Beijing, China

June 1997

This is a picture of Mao's Tomb as you are entering Tienamen Square from the Forbidden City.

This is one of the courtyards at the Forbidden City.

This is a walkway between two of the main buildings.  This place is vast!

Another shot of some of the buildings in the Forbidden City.   Notice the gold on the sides of the building.

Hey! I know that guy.

One of the Dragon-dog statues guarding the city.

I was a bit aprehensive to take pictures here, but I was assured it was okay.  This is Tianamen Square looking toward Mao's tomb.  This is the largest public square in the world.

This is a war memorial that is in the center of the square.

Right before I took this picure it started raining very hard.   It didn't cool things off though, it was still about 90 degrees Fairenheit and muggy.  This is a shot of the square from the fence that seperates the sidewalk from the street.  There are tunnels that go from one side of the street to the square, to prevent pedestrian traffic from making car traffic any slower than it already is.

This is a view from my hotel window, down to the parking lot.  Notice all of the bicycles.  I seemed that most people were more likely to get around on a bicycle than  a car in Beijing.  The bicyclists were very aggressive and not very afraid of cars or people.