Tiananmen Square/Hutong Tour

It's '89, yo
Not Beethoven's fifth or Sixth
--Maestro

Yesterday was a bit a gong show: We hit da Square which brought up my own memories of seeing on tv the events of '89.

We got our pics of the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Mausoleum, The Great Hall of the People, and we took a tour through the Beijing Museum, featuring an in-depth look at an 'excellent Marxist', Chen Yun.

After cruising the Square, we went south to the Front, or North Gate of the City...The largest of the 9 old gates of Beijing. We ran into a young job seeker named Wang Ming who spoke decent English for a guy who'd never been outside China. He took us on a tour of the (get this) Chinatown of Beijing.. It was pretty cool. We visited the oldest Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing, featuring pictures of famous patrons like George Bush Sr, Mike Tyson, Yasser Arafat, Helmut Kohl and bunch of others.

After, we headed for a tiny tea shop and discussed everything under the Beijing sun. Lots of fun, and we got some strong opinions on certain subjects: Namely, Japan. Apparently, the assumption that the Chinese youth have a 'hate on' for Japan is quite true. More on that later....

Outside right now there is a loud thunderstorm going on, and it will be cool today. Our plans are a little murky today, but we might go to the Summer Palace.

Vintage buys last night: 1969 communist propaganda poster, a red star revolutionary shirt, Chairman Mao's Little Red Book, and 100 grams of Chinese green tea.