Hellish terminals spoil Temple of Heaven

There was a real air of excitement in 2009 as Beijing prepared for October 1 National Day, which coincided with celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Unprecedented floral displays burst into bloom in parks, tourist attractions were cleaned up for the mass migration of visitors and cloud-seeding rockets were launched to ensure picturesque weather the day of the military parade.

Since then, the atmosphere in the lead up to National Day has become steadily more subdued. The media's reportage is decidedly dull, possibly because journalists slack off from work to buy train tickets bound for their remote hometowns for Golden Week. Readers must instead amuse themselves with boring stories about how much chewing gum has been scraped up from Tiananmen Square or how clean the local restrooms are poised to be during the holiday.

Striking a blow for banality around the world, the Temple of Heaven in Dongcheng district has installed information terminals tainting the majestic landscape of its tranquil grounds. Visitors to the tourist attraction will now be able to view virtual maps of the small grassy park that surrounds the temple itself, as well as trigger a series of alarms to send various personnel running around in search of the mystery button presser. It must have taken a real genius to think of the most unnecessary service that an ancient temple could need in the lead up to a major public holiday.

The park has always been home to a variety of old Beijing pastimes from gambling and kite flying to Tai Chi and juggling. As a result, the park is filled daily with scores of handy, direction-savvy pensioners willing to direct tourists incapable of following large print signage scattered throughout temple grounds.

In short, there is little to no need for a set of electronic gizmos to direct mindless, button-pressing visitors around the 2.5-square-kilometer patch of grass that covers the park. Rather, the soon-to-be-vandalized terminals seem to be merely a gimmick to direct visitors to advertised local eateries and hotels. It's a high-tech ploy to lure unwary waidiren (outsiders) to a flowing tide of rubbish they don't need and can't afford.

I'd like to believe that someone has made a real effort in making the temple more convenient for tourists, but they still haven't addressed the Chinglish signage that advises tourists that they are not allowed to "leak" in the park and should be "wary of safety."

This is just another desperate effort to rope people into a feeling of excitement for the national holiday. What can we expect next? A Madame Tussauds wax figurine museum of revolutionary heroes at the Badaling section of the Great Wall? A whack-a-monk arcade game parlor at the Yonghegong Lama Temple? Or maybe a string of kitsch neon lights illuminating the Drum Tower?

Thank God everything will (hopefully) be back to normal in a couple of weeks.

 By Matthew Jukes