I'm so interested about Mao Tse Tsung.
The atrocities that he did during his regime is unforgivable and yet the majority of the Chinese revere him almost like a saint. I think his face is the most recognizable ever, next to Che Guevarra, all thanks to Andy Warhol who's silk screen painting of his portrait put Mao into the heart of mainstream pop culture.
I then was so thrilled (I'm not into necrophilia and that shit, and I don't want to be morbid about it) when I saw in my Chinese travel book that his embalmed body can be seen in his mammoth-like mauseleum free of charge.
I woke up very early due to the advice of my landboy (the assistant of my landlord, hehe) Lischuang . He told me that getting into the mauseleum is almost like getting into an Eminem concert and there are literally thousands of visitors everyday who line up for hours just to see him. And the visit is actually quite short, the guards would usually guide the queue of visitors and all in all the quick glance will last only 5 minutes.
I've really been into the extremes in this journey. Two weeks ago, in laos, the weather was around 40 degrees (the hottest recorded in years), and last night here in Beijing, it was freezing cold. I forgot that it's still winter - going to spring here and I didn't have winter clothes except a jacket with a jeans-like material.,, and it was reeeeeeally cold this morning.
The leaveless trees are just amazing here, all the more because it was enveloped by a thick fog. The morning in Beijing created an aura of mystery, quite haunting really - and to think that I'm visiting a corpse, the whole thing was really quite eery.
When I arrived in Tiananmen Square , there was this big mural of Mao hanging on the entrance gate. I had to cross the street to reach the mauseleum. I must have been too early because the line wasn't just as bad as I was expecting it. But the guards were very strict. Bags and cameras had to be deposited for 5 yuan. I was just again to lazy to do it because it meant that I had to go out of line and walk 200 meters to the deposit area so I just simply hid my camera in my jacket.
I was lucky enough to get through the guards and low and behold, there were hundreds of visitors carrying flowers with them. A giant staue of Mao greeted us just before the dark room where his body lies. And it was really interesting to see the old visitors almost sobbing and teary eyed.
Maoism is Marcosian for us pinoys, and It's interesting to see the Chinese to be so kind to him even though his misgovernance cost the country millions of lives.
I ended just around lunch time and I decided to just check around the city and take pictures of whatever gets my fancy.
Beijing is beautiful but I find it too polluted. What I thought was fog in the afternoon was actually a smog created by a number of coal powerplants around the city that actually supplies their energy. The smog makes a great filter on the sun though, and makes taking pictures so cinematic.
Beijing is a really good setting for a movie, it's ancient meets mod. The telephone booths are just so retro-sixties and the buildings are so art deco.
It was getting cold in the late afternoon so I decided to get back to the hotel and call it a day. I wasn't too adventurous with food so I just got some bread for dinner which actually did the trick. Got to the bar (the bar is just bside my room, no kidding, hehe) with Lischang and asked advice where to go next...
The agenda tomorrow - the Forbidden City. The gargantuan palace that housed the emperor and was off-limits to everyone for 500 years...
Amazing! Can't wait!
(Note: I'll be just posting pictures taken by me from my camera from now on just to make the journal more personal, hehe...)
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