TIANANMEN, THE FORBIDDEN CITY, AND THE EGG

I had meant to post this earlier and to write more, but I've been struck down by a wicked virus that's left me wheezing and whimpering and rather useless when it comes to hitting the books or completing any tasks that are not sleeping. I'm not the only one. Among my formerly young, healthy classmates, one student was recently hospitalized with seizures, one has the measles, one has ulcers of the colon, and several others are out with illnesses like mine. I'm thinking IUP should change its website to read "Learn Mandarin in Beijing -- if you survive!"

Anyhow, here are some more pictures from my brother's visit here (these mostly being ones that he took). I'll get the rest up shortly.

This is Tiananmen (天安门) gate, which looks out over the famous square. I've been here, or passed by here, a few dozen times, but the place is so powerfully iconic that it still kind of strains my eyes when I try to take it all in.

Passing through the main archway, you enter the city:

At first it seemed a cruel mockery, but there seems to be something to this 'Spring Festival' thing that officially ended a few days ago. Temperatures over the past week have been about 10-15 degrees warmer than they were last week when I brought Rick and Mom here. Not that I minded the cold much. It was a gorgeous crisp day, with magically clear skies and golden light falling on Tiananmen gate and the melting ice in the moat outside it.

On that day I dropped my charges off to explore the Forbidden City together with an English-speaking guide, and set off wandering for a couple of hours. My first stop was new National Center for the Performing Arts, or, as it is popularly called 'The Egg'.

I'd glimpsed the Egg before, on a smoggy day at the end of December, but it looked much prettier in the sun. I'm still not wild about the glass and titanium shell of the building, but I love the shallow pool that surrounds it on all sides. The building in the background is the Great Hall of the People, which faces the Square on the other side. I like the Jetsons-esque pod shape and silvery shine surrounded by the artificial lake and I like that it is right next door to a vast expanse of concrete and socialist realism. They are both utopian fantasies, after all, and for that reason I think they complement each other very nicely.

A bunch of little kids were leaning into the pool and breaking off chunks of ice that were then either thrown in the water or slid across the ice air-hockey style. Mothers stood close at hand, in at least one case patiently holding on to a foot or piece of clothing to prevent the child from going in. It looked like fun.