Walking Beijing

I did a lot of walking today, but I don't have much to show for it, having reached only one tourist destination -- Jingshan Park -- for a view of the Forbidden City and the city at large.

Better photos (from the "real" camera) to be uploaded
when I get back to Shanghai

The walk itself, however, was fascinating. You may know that Chinese officials are currently gathered in Beijing for the 18th Party Congress and the once-in-a decade transition of power. Policemen stand guard every 500 feet along the street that houses government buildings and hotels, all adorned with dozens of Chinese flags that today, waved violently in bone-chilling wind. The city is on lockdown.  

On my own for lunch and nowhere near a foreigner-friendly establishement, I settled on this:

No, that's not a tomato. I think it was a piece of meat, Spam-like in texture, but I wasn't willing to find out. The remainder of the sandwich -- a fried egg and lettuce -- was quite good, actually.

The rest of my day involved finding places to warm up (it's 30-some degrees here!): a huge bookstore (in what is aptly named the Beijing Books Building) with "Why and How the CPC Works in China" and the philosophies by Marx/Lenin/Engels/Stalin skillfully placed at the its entrance; and a Starbucks.