Red Flag Over China

This past Tuesday, I got it into my head that I wanted to see the the Chinese flag being raised over Tiananmen Square at dawn. It's actually incredibly important to the Chinese people that they see it at least once, and I figured there was never as good a time as any to witness the occasion than National Week. So I mentioned my plan to my friend Nicole, and the both of us decided to pull an all-nighter and catch the first (5:10 AM) subway from the university out to Tiananmen Square.

The flag is raised at Tiananmen exactly at sunrise every morning, every day of the year. That means 4:30 AM during the peak of summer, and about 7:30 AM for the dead of winter. On Wednesday, October 6th, when we went to see the flag, it was scheduled to go up at 6:15 AM.

So, come 5:15 AM, we were up, alert (ish) and ready to venture out into Beijing. The subway was, predictably, almost totally empty. I was torn between frolicking among the empty cars or laying out on a string of seats to sleep.

After a little shuffling about various locations surrounding the flag, we finally settled on a spot across the street to watch the ceremony. And then... it began.

And then I remembered that my camera had a "Video" function.

Notes on the video:

• In order to get the video out quickly, I just did some brief cleaning on iMovie.
• For those who feel like skipping, the beginning has to do with the flag going up, the middle with the soldiers marching back, and the end with the crowds that were there.
• Yes, Daddy, I did in fact say "like" multiple times. I obviously did that for your counting entertainment, so I do hope you appreciate the effort. :)
• If you have a dying interest in the dialogue between Nicole and me, let me know and I'll tell you what we said. The song I begin to sing in the middle is "Beijing Welcomes You."
• Sorry the quality is so poor!! :(

So after the flag was raised and all that jazz, we began to leave. That's when we saw two very different styles of marching in quick succession.

And that was our experience seeing the Chinese flag being hoisted over the nation's capital. While it obviously wasn't quite that emotionally thrilling for me, it seemed to mean a lot to the many Chinese nationals around us, most of whom were obviously coming from other parts of China to Beijing to enjoy the national holiday. It was interesting to note that out of the entire crowd of people, I was the only non-Asian there. So many stares.

Anyway, Happy 61st Birthday China... I certainly didn't think you'd make it this far.