National Day - by night

On my way home from dinner with my colleague (and friend!) Jiang and his family at a wonderful Sichuan restaurant (watch the incredibly spicy little black peppercorns!), I could not resist the temptation of taking a sneak peak at Tian'anmen Square, where Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic on 1 October 1949, an anniversary still observed there.

Tomorrow is the big day, beginning with the daily flag-raising ceremony at sunrise (approximately 5:30 am)...

Much to my surprise, the roads around Tian'anmen were already blocked off by police, and essentially the entire square was full of people...and that is the largest public square in the world, some 880 meters from north to south, and 500 meters from east to west. I expect tomorrow morning to be a zoo, but since I'm here, I might as well be part of the experience!

The city is heavily decorated for the festivities, mainly with flowers (apparently > 3 million flowerpots throughout the city, including 500 000 alone for the Tian'anmen display), but also with all kinds of lighting, such as this entire building facade (see photo). The main gate into the Forbidden City sports its new painting of Mao (replaced annually just before the National Day celebration), and the tourist masses appear happy.

National Day is the start of the "Golden Week", one of the two main vacation weeks for Chinese (and this year it also coincides with the Moon Festival), so there are about 1.5 million domestic tourists in Beijing during the week (not to mention foreign tourists).