Tanks

It was dark now, the driver dropped us off at Tiananmen Square. You cannot be ready for how big that place is. People were still flying kites. There is a large building in the centre of the square which is Mao’s Mausoleum, a day or two later we would join the queue to file past what is supposed to be the remains of the man himself. His face could have been made of marzipan.

It was a balmy evening and we strolled about a bit. It certainly feels like stuff has gone on there. It is adjacent to the Forbidden City and the government offices. From time to time you will see a posh black car with people in suits going about the business of transforming their county into a super power. There are no rubbish cars around as they haven't had cars there that long.



Anyway we had been wandering about for about 20 minutes and we were approached by a very smiley Chinese bloke. A few people had wanted to sell us something. He was more persistent than the others, more charming too. For the next two or three hours he was our unofficial guide, it didn’t matter that he was being paid by the shops and tea houses we visited; it was worth it. During the day he teaches English at the University but cannot afford to accommodate his family in the City, they lived out of town; he stayed during the week in a Huton, a one room apartment (without a toilet) off a little communal square. Everywhere in Beijing the Hutons are being flattened and replaced with tall buildings.


"no rubbish cars"

Whilst we were still in the square I asked him whereabouts the student was standing when he confronted the tanks. He looked at me like I had just taken all my clothes off. Through a fixed smile, glancing over his shoulder he said, “you cannot talk about that here”.