A Communist Parade
Beijing, China
My trip to see The Great Wall was going to be in August of 1999, but then I caught a news clip on CNN. China was getting ready to throw a birthday bash in September to commemorate its 50th Anniversary under communist rule. There would be parades and other joyous festivities! While I certainly would never be one to celebrate the joys of communist living, I was curious. I postponed my trip for one month and flew to Beijing in September.
There were a lot of celebrations all right – a grand parade down one of the main boulevards and a flowery, elaborate show of pageantry inside The Forbidden City. They would have been a sight to behold, if only I could have seen the sights for myself.
While walking down one of the crowded, main boulevards, I ran smack into a wall of soldiers blocking my path. At first, I thought they were a part of the parade that hadn’t yet joined the procession. They would soon be marching and moving, so I waited for them to move, but they stubbornly stood there. My impatience was getting the better of me. I tried to go around them, but they blocked the road. The uniformed soldiers with their rifles in hand separated the parade from the crowd.
What was going on? I wondered. I wanted to ask someone about the soldiers, but I don’t speak Mandarin. I looked around and saw a Caucasian standing idly by at the side of the road. He didn’t look nearly as perplexed as I was and seemed to have a grasp on the situation. I walked over to him and said “Hello,” hoping he was an English speaker.
“Hi,” he said with a smile.
His vernacular greeting indicated he was American. I felt relieved we wouldn’t have to talk in broken English.
“What’s going on here?” I asked him. “I’m trying to see the parade, but those soldiers are blocking the way.”
“They’re keeping out the public,” the guy informed me. “You have to be some sort of a VIP to get past the soldiers to see it.”
I wrinkled my brow and spouted out. “You’re kidding me! You have to be a special somebody to see a parade?”
The guy smiled ruefully and sighed out loud, “Believe it or not.”
I thanked him and walked away shaking my head. When I watched CNN, I had assumed the parade would be for anyone and everyone, just like the U.S. Little did I know that in a communist country, you have to be a special somebody in the government or the army to stand by the side of the road and view an exhibition.
I meandered away from the display I didn’t get to see and headed over to The Forbidden City. At least I’d view that historical site, and that assumption turned out to be my next mistake.
On my way to The Forbidden City, I questioned if I could get in since the powers-that-be might be having a pageantry there. I dismissed that concern having concluded that if the VIPs were busy watching a parade, they couldn’t also be inside The Forbidden City simultaneously attending a pageantry.
When I arrived at the gates of The Forbidden City, I wished I had stuck with my original plan to visit Beijing a month earlier. There was no display. Only the people working under the VIPs busily setting up The Forbidden City were present. It was closed to everyone without VIP status.
I chalked up the day as another learning experience. It taught me something about sightseeing in a foreign country – the inclusion of democracy versus the exclusion of communism. Next time I’ll see a parade on Main Street, U.S.A., and I’ll appreciate the presence of all people – VIPs or not.
——–
