ISpyShanghai

Beijing, 4 June 2009: Tensions running high

Since I was in Beijing yesterday, workmates have been asking me what the atmosphere was like.

Were there police everywhere? Were you frightened?

I told them honestly that it was just like any other day in Beijng.

Well then why don’t you write that on your blog?

They said.

Martial law imposed on Sanlitun

Fair enough. 

I walked around the city centre of Beijing most of yesterday afternoon. Took the subway to somewhere north of Tiananmen and walked South- basically, looking for trouble.

I couldn’t find any.

Other than a few dark clouds on the horizon (not a metaphor, it just looked like it might rain) it was a lovely peaceful early summer day in the capital. 

Aftermath of a bloody street brawl / minor traffic accident

Undercover police holding up umbrellas in front of TV cameras in Tianmen square was an own-goal for the CCP as far as I can tell. Because other than that there was no story.

UPDATE: Thanks to Cankles for the title!

OK, I understand that wherever the hell it is you come from fashion is not a big deal.

But seriously, have a word with yourself.

The My Fair Lady look is soo 2008.

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The overnight train from Shanghai to Beijing is always pretty plush, but with the new D trains it’s almost like a little capsule hotel.

In the soft sleeper class (about 680-720RMB one way) you get your own TV with headphones, a reading light, enough space to comfortably lie flat, and….

Since you’ve got four people all sharing maybe 2 square metres of floor space in the carriage, it’s actually pretty useful to know which one is your colour. Also it’s fun to have a fist-fight to the death over the blue ones.

UPDATE: Yes yes, it was Labour Day, not National Day. As if there’s a difference.

National day flags

We’ve just finished a three day weekend here, Emma’s parents are over, so we took the train up to Beijng.

The extra day’s vacation was to celebrate National Day, which meant thousands of extra people milling around TianAnMen square.

Sun Yat-Sen

If I was guessing- based on clothing, accents, the number of old coffee jars filled up with tea, and the fact that no-one was over 150cm tall- I would say that 90% of the people in the square were tourists from out of town.

They seemed to be having fun hanging out, eating picnics, posing in front of the iconic portrait of Mao and the temporary one of Sun Yat Sen- which I presume was put up there for National Day, since he was the one who kicked the Emperor out of China and made it a republic.

"OK great, now go and stand next to a white lady"

Only around 1% of the people in the square were foreign tourists like us (the rest were military both in uniform and scary plain-clothes), and since we were pretty rare,  we ended up posing for lots of photos with the out-of-towners too.

Fascinating Fact! Chinese kids do not enjoy standing next to huge sweaty foreigners and having their photo taken.

Obviously when you think about TianAnMen square, you can’t help but think of the demonstrations there and that image of a young man standing in front of a tank.

It’s coming up to the 20th anniversary since that happened (June) and The Man is tightening up security to avoid any kind of repeat.

Security on the way in to Tian An Men

Before you can even cross the road to get into the square you have to go through an X-ray security check, and once inside you definitely feel the eye of Big Brother weighing heavily upon you. Securing an area as huge as that isn’t easy, but it does seem to be pretty tightly locked down. Anyone thinking of causing trouble in the next few months is. Going. Down.

Obviously we weren’t planning any of that nonsense though, we just wanted to see Mao’s Mausoleum, but after walking around 3 sides of the building we couldn’t seem to find a way in.

Emma asked one of the security guards where the entrance was and he pointed around the last corner.
When we got there we realised it was closed for two days over the holiday, which I suppose wasn’t strictly what we asked the guard, but I still think I would have mentioned were I in his position.

It was really sunny, I bought a 20RMB hat

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Boy oh boy Beijing was a treat!

Lovely spring weather, lots of great food (over there they just call it “Roast Duck” you know), sampling a wide variety of drinks with no-one around to save me from myself. It’s nice to have China’s capital just a few hours flight away.

"Rick-a-shaw? Hoto?"

The night time portion of the trip has already been covered elsewhere by my esteemed co-herts (here is Dingle’s take, and here be WoAi’s). Suffice it to say that when the other chaps were tucked up in bed, I was sat at the bar of the Black Sun ordering B52s and trying to focus on the TV screens with one eye closed.

Note to Emma: a hi-resolution version of this would make a lovely desktop wallpaper for you

It’s a big city is Beijing- we were based in the same district as Sanlitun (big bar area) but walking to the bars there would still have been a pretty long march. I also hear it’s pretty dry and dusty a lot of the time; not a bit of it for our trip though, or the previous times I’ve been.

Dingle

In fact I’m beginning to suspect they just tell visitors these things to stop too many people moving there.

If you’re keeping track by the way, that’s three trips to Bejing I’ve been on and still haven’t been to the “Great” Wall, Forbidden City nor Summer Palace. YES!

…will appear here once I work out where I put that cursed memory card reader

Le Shoe Tuesday est arrivee!

This weekend I was in Beijing for a Bachelor party / Stag weekend. Sadly the bachelor couldn’t make it, but we struggled on manfully without him.

WoAi has already started writing about it, Dingle was there too- it’s going to be the most blogged two days since- oh I don’t know, EVER! 

In Beijing they have so much live music that the occasional youth gets carried away and starts dressing the full part. It’s not my thing (what’s wrong with a nice pair of slacks?) but you can’t tell the kids these days.

Don't get too close- he's probably off his mash on glue and all sorts

 
So what does your Beijing punk-in-the-street wear on his punk feet?

They are what I believe is known as Brothel Creepers.

Here’s my round up of the year. 

jANUARY

I started off the year in in Letterkenny, Oirland where I was pitched up in a remote cottage following my brothers wedding.

It was great craic (fake irishmen: please note the spelling) although if you want to get a Chicken Tikka Masala at 3am on January the 1st, I’d recommend not being in a village of 250 toothless fishermen. 

On returning to Shanghai, Emma convinced me to take a trip to the freezing wastelands of Harbin where they brighten the place up once a year by holding an ice festival. 

“How cold was it James?” 

I hear you ask. So cold that there was frost on the end of my eyelashes. 

So cold that when I saw a man peeing in the street, I wanted to shake his (left) hand for bravery.

Very, very, cold.

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I’ve got some good memories of this one, and thanks to WoAi a nice memento of Beijing 2008.

On the BBC website

Check it out for yourself (Photo number 3)