Shutting Down the City

Beijing is preparing to be locked down -- locking down its own citizens from going out.

After I came back from lunch, my colleagues told me that the street our office is on will be closed and even pedestrians will be blocked from wandering the streets.

This is all related to the rehearsals for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1.

However, our office is nowhere near Tiananmen Square or Chang'an Avenue, and yet our street will be sealed off as well as around where I live in Dongzhimen and the Sanlitun area.

My friend speculates it's because they are moving in the tanks and other military equipment to practice for the upcoming parade two weeks away. As a result no one can be on the street checking out the military hardware or even have a peek at the upcoming celebrations before the big event.

So I left the office after 1:30pm and at that time, other people had the same idea of fleeing the area. Buses weren't too crowded, but strange to see so many people needing to take public transport at an odd time.

When I arrived in Dongzhimen, there were tons of people in lines snaking from the bus stops.

It was as if we were in Hong Kong and the Typhoon 8 signal had just been raised so everyone was scrambling to get home.

But instead of a natural phenomenon happening, it's a man-made one trying to shut down the city and keeping its residents inside.

Apparently the streets in my area and Sanlitun will be shut down at midnight, pouring cold water on many people's plans to party up the start of the weekend.