China: Communist lite

Where do I even begin?! China is not only geographically massive, but also has been a huge up-and-coming country for the past couple decades. In spite of its cityscape, it still has hundreds of amazing historical sights remaining from ancient times. This summer was not my first time in China, but it was my first time in Beijing. We stayed at the Aman Summer Palace Resort which was absolutely mystical. I felt like I was living in the real summer palace (which I actually was!!) like one of the old emperors-! We actually stayed in Beijing for quite a while in comparison to our other stops and got to experience the city and its beautiful outskirts pretty well! We were addicted to the Silk Market, Peking Duck, and fruity moon cakes and let’s just say the week spent in China was one of tons of food and unmatchable sights…

Beijing Snapshot:

1 — The Forbidden City: Roam the massive compound (preferably not in the sweltering heat and among thousands of tourist) and see just how grandiose this “home” of the past emperors and empresses were… no wonder it’s called a city! I fell in love with the bright color combo of turquoise, royal blue and red that was used all over The Forbidden City and most other traditional architecture.

2— The Great Wall of China: Another must see location in Beijing (a little drive out of the city) is, of course, the old national wall of protection from intruders. Each dynasty that ruled China over the years added to The Great Wall to either expand the territory it cov

ered or to renovate it. Today, not all of The Great Wall is still standing due to the lack of proper building materials available in ancient times. The original parts of the wall were constructed with wood and earth, so when there was rain, the wall would decompose and break down. Luckily, the part of the wall that we climbed was a restored section fitted with a chairlift up and a toboggan down!

3— Drive around the city of Beijing and enjoy the beautiful modern architecture. This was my favorite building that I saw on the street. It is called the CCTV Tower.

Quick History

China was feudal for thousands of years during the reign of numerous dynasties. After being in power for 300 years, the last dynasty, the Qing, were removed from power in 1911 by a national revolution led by Sun Yi Xian. Meanwhile, the European countries had their industrial revolution, the French had their revolution, and America got their independence. Consequently, the British navy became more and more aggressive and wanted to trade with China, specifically aiming to control their sea ports. China neither wanted nor needed the partnership with Western countries like Britain and solely exported goods like tea and porcelain. The British got upset because they felt like this trade was unbalanced since China was making money through exports, while the British couldn’t do the same. Consequently, the British decided to start exporting Opium to China and ended up addicting a huge amount of the population. This led to the Opium Wars which concluded in the signing of the Unequal Treaties — those signed by Chinese officials handing Hong Kong over to the UK under the influence of opium. The Chinese were left poor and suffered severely without a strong leader to raise the country out of its misery.

Two leaders rose up from these unfortunate times: Mao the communist with his red army called the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) and Sun Yat-sen the capitalist. These two leaders and their opposing parties went to war until the Japanese invasion in 1931 that began their involvement in the Second World War. Japan went on to occupy a large part of the northeast and eastern part of China.

The Civil War continued after WWII and resulted in Sun Yat-sen and his capitalist party escaping to Taiwan. Mao went on to found the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949, which still stands today.

China Today

Before Deng Xiaoping’s “socialism with Chinese characteristics” (aka capitalism in disguise) China was economically closed off for around 30 years. Today, China is one of the world’s largest economies and comprises 15% of the whole world’s GDP. It is also home to more than one seventh of the world’s population.

China is one of the most impressive countries I have ever visited due to the fact that they have had such a long and hard history, yet they still ended up being one of the most influential countries today!