National Day at Tiananmen Square

October 1 is National Day in China. It marks the official founding of the People's Republic of China. Mao Zedong made the proclamation from the Tiananmen Gate just above where his portrait hangs today. One could say it is China's 4th of July  - to put it in American terms.

As you might imagine, large crowds are drawn to the square to take in this sights and, in particular, the flag raising and lowering ceremonies. There were reportedly 110,000 people at Tiananmen Square on Tuesday morning IN THE RAIN to observe the flag raising. The weather cleared very nicely in the afternoon and I braved the crowds to take these pictures.

The monument in the center of this picture is the Monument to the People's Heroes. It commemorates those who died in revolutionary struggles in the 19th and 20th centuries from the Opium Wars to the Chinese Civil War in 1949. You can learn more here. ---> Monument to the People's Heros

I mentioned this last year but, again, this is a portrait of Sun Yat-sen. Sun led the rebellion against the imperial Qing dynasty and is regarded as the founder of the Republic of China. He died of cancer at the young age of 58 and after his death the KMT and the Communists (under Mao's leadership) split and the Chinese Civil War started. One can't help but to wonder would would have happened in China if he had lived another 20 or 25 years.

The decorations are all flowers. They are pretty amazing. The government has actually cut back on the decorations some this year in order to reinforce other instructions to reduce the extravagance in government functions. Florists have reported huge drops in business over the last year.

Here is another view.

There are some pictures from last year at this link ---> Tiananmen Square 2012.

There is no telling how many electrons were spent taking photographs. The flower basket and Tiananmen Gate are very popular backdrops. I'm guessing these are visitors from out of town.

There are two huge LED boards with constantly changing scenes from around China.

Click to enlarge.

This is the National Museum on the east side of Tiananmen Square.

I mentioned last year that the police don't seem to have much of a sense of humor. On the other hand they seem to be pretty patient with the tourists wanting to pose with them.

These guys look a little junior compared to the guys near the bottom of  the National Day 2012 post.

More on the crowds in a later post but this is a picture inside the Tiananmen East subway station. I can't imagine what it was like when all those people decided to leave after the flag lowering ceremony. 

People's Daily's New HQ

You may remember that I posted some pictures of the Beijing skyline that included this picture. (See original post here --> Beijing Skyline). The building framed in the other is the headquarters of the People's Daily which is the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party. In general, people recognize that there can be a gap between what their stories say and the reality of the situation if the facts don't align with the party position. On the other hand, announcements in the paper are considered authoritative positions of the government.

Well, the linked story below incredulously reports that the building will have a gold facade. As the story notes, the jokes write themselves.

Someone already beat me to the "Gold Member" reference.

You can read the story here --> The People's Daily HQ is A Giant ...

Here is the People's Daily Wikipedia entry --> Wikipedia

Here is their online version -->  English People's Daily

Dagang, Tianjin, PRC

I don't think I have ever posted any pictures from Dagang. Dagang is a small industrial city or district of Tianjin. Tianjin is actually quite large - about the size of South Carolina and Dagang is at the southern end.

Dagang is the location of the plant on which I am working. (Margot made me lose the dangling preposition.) Everyday after lunch I walk down to the local market to buy a Coke. I stopped to take pictures of a few of the street vendors one day.

The lady above is making some sort of rice and vegetables wrapped in seaweed - sort of like sushi but without the fish.

This guy is making kaomianjin which is literally roasted gluten. I think it is some sort wheat based dish.








Here is a closeup. I'm not sure how he does the spiral cut.

You can have it as spicy as you want.

This is a picture of a lake and park on the north side of Dagang.

There is a small amusement park there. I didn't get a picture but there is mini-zoo there with some monkeys.












This is looking the other way. The large building is a university. I think it may be the Tianjin Foreign Language University.

This picture is looking south from the hill in the park toward the refinery and petrochemical complex where the plant will be built.

The two closest chimneys are at municipal heating plants. In China north of the Yellow and Huai Rivers, the government supplies heat to all urban houses via these power plants. They distribute the heat to the apartment buildings as steam. The heat comes on on November 15 and goes off on March 15 in this area. In Beijing the target is to keep the temperature inside at 64 Deg F. Our apartment (and many others) has supplemental heating.