In booming Beijing, remnants of ancient China are tangible in the Forbidden City. In Hong Kong, skyscrapers symbolize one of the world’s most successful economies. And in Macau, across the Pearl River Delta from Hong Kong, gambling generates more revenue than in Las Vegas.
In one trip, I visited all three places — sampling history on the mainland, the fruits of capitalism in Hong Kong, and the glitzy casinos of Macau — and experienced three very different Chinas.
For me, it was a personal journey as well as a vacation. My family left China in 1949, first for Taiwan and then the Philippines. I wasn’t sure what to expect and whether or not they would accept me. I’m Chinese, but I act like a foreigner culturally. I speak my provincial dialect of Fujianese, but not Mandarin, the official Chinese language. (I also speak Tagalog, the Filipino language.) My family was part of the Chinese diaspora that left the mainland more than half a century ago. We are the overseas Chinese, living in foreign lands in our own communities, a people without a true home.
Often during my visit, someone would start talking to me in Mandarin. I know some Mandarin (I studied it for years but forgot most of it), so I would say, “I don’t speak Mandarin. I speak English.”
Despite this, I was surprised at how much I felt at home in China, and I felt proud of the country’s economic development. This, I felt, was the future for our people.
But like most visitors, I wanted to see the country’s history, too. I spent my first full day in China there at the Badaling section of the Great Wall, the same place visited by President Obama.
The wall resembles the writhing body of a dragon hugging China’s hills, mountains and grasslands. Parts of the wall date back to the first century BC and it was built and rebuilt over two millennia to keep out invaders. At 3,500 miles long, it’s longer than the United States is wide.
The Great Wall is in the mountains, an hour outside Beijing. I joined a tour group to see it, reserving ahead online for about $30 ($20 less than reserving through a hotel). The tour included lunch but the guide detoured us to jade and silk factories where prices gouge unwary tourists — a common practice among local operators. An alternative is to take a cab, but make sure to negotiate a price with the driver before leaving.
The Forbidden City is located in the middle of Beijing, surrounded by concentric circles of roads, across from Tiananmen Square, easily accessible by subway.
Built in the early 1400s, the Forbidden City was home to 24 emperors in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The imperial dynasty ended with Puyi, who ruled from 1909 to 1911 and was portrayed in the movie “The Last Emperor.” It is called the Forbidden City because commoners weren’t allowed in until 1925.
As the world’s largest palace complex, it spans 7.8 million square feet, or about 135 football fields, with over 8,700 rooms. The Forbidden City is divided into the southern Outer Court, where emperors conducted state affairs and elaborate ceremonies, and the smaller Inner Court where they lived. It is believed that in the Inner Court heaven and earth met, and yin and yang — opposing yet linked cosmic forces such as dark and light, male and female — are united.
Dragons were the symbol of the Chinese emperor. On the Nine Dragon Wall on the eastern perimeter, dragons are depicted in colorful glazed tile, and giant versions of the smaller dragon carvings are found all over the palace complex. Commercial Loan Workout.
