This was such a good story, I decided to include it with the TB...
The party congress was finally over and I was able to get onto the square! It was not as crowded as I had thought it would be, but there were still people everywhere!
My wife snapped pictures of me holding various travel bugs and my GPS, it was a great thrill to actually be on Tiananmen Square!
However, the thrill was short-lived. One of the members of our group, a school principal from the Indianapolis area, was having himself filmed holding a poster from his school. The poster had the school name and said, "Our students respect one another and do the right thing!" In about 30 seconds, we were surrounded by police offioers... Their english wasn't very good, but they made it clear that they wanted the sign taken down, and that we would have to wait for an english speaking officer.
He showed up in about 15 minutes, and wanted to know all about the poster - what did it mean?; who was it for?; why was it being taped?; where is your passport and visa?
He mentioned a couple of times that he didn't want to confiscate the poster, but he DID leave with the poster... After leaving us to talk to his superiors, with the advice to NOT leave the square, he returned and began asking about the video camera. (During the time he walked away, an undercover officer from the crowd showed him video that he had taken of US...) He eventually confiscated the video disk from the camera (the disk with all of my friend's trip video on it...)
Only then were we allowed to leave... The police, however, DID follow us back to our hotel.
My friend DID get his video disk back, ONE HOUR before we left for the airport to go home!
While we never felt threatened or in danger of being arrested or detained, it was a reminder of how different China is from the U.S.
[This entry was edited by Mr. Incredible! on Friday, March 21, 2008 at 11:26:38 AM.]