Hooters In China???

 I bet you never thought you would ever seen a scene like this!  Yes, believe it or not, Beijing has an uptown section that includes a Hooters.  With so many men on our tour, there was no doubt lunch would be served to us there.

It was another of those "forget what the Government wants us to do, you know, the guys who paid for this entire trip and could put us in prison forever", jump ship and head downtown to find none other than Hooters Chinese style.  

Naturally we had lunch, including hamburgers and fries.  They even had ketchup, none of which tasted like it does in the U.S.  Not the meat, the bun, the cheese or the ketchup!  The sodas were so-so and apparently the beer was tasty, although not my cup of tee.  Saki was served at every meal.

There was another huge language barrier as we again tried to get a cab to go outside their area and return us to our hotel.  Every time we got in the car, I was praying we got home since none of us had any idea of where we were going.  Traffic was the worst you can possibly imagine with honking horns and screeching tires constantly.  I practically kissed the hotel floor when we finally returned this time.

This is a postcard of Tiananmen Square, with government buildings on either side, covered in cameras watching every step you take.  The red buildings top center are the Forbidden City, home of the Emperor from 1420 AD to 1911.  

Mao's picture still hangs in prominence at the gates to the Forbidden City.  See the policeman?  We were surrounded by them constantly, very short thin men in uniforms three sizes too big for them.  It was obvious they were not well fed.  

I have to say I was uncomfortable the entire trip.  My communist antennae were picking up signs everywhere, as we were told exactly what we could take pictures of and who we could talk to.  You might think that would steer the majority of the group into following the rules, but they did not.  

Just inside the first big door was this huge gathering area for the Emperor's army.  It too was full of the current Army, all carrying weapons.  Most of the city, 178 acres to be exact, has been refurbished to it's original state.  You just cannot even begin to imagine the workmanship, carvings, paintings and rock sculptures.  Heat came from bowls four foot tall filled with wood and set on fire, none of which were burning while we were there.  It was quite cold.

There were many local visitors also, cute as buttons.  Little did I realize ... until I saw it first hand ... none of the children's pants have inside seams, nor do they have diapers.  I think you can imagine exactly what that means.  Watch where you step.

Each huge building in the city had a specific purpose.  The emperor slept in one, had meetings in another, had extra bedrooms for his evening romps with ten or twelve of his concubines, had special buildings for meeting dignitaries, another building for his family, as well as more buildings for his army officers.  

The storage buildings holding all the food to feed this massive amount of people were off to the side and had not been repaired yet.  All of this is impenetrable from the outside if they closed the two gates into the property, which is also surrounded by a moat.  

I'm sorry I don't have better pictures.  This was back when film cameras were all we had, and images were printed on paper with no chance of making corrections.  By the way, all of the buildings are built with hundreds of steps so everyone was lower in stature than the emperor.  No one was allowed to be taller, or to even walk UP the steps, including us, which is why the people are going up the wooden steps to the side.

The amount of gold leaf in this center section where he met with his generals is astounding.  Of course we were never allowed near any of it.  We did discover that all of those concubines, wet nurses and wives he had were killed and buried with him.  Wives were never allowed to raise the children.  Women with newborns were brought into the palace to nurse and care for the kids.

It took us an entire day to walk the 178 acres from one side to the other.  Upon exiting the building, we were escorted down a long hallway and underneath the street through a tunnel to Tiananmen Square proper.  We were explicitly warned NOT TO BUY ANYTHING from the poor people selling trinkets.  Mostly they sold a stack of post cards for $10, which we bought for $1.00 and hid in our purses.

This was just before the Olympics and China was testing their transportation systems on us.  Wanting to pose the perfect picture of communism, they were tearing down everything in the vicinity that wasn't "pretty" and forcing people to move out of the area.  More on that later.

We were also warned in no uncertain terms NOT TO TALK TO ANYONE, except each other.  Weird, right?  With all those cameras I spotted, I complied.  Sure enough, some of our group did not.  In no time, one of the men was missing.  This place was huge and full of people.  The guide made us return to the bus where we waited for the police to catch up with the perpetrator.  Naturally it was the guy who was traveling with me.  I would have just left him there, furious that he endangered all of us.  Hey, this is CHINA, not the U.S.

Lucky for him, he was returned to the bus just before we left for the next adventure ... the Great Wall.  You know, the one full of dead people.  The story continues.