THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Welcome to our trip to the People's Republic of China we uh flew uh to Hong Kong for a two-day rest before beginning our Chinese tour of 17 days Hong Kong has approximately 400 square miles and a population of 5 million people with 97% Chinese the British acquired this at the Treaty of Nang King in 1842 they also acquired kulum in 1860 the new territories continues to be un leased from the People's Republic of China and this lease will end July 1st 1999 the view of Hong Kong Pres presents a view of skyscrapers while in Hong Kong we visited the tiger Bal [Music] Garden this is a very famous landmark with another Tiger Balm Garden in uh Singapore named after Tiger Bomb which is a lotion that cures everything from uh in growing toenails to warts and to argia this is quite a tourist attraction the figures seen are from Chinese literature and fairy tales very colorful cart people were quite enthusiastic as they walked walked uh through this area needless to say we didn't buy any tiger bom but it was for [Music] sale our trip also took us around the harbor of Hong Kong especially to the Aberdine fishing Village which you see many of the places around Hong Kong have the name Victoria to it since the British purchased uh Hong Kong during the reign of Queen Victoria probably the most famous places Victoria Park and Victoria feet we were able to go on a small boat and ride through through the aine fishing Village this Village has 20,000 boat people and 3,000 boats we understand the government is attempting to have these people move off the boats onto the land but they have remained on the water for many many years the boat people stay there live there day and night children go to school there and they often uh when they set out to sea we'll even go as far as uh the China Sea for fishing and then return again our boat ride was really quite a noisy one as well as a rough one we had a very large frame woman of Chinese ancestry guiding this boat there were a couple of foreign people on the boat and they were haggling over the price of the ride she was taking them to the famous floating restaurant so at times we seem to be going around in circles at one time we thought we were lost and she had a difficult time taking us back to where we started again so the ride was um uh very fast at times frightening but uh we made it and it was extremely interesting as we got into the very nooks and crannies in the abine fishing Village this is located in the typhoon Shelter Bay Area and uh as the word says these bolts are more or less shielded from the extremes of weather and the typhoons see the skyline of Hong Kong in the background the population of 20,000 is just an approximate one in the aine fishing Village there are supposedly 65,000 people living on boats this is our guide for the boat ride she is now haggling with these people that is the famous floating restaurant we made two or three attempts to land but these people couldn't settled on the price so it took a little while our first Excursion at Beijing our first Excursion at Beijing was to the famous Tian Square which is called the Gate of heavenly peace it was here on October 1st 1949 that chairman Mau proclaimed the People's Republic of China you're looking at the famous people's Hall here and this is the uh located on the west side of the square on the east side of the square are two buildings the Museum of Chinese history and the Museum of Chinese Revolution at the North End of the square is the famous Tian gate which enters the Forbidden City and at the South End is the famous German Mau Memorial Hall and in front of this in the middle of the square is the famous monument to the people's hero this Monument is approximately 124 ft high this whole Square can contain 500,000 people and there are portraits of Marx and Eng Les lenon and Stalin all standing on the north side of the square here's the famous Monument to the people's [Music] Heroes the Chinese come here to um see the square and to visit ma maam ma Liam is open three days a week and there are long lines to see um the coffin which is a crystal coffin and the body is draped in the with the Communist Party flag the maum was completed 8 months after the death of M there's cherman [Music] M as as we passed the gates of Tian Square we wenter enter into the Forbidden City through the Meridian gate we pass over a series of white marble bridges over the Golden water river and leading to the gate of great Harmony the Forbidden City was started in 1407 and completed in 1430 this was the home of the Ming and the queing dynasties for five centuries until Dr sonat Sin overthrew the Emperors in the revolution in 1911 after this date The Forbidden City Gates were open to the commoner there are four Gates and Four Towers there are over 9,000 halls and Chambers it's a very spectacular 240 acres of treasures that contain Chinese bronzes porcelain paintings Jade and treasures it was said that shankai Sheek took a great deal of the treasures to Taiwan when he escaped in 49 see the beautiful white marble staircases that are leading up to the hall of supreme [Music] Harmony besides the Hall of supreme Harmony there's the Hall of preserving Harmony and the Hall of Perfect Harmony there are various animals uh that are placed before the the main gates the most frequently seen a statue is that of a [Music] unicorn there are also [Music] Phoenix's giant turtles [Music] dragons the U unicorn is a legendary animal of ancient times the Chinese unicorn stands for all things good and auspicious it is an amalgamation of a dragon's head and a Lion's Tail a deer's horn and ox's hoof and one what more covered with a scaly hide and a picture of fierce bravery you can see some of the buildings within the Forbidden City and the white marble Gates and [Music] staircases [Music] 24 Emperors had their homes here in the Forbidden City until 1911 23 mil south of Beijing is located the Temple of Heaven actually this consists of a trio buildings the Hall of prayer for Good Harvest which you're looking at now the Imperial Heavenly Vault with the echo wall in the altar of Heaven the Temple of Prayer For Good Harvest is 104 ft high with a conical shape that has glazed blue tiles and white marble staircase leading to it this is a very holy place for both the Ming and the Ching dynasties and it was built in the 15th century they would come and pray early in the season for a good harvest this is located in a park where there are many cyas in Pagoda [Music] trees another uh place for the tourists for families to visit with their children and to learn about the past Chinese history wherever we went the Chinese people were most curious about cameras and especially Polaroid cameras they would crowd around the cameras and the uh especially when the film was being changed to look at the inside of the camera this park had a a famous shopping place called The Marco Polo uh shopping center where there were just beautiful clo and aases the grounds were just lovely to walk on with the Cypress and pagot trees many benches to sit on have picnics this is the Imperial Heavenly Vault again with a glazed uh blue tile roof and the altar of Heaven next to it there's a white marble staircase leading up to the Imperial Heavenly Vault and surrounding the Imperial Heavenly vault is the echo wall this uh young lad had his picture taken dressed like a sailor boy also a Polaroid picture taken and here are the crowds around the cameraman this is the famous Echo wall which surr founds the Imperial Heavenly Vault there is a long Courtyard and on the courtyard wall were a series of glazed T tiles of [Music] dragons and we left the gate again there was a long Corridor both entering and exit and here's the famous unicorn which is a famous animal of ancient times the female has her foot on the top of a baby and the male has his right foot on the top of the [Music] world for say thank you I won't say thank you we leave the Temple of Heaven returning to Beijing the following morning we again entered Tian Square in order to view the uh ma maum we are now on the Square proper with hundreds of people chairman maong Memorial Hall occupies about 200,000 square feet stands 100 fet high has a twin roof supported by 44 gigantic pillars a wide stairway leads up to the entrance and an inscription reads chairman Mau Memorial Hall there's a statue of the martyrs of the revolution in front of the building as you enter the first Auditorium you will be confronted by an enormous seated figure of M sculptured in White marble light falling on the Statue creates an ethereal effect and the figure appears to be transluc the effect is heightened by the huge velvet tapestry called mountains and rivers of the motherland then one passes to the next Auditorium where the body of cherman mauo draped with the red flag of the Communist Party of China is preserved in a crystal coffin on either side of the room are pine trees the old symbol of longevity growing in ceramic pots this is extremely Majestic everyone walks in single file over red carpet we return to the square again where literally thousands of people were lined up as we left the square we headed north to the Ming tombs and on to mount battling where we were to ascend the Great Wall we are approaching the M tombs and you will see 12 pairs of white stone animals here's the elephant and camel the main tombs are are located 30 m Northwest of Beijing or ping in a lovely park and at the foot of a hill where the 13 tombs of 13 Ming Emperors are located only one of the tombs has been excavated and this was excavated in in [Music] 1959 the park is very beautiful with many trees and bodas for [Music] prayer this is the Tomb of the 13th Ming Emperor ding ling it was at in 1959 Chinese plann excavate all of the tombs when there is sufficient money for this type of work we met school children here as they [Music] visit many of the places of interest to learn about their Chinese [Music] culture we uh went into the tomb and there was a wooden box but the body of the emperor is no longer located there and we were not told where the body was removed too this is a scale of the Hill where all of the Ming tombs have been identified from the main tombs we arrived at Mount Babin which is 31 miles Northwest of Beijing and it is here that we were to climb the Great Wall for a distance of across approximately 1 kilometer the Great Wall was started in the quing dynasty 221 to 207 BC and at that time it was built to unify China and to keep the nomads Warriors out of China the extent of the wall consists of 30 945 miles covering five provinces and the main purpose of the wall was defense as well as unifying the small provinces 300,000 men took 10 years to build the wall it is claimed that 235 million cubic yards of rammed Earth form the Wall's core and 79 million cubic yards of Brick and Stone cover the wall at this point we started climbing the wall and walked 1 kilometer and bad weather this would almost be impossible to climb as there are steps and then ramps along the way and railings but the stones have been worn down and in rainy weather or icy weather one could easily slip at the very top of the wall one is privileged to get a magnificent view of China this is another great tourist attraction and considered one of the seven wonders of the [Music] world again many people attempted to climb some climbed to the very top others stopped at relay station we were at the top when this was taken and shooting back to the ground where the buses were located we also received a sign certificate with a Chinese seal to prove that we did accomplish this feat and new we're back in Beijing on tanan Boulevard the most famous Boulevard headed toward the zoo and the Summer Palace people L here they going to the summer P they're waiting for the public bus the famous PE King Zoo the home of the four Great pandas is on the way to the Summer Palace the zoo contains 500 species of animals and birds the main attraction here of course the giant pandas ZZ and Yuan Jin are also here we saw four large pandas usually in the morning the pandas are quite sleepy however we were lucky to see them active this morning come on come on the panda diet consists of bamboo trees come on look around this way and smile they usually eat up to 40 pounds of bamboo a day in the pandas [Music] and especially this one who just needed they have a little back scratch so he chose the closest pole in the Northwest provinces of China a vast land is being put into to preserve Where the wild pandas are roaming it is claimed that only a thousand pandas are left so the Chinese people are doing everything possible uh to preserve uh this species again the this little fellow had quite an [Music] itch we went around the corner and uh saw the small Panda and these fellows were very [Music] active pacing around the [Music] cage [Music] this gives a story of the small Panda our next trip took us to the lovely Summer Palace which is Northwest of Beijing another name is the garden of golden Waters this uh Summer Palace was used used by the Ming and the quen Emperors it was first built in 1153 by the jyn emperor and rebuilt in 1888 by doer Empress XI with 5 million ounces of silver set aside to build a modern Navy of interest is the Palace building at the foot of longevity Hill this contains many bronzes Jade and statues outside the building of the Phoenix unicorns the garden consists of longevity Hill with with its Palace buildings and temples and lake kuning and Lotus Gardens you see in the distance the Temple of Buddhist virtue here Robert had his picture taken in one of the Ming uh garments I think uh he was noticed noted as the Ming [Music] Ling here here is Lake cing with the Lotus Gardens in the front people were in small boats out on the lake with lunches or just for boat pleasure we walked along the a long covered Corridor this was a beautiful Corridor that was covered one could also walk outside of this aligned by cypress trees again we saw many school children visiting the Summer [Music] [Applause] Palace the gracefulness of the dower Empress CI was certainly emphasized here is the Temple of Buddhist [Music] virtue [Music] one of the landmarks here is the famous Stone bolt with stained glass windows another extravagant purchase that the doer made with money pinpointed for the Navy back to Lake [Music] ping mest Gardens again we walked along the garden of harmonious interest Crossing [Music] Bridges temples pagodas just a beautiful Rock beautiful weather some of the most beautiful landscape that we saw in China was at the Summer [Music] Palace some of the people visiting had their picture taken in various Ming garments everyone seem to have a great deal of fun doing this again there were shopping arcades located we then went to the American Embassy where we talked with the agricultural counselor and learned that Wisconsin had beat Michigan in the first football game this was well guarded with the Marine Corps and all sorts of radar equipment we are happy to see the American flag [Music]