During my trip to China, I went three times to the Tiananmen Square. It was November, and because of the foggy days, my first impression was just as confusing. I literally couldn’t see where it ended standing at one of the sides of the square and looking towards the other side of it. I just walked until I hit the next street and found a taxi/bike that took me to a little hostel I found in a brochure I had gotten in my Beijing hostel. The second time was late that night, again dark, but it was interesting how some of the buildings around it became more visible for me because of their lighting fixtures. It all made sense in my third visit, lucky enough, it was a clear blue sky and then I could realize of the power message behind the design of such a big public space, surrounded by quite detailed public and historical buildings and the iconic image of Mao Tse Tung on the red wall of the Forbidden City entrance… “The square is 880 meters (2887 feet) south to north and 500 meters (1640 feet) east to west, a total area of 440,000 square meters (108.7 acres), which makes it the largest open-urban square in the world.” Better remembered for the 1989 protests, this historical place left not as many answers as it did left me with many questions about our history, about democracy, freedom, the city planning and also, it reminded me of the actual size of this great country. Fernando

All I knew was I wanted to go to Pudong, and visit some of the skyscrapers located over there. After asking some people that were with me that day, they said there was a tunnel where you could get some sort of vehicle to get there. Nothing too exciting I thought. But it was only when we went downstairs from the Bund, that I starte to find this place quite interesting. What only needed to be a tunnel and a wagon to go from one end to the other, was more like a fun ride where you enjoy light colorful effects, music and graphic enterteinment. It was clear to me that everything in life can be great and there is no need to make it boring. “… the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel has a total length of 646.7 meter and is China’s first cross-river artificial sightseeing tunnel. Modern high technologies are applied in the decoration of the interior walls of the tunnel, providing the passengers with background music as well as pictures, patterns and views about people, history, culture, science and technology and natural scenery…” I really enjoyed it, as a little curiosity of the city, and a good way to get to the entrance of the Oriental Pearl Towr and of course, to Pudong district. Fernando

I somehow regret not having taken more photographs the day I went to visit Mao Zedong Mausoleum and queued with some hundreds of chinese people to see for a few seconds the embalmed body of the legendary leader of the Comunist Party of China. We arrived early in the morning and not surprisingly there were already hundreds of people waiting in line, most of them chinese. Before getting in, a small kiosk sells yellow flowers to the visitors for leaving in front of the mausoleum, just how they sell flowers outside any other cemetery, but, of course this was “slightly” different, in part because you know all the flowers go to the same person, and they come in thousands a day. We got our yellow flowers and without having any direct connection to the chinese that were surrounding us, I felt excited and somehow moved by the respect shown by everyone as they were getting closer to the entrance in absolute silence. Of course, and this was a little sad, just when it was all a beautiful and almost religious experience, we were thrown into a “gift shop”, right before the exit of the building. Although they have all kinds of interesting material related with the history of Mao and China during his life, I was discouraged to buy anything, just for the irony of using all that respect and unforgettable experience to sell… whatever they were selling. But that part is just a personal opinion, if you go to China and luckily stop in Beijing , this is a place you have to go, should I say, to experience. Buy the flower, walk with the people and then let your jaw drop while you see Mao Zedong in front of you and just few feet away! Fernando