This is Chang An' Jie, Beijing's main drag. It runs through the heart of town past the Forbidden City (corner left), Tiananmen Square (corner right) and down to the road which leads to our 150 sqm 3 Bed/2bath apartment. I travel on this road nearly every day and each time think about how I'm going to miss my commute with deep historical meaning when we leave. Two nights ago, we drove passed on our way to a friend's house. Tiananmen was dead empty with nothing in sight but a couple guards. I mentioned to Dan how I like it this way because it looks scarier. Across the road, was The Forbidden City with a huge picture of Mao Zhe Dong. One of the Australian attorney's Dan works with said, "No one is going to take this country seriously until they take that thing down." It is amazing how much they revere him. He's got a monopoly on every single bill. From 1 yuan to 100 yuan, his face is on them all.
We've experienced a lot of action on Chang An' Jie, but perhaps the most exciting was passing Obama's motorcade last year. I would say it makes the top 5 list of my highlights living here. You had the big black suburbans, snipers looking out the windows with huge guns, flashing lights, the whole works. I think I'm a sucker for a motorcade of black suburbans because I was in awe for about one hour. If Tate was old enough then to recognize cars and trucks he would've been starstruck.
2 comments:
President Bush's motorcade drove past our house on Tuttle Lane when he was on his way to Ice Harbor Dam. We stood out with flags and posters. So cool to see all of the black suburbans and cars. They even had security on jet ski's on the river. They blocked the road off and drove past at about 70 miles an hour.
We went on Google maps the other night to see if we could find out old apartment and thanks to Chan'An it was no problem. We stated at the forbidden city and then followed Chan'An down to Masson Mode and there it was. Just as we left it. What an amazing opportunity you are having. Enjoy!
Post a Comment