1st October 2012 in Tienanmen

THe 1st of octobe is a nationl celebration in China, so I tried to go to Tienanmen Square, one of the place where people coming from other part of China goes.

The square is strictly controlled by polyceman, which are massively present everywhere.

And everythign is keep clean, also the road.

I knew it would have been crowd of people, but being here it was interesting to go and have a look. The following picture are in the neighboroods of the square.

Altought it was already late morning, preparatory works were still ongoing. The installation of the following pictures was in the middle of the square.

Like the other part of the city everything was decorated.

Making a tour round the place I have also seen the change of the military guard.

And finally I could not avoid to go in front of the Forbidden City.

Last pictures are dedicate to some people around in the place... look at the flag!

And someone knows this person?

Tea street

China is famous also for tea. Almost everybody know green and black te, but in reality there are also many other kind of tea. In the south-west part of Beijing there is a street complitely dedicate do tea, called, of course, the Tea Street.
You can find everything is related to tea: tea (of course), tea sets, tables for tea, biscuits and other sweets to eat while drinking tea...

As is very "precious", there is also a place to buy/sell tea with real time quotetions. Unfortunately when I was there the market was closed.

This are some special tables that can be used to prepare/drink tea.

In the following picture only some examples of tea.

And finakky a tea tasting. There you can discover that some kind of tea are like wine, the more they are old the more they taste good.
We tasted also a black tea of 30 years!

And something also for who likes "aesthetics": some teas are prepared in small ball with flowers that open when they are inside water!
Really surprising!

Preparing for the National Day

The 1st of october is a national day in China, moreover this year the day before was the mid-autumn festival. The result? One week of holyday, many moon cake to eat (a very delicious sweet) and many decoration around the city. In many corner there are flowers, but in some place they have "built" also fountains, walls and lakes like in this case.

And red fish, of course, are real!

In the night is very nice to see lanterns around the road.

Close to every hutong's entrance and building you have chinese flags and other kind of decorations.