Kind of yellowish I’d say

It’s when you have visitors you get to go out and see and experience things; a chance to get away from the mundane days in the suburb when everything is the same, day after day.

When my dad came to visit to help us unpack and get organized we suddenly had nothing to unpack or organize since our container, hmmm how shall I put it, got lost on the way. So with all this free time and a visitor who had never been to China before, what to do? Well, I planned his visit as a 30/30/40 combination; 30% shopping, 30% sightseeing and 40% eating and drinking. We started off with the Swedish Chamber of Commerce’s Christmas party followed by champagne brunch at the Westin. Monday was dedicated to shopping and Tuesday to sightseeing.

What do you have to see if you visit Beijing? Well, Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City of course. We headed to the big square, the center of this gigantic city, a place filled history – recent and ancient. Even though I’d been there on numerous occasions I had never been to see Chairman Mao where he lies in his mausoleum, embalmed, for all his followers and curious lao wais to come see. “I’ve seen the great Mao six times!” Mr. Li proudly told us on our way over. “I love Chairman Mao” he continued” “ but it’s not the real one you will see, it’s made of wax, the real Chairman Mao is kept in the “xia” (under, I guess he meant basement)”.  “Chairman Mao’s daughter was once in my car, she was very old.” he finishes before dropping us off.

With this information under our belt we head out onto the square and follow the crowd around the big square shaped building that is the mausoleum. We had parked on the wrong side and have to walk all around to get to the entrance where we stand like two big question marks. Where to go now? A guard spotted us and begins to ask, rapidly: “How many cameras? Do you have passport? Come this way, this way!”, he says as he almost pushes us while accompanying us out of the square, across the road to another building where we are to deposit of everything except our money and passports. The guard ushers us on while continuing to hurry us on: “kwai, kwai, kwai!” (Fast, fast, fast!). He takes us behind, the counter, inside the door to the inner sanctum of deposited handbags, cameras, luggage, plastic bags (the things people lug around) and other random items. Some people visiting Tiananmen Square looks like thy just stepped off the train (and they probably did) and all of their belongings are stored here while they pay their visit to the great Chairman Mao.

Things deposited and we hurry back, through the security and pass the queue lining up for the next security check. Suddenly he stops: “wu shi kuai (50RMB)”, he almost whispers and signals that this should be handled in secret. I make the mistake by asking if that is for one of two and then of course 50 is for one and we have to pay him 100RMB ($15 or so) and he pockets the money and pushes us through so we don’t have to show passports or give money to anyone else. Then he vanishes out of the blue and we are on our own. Though I’m positive proper identification is necessary, it might be free to visit the great leader but surely, this guards efforts were worth the 100RMB he pocketed. He can buy himself lunch all week and still afford to buy his friends a beer at the end of the day. Or pay his electricity AND phone bill for the month.

Even though we jumped the line, we still have some way to go, including another security check involving post September 11 like airport security measures. We are scanned, patted down, our things (what we have left) go through an x-ray and finally we are cleared. Right outside the majestic building there are yellow flowers for sale, a mountain of yellow carnations for 3 kuai each. We walk up the stairs, take off our hats as we enter and keep silent as the sign tells us to do, and there in front of us, people leave their flowers, worshipping a statue of the great Mao. The same flowers will most likely be carried back and sold all over again. A nice business I’d say, very profitable.

There is no room to veer, we simply follow the crowd through a corridor, into another and then the line divides in two and we are ushered into the center of the building were the Great Mao lies (or his wax copy, shhhh) for everyone to see. It all takes less than 30 seconds. He looks a bit pasty, kind of yellowish and with weird red eyes that almost shine like flashlights or laser beams. The glass box is lit up, of course, which may cause the yellowishness.

And that’s it. We’re done. We’ve done our duty, go back to collect our things, stroll a while around Tiananmen Square, trying to avoid hat, postcard, scarf and photographers and make our way over to the Forbidden City to absorb a completely different era of Chinese history.