A rainy Sunday in Beijing

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I added today's pics to the album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mullerb/BeijingJune28July82007

It was rainy today. So rainy that I had to splurge and spend a whole $1.20 on an umbrella. We met Roger and Annie from Australia at breakfast. Roger is here for the conference. We all hopped into two taxis and went to the old downtown area to visit the Temple of Heaven and Tienanmen Square. The Temple of Heaven was mostly built in 1420 (that's a few years ago now :) and was used to pray to the weather and harvest gods for bountiful crops. There are three temples that make up the whole park, each with outbuildings and lots of ornate gates and walls. Some of the outbuildings reminded me of the Maori Longhouses in New Zealand.

Tienanmen Square is the largest public gathering place in the world. Kind of fitting for a country of 1.5 billion people! It is also where Chairman Mao used to parade his Communist era weapons and soldiers to show his people and the world that China is a country to reckon with. Kind of silly that he did so just outside the Gate of Heavenly Peace, which borders the north side of the square. In 1989 a student demonstration demanding more freedom and democracy was crushed here. Today, things were peaceful. Except for all the ladies trying to sell us cheap watches. They can get pretty demanding.

I'm about to head out to meet up with Vessa from Finland and Ian from Australia to go out for dinner. Maybe we'll try the roasted dog tonight...

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