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Dan's China diary - day 2
From the Great Wall of China to the Forbidden City...

By Dan Ilett

Published: Thursday 08 June 2006

In May 2006, silicon.com senior reporter Dan Ilett travelled to China, seeking to get behind some of today's most interesting tech and business stories. This is his warts-and-all diary, which appears daily this month. For in-depth coverage of this fact-finding trip inside China, including analysis and exclusive stories, click here.

Sunday 7 May, Beijing

Mr Zhang, the CNET driver, and Susan take me to Badaling this morning to see the Great Wall of China. Lots of mountains surround Beijing but the pollution makes it difficult to see much until you get outside the city.

It's an hour's drive into the countryside. Tourists are everywhere as today is the final day of Golden Week - a national holiday that lasts - you guessed it - a week.

From the cable-car view, we can see masses upon masses of black-haired heads bobbing up and down for the length of the wall. More loud music is playing at the entrance. Apparently it's nationalistic.

The wall itself is mind-blowing - parts of it are 2,000-years-old and it stretches 4,000 miles. Some bits are steep. The steps are high. It's easy to fall over with all the people here.

After the wall we drive to Mr Zhang's favourite restaurant - and it's easy to see why. It's an elaborate, red, wooden building that's been decorated to reflect Chinese traditional culture and the communist mood of the 20th century. Beijingers seem to take a lot of pride in their food and restaurants.

After lunch, it's on to Tiananmen Square. It's huge. But all I can think of are the famous images of the man standing in front of the tanks during the 1989 protests. Now people fly kites - seemingly carefree - on the very same spot.

A few street vendors sell souvenirs. There are enough soldiers around to make me feel a bit intimidated. Red flags are placed carefully on every building, obviously to make you feel this is truly the heart of China's establishment.

The entire square is overlooked by a massive portrait of Mao Zedong. His face hangs on the entrance to the Forbidden City. There's a surprising amount of support for Mao from the young people here. Portraits and statues of him are everywhere. I wonder how much they know about Tiananmen in 1989.

Into the Forbidden City - the red temples and houses, beautifully crafted with ornate carvings of dragons, soldiers and flowers. House after house, where kings and emperors lived through the dynasties.

Part of the city is being revamped for the Olympic Games in 2008. I hear the locals are a bit unhappy the traditional colour of the buildings - dark red - is becoming bright communist red.

After a long day of walking, Susan and I get something to eat. She tells me to order something and I do a bad job, accidentally requesting a dish called 'the head of four lions'. A lot of Chinese dishes are named poetically rather than practically. 'A journey to the countryside' could be roast pig. Turned out 'the head of four lions' was huge pork meatballs.

A good way to end the day, on a belly full of laughs.