Jill and me at the Harem.
Jill and I continued to meander through the Harem and continued to be overwhelmed by the beauty and style.
It is so disconcerting, in a positive way, to walk from a city that is fully engaged in the 21st century, with trains, cars, phones, and other “necessities” of life and then go to a place that is so quiet, tranquil and calm.
Well, other than the 20,000 or so other tourists in the palace as we walked around it.
Maybe that is an exaggeration but there are a lot of people and they do an excellent job of keeping the lines moving and making sure that tourists can see the exhibitions and not feel rushed at the same time.
It is so different from the tourist areas in China, which are overwhelmed with people, because so many people go on vacation at the same time.
Just to give an example: During the Spring Break vacation, here in China, 150,000,000 people travel within one week.
One Hundred And Fifty Million people.
That is half the total population of the USA who would be traveling, in one week, to a destination.
And back to work during that same week.
And many of those destinations are inside China so the transit system is totally overwhelmed.
It also is a sign of the times and how families are split apart since so many of the parents are working in massive cities, like Beijing, and only go home to see their children during these times.
There is an excellent movie, Last Train Home, that I would recommend to anyone that would like to get a feeling for what 150,000,000 people trying to get home, and then back to work, in one week feels like.
We had to deal with it when we visited the Great Wall, one time, and we will never do it again.