2002-12-06 - 1:46 p.m.

Tiananmen Square is Closed

Beijing, Nov. 15

Continuing the story of our trip to China

After lunch we went to see Tiananmen Square, which is supposedly the largest open urban area in the world, or something like that. The Lonely Planet guidebook calls it "a vast desert of pavement," as good a description as any. It is damn big.

Of course what the square is best known for, at least to westerners, is the student demonstrations that were crushed by the Chinese government there in 1989. This was the subject of some dubious jokes by Lily and me as we debated setting up a booth selling toy tanks to tourists. We did this joshing very quietly since there seemed to be a lot of humorless official types around.

This wasn't the most tasteless joke we saw while we were there: there is all sorts of Mao Zedong memorabilia you can buy like Mao t-shirts and even a Mao watch that features the Chairman's hand waving back and forth with each second. Visually Mao is kind of cute and cuddly like a Chinese teddy bear, but the Lonely Planet guide sternly reminds me that he was a totalitarian dictator who was responsible for the deaths of millions of people and made untold millions more miserable. Would you wear a Stalin or a Hitler T-shirt? Well, would you? I didn't think so!

The reason for me mentioning Chairman Mao was that his tomb was around there, but it was closed for the Communist Hoopla. I think Lily wanted to go there so she could report back to her Chinese father that Mao is indeed dead, and she even has proof!

Here's a little bit of irony considering the square's reputation, the translation of "Tiananmen" is "Gate of Heavenly Peace." The reason for this: it is near one of the gates of the ancient city wall, part of which is still standing in the middle of a traffic circle.

There was much impressive and stark communist architecture in the buildings surrounding the square. Of course we couldn't get anywhere near the People's Hall, where the big shindig was happening.

Actually, that's what was most impressive about the square - the HUGE police presence there. There seemed to be a policeman standing every twenty feet for blocks and blocks around the square. I was trying to imagine what it was like, guarding some traffic island all day, standing out in the snow and the wind, the guy coming home at night and announcing that he spent his day keeping a stretch of sidewalk ten blocks from the People's Hall terrorist-free. I know that labor is cheap in China, but this is ridiculous.

I joke about it, but it didn't seem very funny at the time, especially since we lao wai stood out like sore thumbs. I notice that the police were doing random bag searches as well. However, they didn't seem to care if we took pictures of each other standing in front of buildings. Spies? Us? The police seemed to be clearing the square, so we had to leave.

Immediately after our stop at Tiananmen, we were taken to a pearl factory near our final stop, the Summer Palace. It seems to be a regular fixture of the CITS (China International Travel Service) to have at least one visit to a Chinese souvenir factory to try to get you to part with as many Yankee Dollars as possible. I really didn't mind these visits, and I think Lily and I bought something at nearly every one we visited - their prices seemed to be lower than the usual tourist places, buying from the manufacturer and all that.

A somewhat creepy Chinese girl with bad skin gave us a lecture about where all the pearls came from and about how different minerals in the bits put into the oyster can yield different color pearls. I guess these were what you would call cultured pearls, but I'm not really sure of my designations.

Standing in front of an aquarium, she asked us how many pearls were inside your average oyster. Now I had assumed that there was only one, but I could tell this answer was wrong from the way she phrased the question. I guessed three, but nobody else in the group was willing to go higher than five. She took a knife and pried open an oyster, and I think there were like nine tiny half-formed pearls inside it. Well, you learn something new every day.

In her previous wanderings in China, Lily had been to another pearl factory and already had a pearl ring to show for it. Here we bought her a nice pair of black pearl earrings, and bargained like a couple of Yankee Bastards, getting them for less than half the marked price.

The secret of bargaining is this: you have to have a price in mind and you have to be willing to walk if you don't get it. The pearl seller wouldn't go down far enough so Lily walked away, and finally the girl chased her down. However, when you walk away, there's always the risk that they WON'T run you down, so you have to be ready live without whatever thing you're bargaining over.