from Kiara

Today we went to visit Chairman Mao’s memorial, and it was very interesting while being a bit overwhelming. Mao Zedong was China's first Chairman of the Central Politburo of the Communist Party of China. The memorial was extremely large and could hold more than 500,000 people all at once. That alone amazed me, because I didn't expect so many people to be there. Everyone seemed so full of joy, just happy to be in the presence of Chairman Mao. Smiling, bowing, taking photos, and going to visit his preserved body. All I could do was stare at the large population in silence. That's when it hit me. When I was a freshman taking Chinese History I hadn't had the same opinion, especially after reading Red Scarf Girl by JiLi Jiang. This was a memoir about JiLi’s experience during the Chinese Cultural Revolution which was a very dark history for China, caused by Chairman Mao. Mao Zedong is seen as a great leader and loved by many. On the other hand, he is seen as terrible because of some of the things that China had to endure during his time of power. So it's almost like you have to pick a side, and to many Westerner’s he isn't viewed as the greatest. In China there have been plenty of “Oba Mao” T-shirts and I just couldn't make the connection between the two very different leaders, but they could. This was all very interesting to me. Lastly, I found out that Mao died on the date of my birthday, and the year my mother was born.

After, we quickly moved to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty. This was the Emperor's home for about 500 years, but is now a museum and is the most visited museum in the world. This palace is the largest thing that I've ever laid eyes on. I couldn't believe it. The Emperor’s palace had over 90 buildings and over 300 concubines living in their own spaces. There was so much detail in the buildings and everything was so carefully made. The amount of space was just ridiculous, and I could sense the loneliness of the concubines that were living there. Almost in exile, because the Emperor wasn't always interested in all of them; he had favorites. While I was trying to take pictures of the Emperor's office, so many people were eager and pushing just to get a photo. It was a very hard to stand firmly. This palace alone showed how hard working these servants were. The hard work, loyalty, and detail was very much noticed.