tiananmen square

A few days ago, I actually had some energy when we were allowed to leave the venue. So I decided to head off by myself and try to get to the Olympic Park. I caught the subway to the station where you change for the Olympic line, but then found out that I couldn't go any further. One guy told me that I couldn't go any further because there was a rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony on and I had to either have a ticket or the right accreditation. At first I thought perhaps it was just the language barrier, so I tried to explain that I didn't want to get into the stadium, just to look around, take some photos, enjoy my youth. But no. So, leaving my comments about how he was abusing his power to compensate for his shortcomings as a man for another day, I decided to head into Tiananmen Square.

We get free public transport with our venue accreditation, so that's a pretty sweet deal. The metro in Beijing is really quite good. Trains about every two to three minutes, and it goes pretty much all over the city. Unfortunately, there's no station close to BFSU, it's about a 20 minute bus ride. But still, that's quite manageable. 

Here's me and Chairman Mao. Of course, the portrait is painted so Mao is looking at you wherever you are. 

This little kid wanted a photo with me. Fair enough, I thought, as long as his mum took a photo on my camera too. You can't really see it, but on the back of his head he's left some hair not shaved in the shape of the Olympic logo. That's actually not that rare, I've seen it a couple of times. In the last few weeks the number of foreigners has noticeably increased, so I'm not as much of a novelty as I was. But going out in the uniform is always a talking point with the locals. 
So let's see how we go analysing communist sculpture. Firstly, notice that the people at the front of the crowd are a worker (the proletariat) and a soldier, the two groups of people you need on side for any good revolution. There's also a woman right up the front, I suppose symbolising universal suffrage. Notice that above them is Mao, in a God like position. He's not sculpted like the workers, but in a bust like form. And the workers and soldiers are reaching up to him. Of course, everyone is looking in the same direction, except for one soldier, who you can see looking pretty much straight at the camera and pointing his gun. I'm not sure, but I wonder if it's to remind people who's in charge. 
This is actually the big old gate to Tiananmen Square and the ancient city of Beijing. But it's right up the very back of it, on the exact opposite side to the portrait of Mao, and so now days it's not really used. But it's pretty impressive, and about 600 years old.
I hung around the square to watch the flag lowering ceremony that happens at sunset. It starts with these guys marching into the square and mustering the crowd away a long way away from the flag. Whilst I was pretty sure that's what they were doing, it was a bit disconcerting to see a bunch of army guys marching in and then yelling at people to move in a language I don't understand!
Here's a panoramic shot of the square that I stitched up. You can see that the flag is still up, and there is a massive crowd around it to watch the lowering. This is about seven o'clock in the evening, and the square is busy but not too packed.

This is the Grand National Theatre, an absolutely amazing building. It's completely surround be water, so to get in you have to go under it. It's quite a controversial building in China. I think that it's quite a simple concept, but quite a complicated design. It's quite close to Tiananmen, and I had dinner in a hutong which is next to this building. It was weird to be walking down this alleyway that's a few hundred years old where there are old guys playing draughts and drinking beer, and see this building at the end of it. Kris - have you heard about it at all?

This is the façade of the Great Hall of the People, where the Chinese congress meets every few years. It's also where Richard Nixon dined on his historic trip to China. This shot is taken from Tiananmen Square, and the Grand National Theatre is directly behind this building.

I couldn't believe how busy the square was when I came back after night fall. This is about nine o'clock. It's not shoulder to shoulder, but it is very full. But really, this was a nice time to just go and hang out in the square. The afternoon was a bit too hot, and there's no shade at all. You can't see it here, but there is a lot of gimicky Olympics stuff in the square now, and so I'm really glad that I went before and saw it before it was there. 

Today is the Technical Congress before the weightlifting competition. It means that I've got the morning off, because it starts at about 2pm. I've had a much appreciated sleep in this morning.

I've been here for a month now, and in three weeks time I'll be back in Sydney. I'm really glad that I went and did something after work. Yesterday we went to the markets too, and I bought some jeans and a few presents for people. I think if I can do something every few days it will be a much more enjoyable time.