It only took me a few hours in China to realise that the drivers here border on the predatory. The little green man may be welcoming me onto the road but the cars and bikes are on their own missions. I wonder if that’s why all the horns seem to sound so tinny - if they weren’t toned down everyone would be deaf. So my over whelming first thoughts after leaving Beijing Airport were all along the lines of ‘oh my god I’m going to die and miss out on seeing all the things I want to see in Beijing’. Lucky I catch on pretty quick and after a few frightening crossings I adopted the policy of choosing the oldest looking local and walking out with them - I figure they’ve survived on the roads this long they must know what they’re doing… So far, still here to tell the tale. The other thing that was different to how I imagine the city to be was the lack of smog - that’s right - maybe I’m benefiting from all the effort over the Olympic period, but the sky was clear as in London town.
My first outing after the train and foot journey to the hotel - during which I was offered assistance by several friendly souls, though one of them seemed to know less about reading maps than I do and suggested I go in what I was sure was the wrong direction - was to Tiananmen Square - walking distance from our hotel (well about 55 minutes walk anyway.). I’ve wanted to stand in this space for years, but when I really was I felt much the same as I do standing in Trafalgar Square - I realise that it is a historic place but I didn’t get the feeling of awe I’d hoped to get - but that was only until the sun began to show from behind a cloud creating a striking image of the place looking as large, serious and foreboding as it is. Before the sun showed it to its most dramatic it was just a mess of pot plants being moved around after the Olympics and people waiting for the guards to change. I waited in the crowd for a while not sure what we were all waiting for but caught up in the crowd mentality - so many people gathered looking in the same direction I couldn’t help wondering what they knew about that I didn’t. And there are many guards, and men in official looking dress. I wandered into a rather pretty looking garden and was quickly shooed out by some of them on my way to Tiananmen Square, and though one of them was wearing Converse trainers I have to say that I did feel a bit nervous doing wrong by them, they just seem to have such an unsmiling - I’m sure it’s regulation - presence. I took a photo of one of the Tiananmen Square guards with his head lined up with Chairman Mao - whose effigy has been made into the hands of a clock on cheap wrist watches ever tenth person in the square wants to sell you.
Returning to the hotel we went for a meal in a restaurant. In trying to gauge the right kind of place for us - not too expensive but safe - we decided it had to have table cloths and not have strip lighting. We we’re also looking for a menu with pictures… I will not be eating dog - especially seeing the street population seems to include lots of tiny cutsey ones - I did say that maybe those are the ones no good for meat, but I won’t say that again… Our restaurant parameters seem to have been about right - the food was fantastic - though apparently I was the entertainment - the chef was taking surreptitious photos of me with his camera phone all though the meal - I checked to see if I had food on my face and didn’t so I can only hope I wasn’t committing some kind of sin of table manners. The tea was fantastic.