Making Sense of it All

Last night my friends and I had a wonderful six-course tasting dinner at Mosto in Sanlitun.

Afterwards we walked towards The Village on Gongtibeilu and saw two military convoy trucks parked on the sidewalk and although the back was covered, we could tell people were inside, probably waiting for midnight.

We had to get home before midnight as the streets in the area would be shut down as there was going to be a full dress rehearsal of the October 1 parade overnight in Tiananmen Square.

Police were already in the area, trying to clear out the party revelers who were still hanging out at 10:30pm. Some shops in The Village were already closed when we got there at dinnertime, its staff and management probably writing off the evening for any chance of sales.

When I got home to Dongzhimen, it was all very eerie, seeing the usually busy streets all empty and everything so quiet.

Tonight I heard from two masseuse that after midnight they saw many tanks rolling down the street. They seemed excited by the spectacle as they watched from the windows.

And there was another reason why Gongtibeilu was shut down as well -- housed in the Worker's Stadium are many floats that will be used in the parade. One includes a giant Chinese flag with what looks like gold coins from a distance. I couldn't make out what the other floats were.

This morning things slowly got back to normal again. And there was an announcement there would not be another full dress rehearsal next weekend. Either it's because people complained so much about the disruptions or they had scheduled in the rehearsal just in case and in the end didn't need it. What a relief.

However, there's a rumour going around that a bomb went off at Tiananmen Square, killing two and injuring six. The government has not confirmed this, and neither have foreign media. If it is true, the government is definitely not going to disclose it; and if it was more transparent then we all wouldn't have to second guess what's really going on.