After being in China just a few hours, we headed off to Tiananmen Square. Note the tall poles in the flag picture and the lightpost behind me in the bottom photo. These were high-tech cameras, microphones, and listening devices that were scattered every few feet throughout the square. Before we set foot on the pavement we were warned not to talk about the student uprising and not to take pictures of the military/police. Vans, like the white one behind me in the bottom pic, drove randomly aorund the square to break up any gathering crowds. If you look closly over my shoulder in the bottom pic you can see some of the military patrols on the square…
Our little group was doing our best to follow the rules when the police decided to completely evacuate the Square. We were quickly herded to an underground tunnel, and in the process several of our group members were separated from our group. Michael, our group leader, argued with the police. He was shoved aside.
All in all, an inauspicious beginning to our trip.
[Note: I’m wearing a dork nametag in almost all of the China pictures. This identified me as a member of the mighty J4 group, and kept me out of trouble :)]