People

On Sunday, we walked through Tian'anmen Square. Part of the 4 hours total we got to sightsee in Beijing.

Tian'anmen Square is the largest open urban square in the world. And on Sundays there are quite a few people there. Like maybe 100,000 or more. It's not easy estimating crowd sizes (ask the Pasadena police), but I was judging by the crowds we see at a full Rose Bowl game.


One of the draws in Tian'anmen Square is the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Apparently you can view the body. If you are willing to stand in line a while. I'm guessing the line was over half a mile long. It wrapped entirely around the building and snaked back and forth a couple times.


Henry says that travel to Beijing was restricted before and during the Olympics so there is a surge of tourists now.



There are a lot of things left over from the Olympics all over Beijing. In Tian'anmen Square there are some huge floral exhibits that look sort of like football field sized Rose Parade floats.

And of course, Tian'anmen Square is the gateway to the Forbidden City. Lots of people were headed that way too.