Visiting the Office

We got "photo bombed" by the PLA
soldier in the background

This is the big leagues folks

I visited the GF's office over the holiday to checkout the work environment and participate in some water cooler chat.  Since she works as a tour guide here in Beijing, the office visit wasn't as mundane as it initially sounded.  We took the hutongs behind my apartment all the way to Tiananmen Square Monday on a tour of some of the capital's most iconic sites.  The square wasn't very crowded considering it was the Dragon Boat Holiday.  On a side note, I am not really sure what the Dragon Boat Holiday is for because my day had a distinct lack of dragons and a complete absence of boats.

I am going to have to get one of these

Despite this confusing Chinese holiday, we overcame the shortcomings of the holiday and created a few of our own traditions.  On the way to the square, we stopped in at a cafe for a few drinks.  It was in this unassuming cafe that a new milestone in my life was achieved.  I won my first xiang qi victory against Tang Qi.  The subject is still a point of contention in our household, with her reminding me about the 99 games in a row that I lost before my first victory, but the sweet taste of that one victory is so good.

Checkout that Laowai in a
green hat

Right about here, our maturity
level bottomed out

The rest of our day was spent checking out the square and the Qianmen shopping district to the south.  The Qianmen district, just south of the Qianmen gate, is pretty much the Chinese equivalent of the Mainstreet, USA at the Disney theme parks.  It comes complete with every bland American and Japanese chain store that you can think of and a trolly system that is nothing more than a charming novelty.  Ever want to drink coffee at a Starbucks that is next to a pagoda......me neither, but the Qianmen District is worth checking out.

They did a pretty good job getting it to
look to scale on the 100 yuan bill

Our trip to Tiananmen proved quite enlightening.  Initially I just wanted to checkout the increased security for the "anniversary" this week, but the trip ended up being a lot more about the "fun" and less about the "fear".  It also gave Tang Qi the opportunity to be the tourist instead of the tour guide.

Though going into the office on your day off might sound like a terrible way to spend a holiday, we both managed to have a lot of fun and enjoy the great weather now that Beijing is finally cooling off.