Thanks for the pictures. The place appears so clean and peaceful.

what a walk..

Nothing beautiful in that square, its really boring. Go see the changing of the guard outside Buckingham palace in London where they have fantastic drill and the most famous soldiers in the world, then take a walk through beautiful St James park and feed the swans.

umbrella man.

别装了

What was the question that the man responded "I really don't know"?

感谢~

Jason:

The woman was asking for directions and the map guy didn't think he know where the place is.

Good record of the security presence. Just 10 years ago, there were no police on the square itself (a few police vans nearby), no little white fence forcing people to enter the square at specific points, and lots of people flying kites. Things changed quickly after a few Fаlungong people self-immolated on the square.

Q: Is the apostrophe in Tian'anmen strictly necessary? Unlike Xi'an (i.e., Xi An), which requires an apostrophe to distinguish it from Xian, there is no ambiguity in Tiananmen (i.e., it couldn't possibly be pronounced as Tia Nan Men).

Pinyin's orthographic rules base the use of the apostrophe on whether a syllable beginning with a vowel appears in the middle of a polysyllabic word, regardless of whether or not ambiguity would otherwise result. See this.

Fantastic shots. The female bottle collector was so funny. "Do you have empty bottles to dispose of? Don't look at me. What about me is worth looking at?"

And there James fallows said one can't really access the square on June 4, and that 85% of people on the square were there for official duties (meaning 85% are plain clothes cops). So much for the best foreign journalist in China.

It's funny how people read (or see) videos. Of course there is security presence. The cops are there everyday. The point of the video seems to me to be that the sqaure is accessbile, and there are many ordinary people (tourists, kids, peddlers, attention seekers etc.) on the square on June 4, contrary to some media reports.

Joel-

Thanks for the good info. I taught Chinese language for 2 semesters and still don't quite get Hanyu pinyin.

Mathematica, you've misunderstood or misrepresented the Fallows article dated June 4th that appeared in The Atlantic. The points were 1) it seemed that about 85% of the people in the square (the crowd had not the usual temper and "quality" of a Chinese crowd implying that most of the people there were not tourists or plain citizens)were security personnel (more reasons were given for this estimate), an unusually high number, and not that the mere presence of security personnel was unusual; 2) access to the square was made more difficult by the screening booths and question-and-answer sessions, but never did Fallows or his wife imply or say that the square was inaccessible on June 4th.

I also doubt James Fallows would agree with you that he is the best foreign journalist in China, but I do not doubt you are looking for fault and will strain to find it.

Mathematica, you should also read again and with understanding the very last sentence of the article,

"And so the anniversary passes, mainly 'just another day.'"

Now, how has Fallows mislead the readers, misrepresented the scene, or been stupid as you imply?

今天不用代理好像进不去"单位"了???

wow. all this access to cameras and staff and you couldn't talk to any locals?

Forgive me, but I found this video completely uninformative. The umbrella men walking in formation is a bit novel, but other than that it's like any video taken by any tourist at any square on any day.

(Or is that the point??? Ooooooooooohhhhh!)

Kind of boring...

In case anyone wants to read it: the James Fallow article.

Watching the video frame by frame you can see there is a strong presence of security. But as to 85%, if so 40% are well disguised.

Some people don't get how fascinating the mundane is. Like bottle collectors. Her bag of bottles, conveys more than words how close the day was to normal.

Maps of Beijing for selling for 1 kuai? Recession must be hittin pretty hard.

marcus,you really don't know what the true feeling of the love !we love china!so just go back ,and see your beautiful flag!

Wow. What a contrast. I was in Victoria Park in Hong Kong with about 100,000 other people. An entire football field was filled with just candlelight. And despite China's fears that mass demonstrations lead to chaos, it was incredibly well organized and peaceful, with people bringing their young children and grandparents. If the Great Firewall of China will let you, you can read my posts on it at link.

I was there for several hours on that day and after being there severl times before this I can tell you this was NOT a normal day. That day was the first time I had to go through a baggage xray and show my passport. The mood which has been usually more upbeat was very quiet and somber. It seemed as though people were afraid to make any noise. One foreigner dressed rather strangly sat down on the square in a yoga position, and within seconds was approached by two policemen and surrounded in about a thirty foot diameter by another dozen or so plainclothes security people. The police checked his passport(American) and was watched for at least another 20minutes.
There were at least 3 levels of security, the army soldiers in uniform, the police in uniform and countless plainclothes security. There were thousands of security people therethat day. The plainclothes all wore badges like a sherrif in an old western movie, look at any pictures of people on the square that day and you can see them. I was on the square from 9am until perhaps 3pm(very hot) and I would say 80% of the people there were secrity. I was stopped on the square by a policeman and asked to show my passport but I told him "no I have shown it already to get in." I was wearing a T-shirt with an "I support our troops" logo on it. The policeman tried to read it but I just left him and he followed me for several minutes, I took a number of pictures that day including one of the policeman....that day was not normal for Tiananmen. Anybody who says that was a normal day was either not there or is lying.