and Stalin - and the book contains much compelling evidence of his atrocities. In fact, the White Swans is still banned in China today, and you are not supposed to bring it through customs, although we had no trouble.
It was with these thoughts in our minds that we strolled around in the sunshine, watching the tourists relaxing around us where once millions of youthful Red Guards had screamed their undying devotion to the great leader. It seems almost miraculous how much the country has been transformed in the past four decades.
We passed through the gate under the portrait and approached the gates of the Forbidden City - but the sun was starting to go down and those delights will have to wait until tomorrow. We returned to watch the lowering of the flag in the square at sunset and is was interesting to watch the troops marching in perfect unison across the road to perform the ceremony. With the flag neatly folded we wandered home, fending off hawkers left right and centre. Even Rachel is starting to become a little brusque with them...