There he is beaming down from the wall of the ‘Forbidden City’ overlooking the vast expanse of Tiananmen Square. This is Beijing the gateway to China, where Mao is still held as a defining, if now a somewhat forgotten, historical figure.
There have been several generations of Chinese who’ve now lived the good life and have no wish to return to the past. Mao died in 1976, he was 87 and only a handful of his staunch followers from the disastrous Cultural Revolution days are still alive.
I was here looking up to Mao six years ago. I ponder the changes in this country in that short time. One of the most obvious is the number of new cars clogging the roads and beginning to push out the bikes. Many of these cars are Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, BMW, Audi and usually painted black.
The up-coming Olympics in 2008 were a dominant feature of life in China six years ago. And they proved the sceptics wrong; the smog was not a problem. However, once the factories were back working and with increasing numbers of vehicles on the roads smog is again a major environmental dilemma.
The Chinese are quietly preparing to become the world’s number one economic super-power accepting it may take a little time. At this stage they see themselves comfortably as number two.
My daughter Lauren, who speaks, reads and writes Mandarin was our guide six years ago and is looking after a group of us again. She has a position with a Beijing university teaching English and is married to a local architect.
It is 14 years since she first came to China; so she has seen the country’s transformation, much of it driven by the unique mix of communism and capitalism.
It’s great having a guide whose first language is English and someone who also understands the culture. She acknowledges, with a touch of nostalgia, that changes have made China more efficient especially on the roads. The horse and cart have all but gone and even the ubiquitous trike numbers have fallen.
Everyone is in a hurry and on most buses and trains patrons stand. The Chinese long ago realised you could squeeze more people on vehicles if they are standing. But getting on or off in rush hours takes a major effort.
There are no awards for being polite. It’s every man (or woman) for themselves. You throw yourself into the doorway and rely on those pushing from behind to keep the momentum going. Squashed, but on board, there’s time to notice how tall the Beijing folk are and they smell as if they had just applied an expensive deodorant. When here six years ago I bought deodorant and ended up smelling as if I’d used fly spray.
We did ride the Bullet Express a train which cruises at 300 km/hour. However before a recent serious crash it hit speeds nearer 400 km/hour.
My daughter took us around the usual tourist attractions such as the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall. Following on from the Olympics in 2008, all were in pristine condition.
This time we didn’t get to see Chairman Mao, who has been nicely embalmed and on show. I don’t think he’ll have changed much as it’s an open secret there’s a spare wax body available when the original needs a bit of maintenance. He’s popped into the freezer each night ready for the crowds next morning. And there are huge crowds waiting. The chairman is a great money spinner still making a fortune for those selling Mao memorabilia.
The Olympics spurred on the change to more western toilets replacing the traditional squat toilet. There is virtually no spitting in the urban parts of town, but no restrictions on smoking.
There is a smell of wealth on the streets of Beijing especially in the 20-45 age group. They have been untouched by the Cultural Revolution, dress well, look good, are smart, educated and have two cell phones. These are the people whose goodwill New Zealand will have to cultivate in the future.
