M-whY

Regardless of what event stands out most though, Tiananmen Square has to rank as perhaps the world's number one public square. I emerged from the subway stop at the northern end of it all, near the Tiananmen Gate and Mao Zedong's visage, in time to catch a glimpse of the flag raising ceremony. To the east were a couple museums, in front of which a timekeeper was counting down to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Visualizing of tanks rolling down the wide streets weren't hard, after all, I've seen the photos dozens of times. As is the tradition for national holidays, colorful flowers and exhibits were on display. Some things were obviously permanent mainstays of the square, like the Monument of the Heroes, but others, including the picture of Sun Yatsen, the first president of post-imperial China, were probably only temporary. Mao's mausoleum, a boxish structure constructed by an estimated million volunteers, sat in the middle, curiously (perhaps deliberately) facing north, contradicting principles of feng shui. I joined the fast moving queue of people reverently filing past Mao's embalmed corpse, draped in the hammer and sickle communist emblem. Once through with that, I simply loitered around for a bit, as there's no better place for people watching. Uniformed sentries marched around, tourists patriotically carrying red flags. A little kid who couldn't hold it anymore taking a leak in a water bottle. But most striking of image of it all had to be when an old, gray robed, monk walked past a young sentry in green. A combination of past and present China in the space of 10m.

Further south were Zhenyangmen and Qianmen Gate, both constructed around the 15th century and having gone through many restorations. The collection of alleys, or hutongs, were probably full of culture a few decades ago, but was now just another shopping district. The smell of food reminded me it was feeding time, and with some hesitancy - my last foray into streetside food caused me problems - I had a bowl of noodles. I'm happy to report that it didn't set back my recovery at all.

Continuing on, I reached the Temple of Heaven. Early Chinese believed that Heaven was round and Earth was square, and as the Temple of Heaven was the prime meeting point of the two, these shapes were ubiquitous. The park which surrounded the temple had the shape of a semi-circle sitting on top of a square. I entered from the west gate, though to see the proper sequence of things, I should've entered via the south. Then, my first sight would've been the Round Altar, consisting of three concentric tiers. At the top was circular mound, known as the Heavenly Center Stone. Special acoustic properties were attributed to this point, and people took turns standing atop for photo ops.

Next was the Imperial Vault of Heaven, surrounding it by the Echo Wall, named such for the perfect echo it generates. As signs claimed, two people could stand at opposite ends of the diameter and hear each other whispering. Even had I had a partner to test the theory with, it would've been impossible above the tourist din. I guess I'll just have to take their word for it...for it...for it...

The gentle incline of the Danbi Bridge was supposed to give the impression of ascending to Heaven, in this case, Heaven being the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. Unfortunately, it was closed for restoration, and would be until sometime in 2006. I was left to wonder from behind the walls how grand it would've been. Supposedly, the wooden structures were pieced together without a single nail. Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties used to come here and pray for good harvests. A masterpiece of architecture from that time period, do I really have to say it's been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site?

To cap everything off, I doubled back to Tiananmen Square, taking hutongs in favor of main roads whenever possible, and arrived in time to catch the daily flag lowering ceremony amidst packed crowds, bringing my day full square... I mean, circle.

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