Tianjin Treasure: Beijing Day 2: Tiananmen Square

Like I mentioned in the previous post, the highway between the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square is huge. And considering we were just an hour or so removed from my eye-opening street crossing incident, I wasn't exactly sure how we were going to manage to get across this one! Fortunately it was a non-issue...there is a pedestrian underpass that even had its own security checkpoint. We just followed the throng through and came out in the Square.

To be honest, there was so much scaffolding up and so many people walking that it was hard to get a feel for how huge the square really is. We stopped to watch workers using a colorful array of plants and flowers to create a display for the Paralympic Games. Even the heiroglyph symbols for the sporting events were modified to include wheelchairs...you can see a few of those in the first photo, set up in track lanes created by different colored flowers. The third photo shows the side view, still in progress. Loved the miniature Bird's Nest!

It could also be that my focus wasn't on the architecture or the scenery ... my eyes were a little lower to the ground. There were kids and babies EVERYWHERE and I was starting to really feel how close I was to WeiJ. I'd be in his city the next day, and in less than 48 hours we'd be together. The kids in the square were all so cute and of course it's hard to beat the cuteness of little tushies hanging out of split pants. No photos of that here, but here are a couple of cuties who were eager to pose for photographer ShuShu.

By the time we got across the square, I think the travel fatigue was starting to catch up with us a bit. We were ready to stop for lunch....and oh was that lunch something else! The menu was selected for us by our guide and was yummy. I can't remember now all that we had, but I think it was kung pao chicken, a fish dish, a veggie dish that was really tasty, a beef dish with an odd texture, soup and rice. It's hard to remember much about the food because that's the lunch where we had 2 girls come in to entertain us. It was a ridiculously small room, with barely enough space for the big table and the 4 of us. But the girls come in to sing and dance something traditional for us...which was nice, except for how uncomfortably close they were! And it was NOT any kind of traditional dance I've ever seen! When the dancer started shimmying her shoulders right towards my mom I think I almost choked on my tea. Not only was she shimmying, she was doing it in an awkward and ... well ... an ungraceful way. And when she dropped to the floor into a backbend right there? So help me I had to close my eyes because if I made eye contact with anyone I was going to bust out laughing BAD. I know, bad American tourists. But they were doing a nervous giggle and making eyes at each other so it was hard to take seriously! In retrospect, how glad am I that I didn't end up sitting there by the door?? That could have been me that had to be smiling politely at her instead of hiding behind my tea cup! Fortunately we behaved ourselves through the performance and made it through lunch without further incident. What makes it more interesting is when we talked to other families who were there, all they got was lunch - no show!