Happy May Day

Happy May Day everyone. I've been on vacation so I've been away from the blog.

I hoped that China would celebrate the holiday with zealous patriotic spectacles like marching bands, nuclear missile displays and high-stepping soldiers parading in columns with rifles and bayonettes while the Beloved Leader stood on a balcony waving to the unwashed masses and denouncing the Great Satan.

Instead it was mainly ice cream, picnics and department store white sales. Although instead of our traditional summer holiday hot dogs people here seem to enjoy various meats on sticks, including squid, something that looks like but is not squid, and roasted pigeon.

My friend Andy is in Beijing for work so he came down last Saturday to visit and hang out. We did the Shanghai tourist circuit -- had dinner on the Bund, walked through the markets at Fangbang Road, went up into the Jin Mao Tower and on. He helped me move my bags into my new house and agreed it seems "very authentic."

On Thursday morning we flew to Beijing and did the same sort of thing. The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and some other notable attractions. We decided against visiting the Great Wall because, as a public holiday, it would have been packed a thousand miles end-to-end with locals wearing matching baseball hats on package tours being corralled by guides screaming into bullhorns. Also, I think Andy was unwilling to listen to me endlessly amuse myself with, "This is a great wall! Not just "okay." Great! What a great wall!"

The picture above is Andy at the Forbidden City. They're renovating EVERYTHING in Beijing for the Olympics, including this site. They put the image of one of the temples on to the nets covering the scaffolding -- thus my artistic photographic effect.

There's more to write about, but I'm tired and want to relax. I just bought 9 DVDs for seven dollars so I think I'll watch a movie and then go to bed.

Has anyone seen "V for Vendetta?"