More Mao

Besides seeing the Great Wall we also took some time to see the stuff around Tienanmen Square including the Forbidden City and my favorite, preserved Mao. Much like Ho Chi Minh Mao despite leaving explicit orders that he be cremated was preserved in the creepy Soviet style immediately following his death. Much of the technique came from the Soviets through Vietnam as the Chinese and Russians weren't on great terms at the time. Mao's mausoleum is a lot like Ho Chi Minh's except bigger. The line wraps around three sides of the gigantic structure in the middle of Tienanmen Square, and even with all that requires that the line fold in on itself several times. Being in China this of course means that there are constantly people trying to cut in line. Chinese line cutters aren't really like the ones you might find in America either. In America once a security guard caught you trying to cut in line you would probably be ashamed and go back to the end, but not in China. In China people had to be basically forcibly ejected from line and there were endless arguments with the various guards. If people were forcibly stopped they would often just try to find another spot to cut in. This constant back and forth combined with the already huge size of the line made the wait about two hours.

This contrast pretty sharply with what I saw in Vietnam where the whole atmosphere around the tomb was pretty somber and there were probably as many guards as people. Once you finally got near the entrance there was a place selling flowers, which were then deposited about five feet away near a big portrait of Mao, and I'm sure collected and resold. People always wonder how China's economy can grow so fast, honestly I think a big part of it is that the Chinese just naturally take to capitalism in a way you don't see in many countries. I've been to the tomb of Mao and Sun Yat-sen probably the two most venerated figures in China, and they were selling junk at each place. Inside the huge mausoleum the first room has flowers and some big pictures but is pretty uninteresting. When I finally go into the room with Mao it was again a lot like in Vietnam. Mao was behind several layers of glass and his lower body was covered with a big flag. Again I don't really know what a person whose been dead that long should look like, but he didn't look great. Maybe it's that he was never as good looking in life as Ho Chi Minh but he just looked old and sick behind all that glass. Having waited so long to finally get to the room with the body I walked really slowly through the room. One of the guards made a hurry up motion to me, but in good Chinese fashion I just ignored him and took my time.