Hip To Be Tiananmen Square

Today we had out visit to the BC trade office. I have no idea that provincially we held so many offices overseas for trade. Since the notorious Beijing cough had set it it was nice to see the table had actual Canadian water, a taste I wouldn't get for sometime.

The presentation was a fascinating story of the trade relations the BC continues to form and just how many sectors it's in.

In order to give ourselves a full day of free time tomorrow we moved our visit to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden Palace to today. I was so prepared that the square would be big that it actually felt smaller than my expectations. I think in both atmosphere and size it would compare to Playland if it was completely void of rides and building but there were still people there. Te creepy part about the Square had to be the excessive policing and control, all very indirect. It just wasn't the place to step out of in, and that was understood without signs or written rules. Also strange that there was zero recognition or even a clue regarding the Tiananmen Square Massacre. No even vendors hawking Tank Man T-shirts. It's just not something that would happen considering that the government that was in power at the time is still the government in power, and no one want to lose face by acknowledging something so shameful.



The Forbidden Palace had its entry was garnish with the token picture of Chairman Mao. I was also told the Forbidden Palace would be huge, and in definitely was. The concubines alone must've taken a fifth of that space for their own living quarters. The best view was from the temple behind the Forbidden Palace which we went to see afterwards. It wasn't just the size, it was the detail and how much had been preserved so perfectly, it's definitely something that the Chinese people are and should be proud of.



Then we hopped on a local bus to check out another market near by. I hear from the girls who went in that the bartering was a lot tougher there and the prices were much higher. I had some more delicious Chinese ice cream before a group of us moved on to the bar street nearby for some food. unfortunately we fund out that Western food in China is rarely cheap or accurate.