Monday was National Day in China, and as a result this week is a holiday for the country. And it needs one after working all weekend! National Day means a big influx of visitors to Beijing, so everything's been really crowded. Two friends from the tea house/internet cafe took me to Tiananmen Square on Sunday night to see it covered in flowers and lights. It was absolutely beautiful. They had several large-scale displays of Christmas lights, decorating things such as a mini-Buddhist temple, etc. It really all did have a Christmas feel for me because there was a spirit of camaraderie and general happiness that went with the lights. Kids and adults alike were running around with kites and flags. When we went to take a picture with Chairman Mao, I asked Yao Qiang (from the tea house) if I could take a picture of the stern-looking soldier that was standing nearby. She started shouting something to him, and then got really upset and seemed really embarrassed and scared, and Zaqew (from the internet cafe) started sternly lecturing her a little bit. The soldier came up and starting yelling at her and then walked away. We then shrinked away from the area (but not before I could be asked for a picture with several groups of people)... I repeatedly asked Zaqew and Yao Qiang what she had said to set off the soldier, but they couldn't translate it and all she could explain was that she called him the wrong thing. I'm going to make them translate it though the next chance I get with a dictionary nearby....
Monday morning I went back to Tiananmen to see the flag raising (which happens every day, but is particularly special/big on National Day). There were evidently over 100,000 people. I had seen people camped out the night before at 8 PM. We showed up at 5:15 AM or so for the 6 AM flag raising. I didn't get to see much, my friend Chris just lifted me up towards the end, but it wasn't because we were late. It had been raining off and on and the square kept clearing out, so we actually had decent spots. I think all in all, maybe 50 out of 100,000 saw the entire thing and were able to hear the anthem. The place was so crowded that I literally could not lift up my arms. I felt like I could've fallen asleep standing up because I literally could not move. At one point, I lifted my chin up to look upwards at something; it ended up above somebody's shoulder, and I had to push them to get my head back in a normal place. Also, the Chinese apparently do not use fences. Instead they line up police/soldiers triple thick to guide you where you need to go. It was all quite crazy....
In other news via Anand, they're instituting a ban on sexually provocative noises in China, in preparation for a Communist meeting in a month or so (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20983975/). I don't really get why it has to be timed with the meeting, but hey, I won't ask questions, or make sexually provocative noises.
Update: Apparently Yao Qiang called the "soldier" a security guard, when he is actually from the Chinese Flag Guard, which is "very sacred." Acutally, Zaqew said that she called him "ensure public security," but that doesn't make any sense, so I think he means security guard (of some sort).
3 comments:
looks like there will be no "chinese idol" - talent contests are banned during primetime. now you only get to show off your horrible chinese pop so cal love kitten talents at off times of the day. sad.
no wonder all the chinese-to-english t-shirts makes absolutely no sense
thankfully, i have seen signs around the office for "microsoft idol," which should be, you know, hilarious. it's a shame talent contests have been banned from primetime, because i can assure you a bunch of research engineers displaying their singing talent would be positively breathtaking.
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