because I had no other plans for 6 am

This morning my aunt and I caught the flag raising ceremony at sunrise in Tiananmen Square. I figured there wouldn't be many people there, since it's a daily event, it's off-season, and we'd probably be the only people awake in Beijing. WRONG! There were already thousands of people there, all invading each other's personal space to get a good view of the flagpole. Really, the only people who could see were those in front of the pack, and I'm pretty sure I don't have enough motivation to be one of them. Maybe if there had been more dancing. It was an excuse to see the square at dawn (largest in the world, thank you), which in itself was pretty impressive, and watching the millions of Chinese soldiers disperse in formation was cool (and their coats are adorable).

Proud Party Member

Worthy of note: we were the only non-Chinese people out of the whole crowd. Everyone else was on their pilgrimage to the Center of It All. Oh, and I had my first stint of western celebritydom when a Chinese girl asked to take a picture with my aunt and me. Because why not.

For dinner tonight, we went to a Tibetan-themed vegetarian restaurant called Pure Lotus, which was like, in a mall but had an amazing ambiance once you got inside (run by monks?). Here's how they presented the meals:

big stone bowl + fruit + dry ice = Zen

The dishes were all named things like "bitter melon soup from hell" and "I love you-- no discussion." Some were much more ridiculous but of course I've now forgotten. I'm pretty sure they were supposed to be deep, not comical, but whatever.